For what it's worth, the Taliban had by 2001, brought relative peace and stability to a country that had two decades of civil war, including the Soviets and law

For what it's worth, the Taliban had by 2001, brought relative peace and stability to a country that had two decades of civil war, including the Soviets and lawless warlords and humanitarian crises, and wonton destruction/chaos that existed in the '90s. The Taliban itself was not directly involved with 9/11 (and I don't think they had any interest outside of Afghanistan), however, they had some complicity since they allowed OBL and Al Qaeda to train in Afghanistan (how about the responsibility of say, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia?). Yes, the tradeoff was that they had a puritanical interpretation of Islam and had a horrible human rights record.