Definitions
Valleyism
People in the valleys want:
justice
security
freedom from foreigners
freedom from central government
no taxation
They do not like neither the Taliban nor the secular pashtuns to invade and intrude upon their territory. Either group can come in and impose their law. They are a myriad of individual such groups and they are more likely to accept the Taliban because the secular pashtuns are more likely to tax their resources and do not offer an ideology or vision they can share.
Taliban
The Taliban is a more or less loose political organisation brought together by a common muslim ideology. They are one of two factions opposed within the pashtuns. The Pashtuns are a people predominant in Afghan politics today and historically; geographically, they straddle the Afghan - Pakistani border.
Their political base are poor rural Afghans.
They offer security, justice and muslim legitimacy. They are conservative and are weak on economic and social progress.
Secular Pashtuns
This other faction are secular, urban and richer pashtuns. They are outward looking and stronger on economic growth. They are welcoming of differences and have seen value in this western-generated, now international way of thought. They are weak on corruption and justice. They are moderately religious. They currently govern Afghanistan and are protected and maintained artificially by the US military.
Al Qaeda
Al Qaeda, even less than Taliban, is a hodge podge of different activist groups spread accross the globe. Their terrain of operation is the internet. They are bound together by a common ideology which is international jihad. First and foremost, they wish to eliminate the ennemy from within, ie the other muslims which are not pure and do not follow appropriately the credence of Islam.
They do not exist in Afghanistan. As a ideology more than a group, they interwind with local insurgencies.
