Assessing the depth of disaffection among the Taliban is difficult because few outsiders have direct contact with Taliban officials.
"I understand their sensitivities, but to say the Pakistani press is pro-Taliban is difficult to justify".
Elements in Pakistan may indeed support al-Qaida and the Taliban, but it is difficult to see what is gained by pointing this out, especially from the territory of Pakistan's arch-rival, India, and shortly before a visit to Britain by the Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari.
While Pakistani leaders often criticise the drone programme, analysts say successful strikes on high-profile al Qaeda and Taliban militants would be difficult without Pakistani cooperation.
As often in the smoke-and-mirrors game of efforts to draw the Taliban into talks, it was difficult to know where the truth lay.
Last week, one of his American mentors said that Mr. Qarzai was so passionately anti-Taliban that it had been difficult to restrain him from going into Afghanistan in recent years.
In many cases, people kidnapped by the Taliban are taken across the border to Pakistan, where it becomes extremely difficult to track them.
We tried to do some digging during the five years when the Taliban were here, but it was difficult.
What prompted the American request for a new approach was not clear, and even getting a response now might be difficult, since Taliban officials have hinted that Mullah Omar has left his headquarters in Kandahar.
"During the Taliban, being with a friend was difficult, but now it is easy again," said Ahmed Fareed, a 19-year-old man with a white shawl covering his face except for a dark shock of hair and piercing kohl-lined eyes.
