My take for the non Pakistani friends: Taliban are a minority ethnic government.
If they want to play proxy with TTP/Daesh/BLA and whole alphabet soup of terror groups, Pakistan can play proxy too and Pakistan can play it better and has done so better. Northern groups can be armed, supplied and trained and the northern areas IEA hold points can be bombed from air with NRF on the ground. Blowing up just Sarang pass will cut off Taliban from 9 Norther provinces along with some other key bridges and choke points.
Pakistan should start building up towards this as an option on the escalation ladder.
Iran's ports are gone. Afghanistan's access to sea is gone beyond Karachi, and Gwadar. If North is cut off with Pakistan holding South and East, the IEA heartland will be choked. Bombing of power plants points and oil lines to IEA heartlands and other supply nodes will force IEA to focus on internal governance rather then spend time sending proxies to Pakistan. This should also include disabling any dollar generating and supporting, enabling industries in IEA heartland. And then we just need to sit back and watch the border and let them crumble from within. No need to step in, force them into a classic battle vs a standing army.
People forget Afghanistan has only defeated USSR and USA with Pakistan's backing.
USSR had occupied Afghanistan in weeks. US did it in 13 days?
Pakistan doesnt want nor need to occupy.
The graveyard of empire is the greatest bullshit I have ever seen. Punjab empire beat them, the only time they had some semblance of independance was that when they were vassals of the british empire and essentially 'allowed' to be a buffer state, and for a small period spent time fighting amongst themselves. Mughals conquered them, Persians did, Mongols did, Arabs did, Mauryas did, Greeks did, Central asians did, Americans, Russians, hell, even IVC. They had a few decades of good run which is shorter than the Hawaiians. So they've been owned by all their neighbours persistently and consistently.
A secular majority led Afghanistan is better than the current nihilist homosexual theocracy.
The current operations are tactics without overarching strategy. It will not yield results, because its not enough.
Just putting some costs on IEA is simply not enough. These costs are nothing and wont impact the type of fight IEA fights.
So I feel current strategy will not work. They only understand force. Each and every agreement with these idiots have been violated over the past few decades.
