Afghan War: Distinguish Taliban from Al Qaeda

I got an impression that western media/governments mixed up two major Islamic
groups currently fighting against US forces in Afghanistan: Taliban and
Al Qaeda

However, they are fundamentally distinct. Taliban is a local nationalist,
and Al Qaeda is an internationalist. Taliban used to fight against Soviet's
invasion of Afghanistan, and after the defeat of Soviet troops, they started
fighting another invasion by foreign forces including US, UK, and several
other NATO forces.

Taliban wants to have their own country free of foreign control. According
to the 2006 best-seller "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson, a US alpinist,
who has built so far more than 30 schools for girls in poor remote villages
of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Taliban people originally forbade the women's
education, but gradually realized that girls also need school education
to improve their quality of life and allowed Greg's charitable organization
called CAI (Central Asia Institute) to build so many schools in these impoverished
areas. The late Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008), who scaled Mt. Everest with
his Sherpa "Tenzin" from Nepal for the first time in 1953, also strongly
supported Greg's CAI project. Sir Hillary also built so many schools and
clinics in impoverished Nepal villages, to improve the quality of life in
Himalaya areas.

In my opinion, these decent mountain climbers have been far more helpful
for these local people than US/NATO forces fighting against the nationalist
"Taliban" and Al Qaeda. Yes, I am also a mountain climber, and would prefer
to help these impoverished people, instead of killing the Afghan people
who defend their own country.

To be continued