The best analogy to the Taliban is...Hezbollah

The Alma Research and Education Center makes a very good pont:

The Taliban had an apparent goal - to regain control of Afghanistan, now it does so with a great deal of American equipment. And that brought me back to Hezbollah that is here across the border. Lebanon is also a failed state. How will the Lebanese army behave the day Hezbollah decides to take over Lebanon officially? 

Half of the Lebanese army soldiers are Shiites - many of them from Hezbollah's support base...

As an Israeli, I am very uncomfortable with apocalyptic predictions. Still, when I look at what is happening in Afghanistan, I am concerned about the ease with which an extremist ideology wins and brings a country into the dark days of oppression of women and the growth of terrorist cells.

It's true. While Hamas already controls a defined area, it isn't a state and doesn't want to be (until they take over the West Bank as well.) But Hezbollah has a great deal of control over Lebanon - complete control of South Lebanon and veto control over the government, as well as an army more powerful than the Lebanese army. If Lebanon collapses, it can turn into an Islamist state instantly. 

And as far as the Shiite/Sunni divide, they might hate each other but they cooperate when it is in their own self-interest. 

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