May 9, 2006: The U.S. has never classified the Afghan Taliban as terrorists. And, in fact, the Taliban were never a purely terrorist organization. While the Taliban used coercion to force Afghans to adhere to Taliban approved lifestyles, that sort of thing is no different than the pressure many governments employ to elicit compliance with laws and regulations. The U.S. government made no secret of this (the Taliban have never been found on any of the official terrorist lists), but has not made a big deal out of it either.

The Taliban escape the terrorist tag because they took power in Afghanistan the old fashioned way, by driving around with lots of guns and scaring off all the other armed thugs. While the Taliban has supported terrorist groups (particularly al Qaeda), it never carried out a lot of what you could call terrorist activity.

That, however, has changed in the past few years. Since the Taliban were forced out of power in late 2001, they have been waging a low level war against the Afghan government, using tactics that are, basically, terrorism. The Taliban are also international, but only in the sense that the Pushtun tribes that support (and comprise) the Taliban live on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border.

It is believed that the United States has kept the Taliban off the terrorist list because many pro-Taliban Pushtuns have been open to switching sides. The Pushtuns are the largest minority (about 40 percent of the population) in Afghanistan, and the Taliban are almost entirely made of Islamic conservative Pushtuns. By not tagging the Taliban as terrorists, it has been easier for the Pushtuns who dominate the government, to convince many Taliban to switch sides.

No one has been pressuring the U.S. government to put the Taliban on the terrorist list, mainly because they are a local problem. If the Taliban decide to go international, which they have shown no sign of doing, then they would probably find themselves on the list. Currently, however, the Taliban are receiving money from foreign sources (apparently wealthy Islamic conservatives in the Persian Gulf.) That has not encouraged any Taliban to carry their fight to anywhere by their traditional tribal territories in Afghanistan and Pakistan.