>>We allow 500+ ISI and Pakistani military advisers helping the Taliban
Indian intel maintains that it was more in the thousands; entire units of the Pakistani army that had been seconded to the Taliban.
In Robin Moore's The Hunt for Bin Ladin, he describes how US SF forces, after reviewing many battle scenes where air power had devastated TalibPakiJihadi forces, were astonished to find many of the fighters in Paki Army uniforms with insignia ripped off - from miltary style sweaters, to certain equipment, and even Paki stationary and some comm equipment.
I was being "Conservative" in my numbers, I had heard between 600 - 1000. Your number does not surprise me. Is Moore's book any good?