RE #9 If local population is for grenade throwers, you are right. But Taliban does not have much popular support left. Terrorists without popular support are dead ducks. During the Soviet invasion, much of population was against Soviet force. Norhtern Alliance is American ally now. Mazar-i-Sharif is part of their homefield.
That's the problem, even during the Soviet time period, there was a lot of support for the federal Afghan government, if not out of love for the Socialists (who could blame them for a lack of love) out of fear for what would follow with the Soviet withdrawl. (the endless civil war) If you talk to the vets and read the books, it is obvious that much of the public lived in fear...this wasn't Vietnam where the public of S. Vietnam knew (more or less) what they faced when the S. Vietnamese governments collapsed and the US left. They knew they faced life under the N. Vietnamese, and while this might not have been all that fun at least it was a form of stability. All the Afghans faced when the Soviets withdrew and the Federal government collapsed is anarchy.
The issue here is that while you are right about lack of support, you are not totally correct. A substantial enough percentage does support these actions, even if it is 1%. Remember, in Russia, the first Duma only had 2 members of the Soviet Revolutionaries...15 years later they were running the nation as the Bolshaviks.