Well, I have a very different answer from the one you probably are looking for.
If the Taliban today constitutes a loose coalition that has as its core the religious extremists and other elements, whether they be criminal, political or whatever, I think the military force we have in that area should be focused basically on eliminating the hard-core Taliban and using politics and economic incentives, etc., to try to split away from the hard-core Taliban those other elements who really don't care one way or another, politically or religiously, who runs the country. I think that can be done in a variety of ways, including using economic aid, reconstruction, and so on, to try to lure those people out of the overall umbrella that the Taliban has created for them.
I don't think there's any getting around the fact that you must challenge, and you must militarily defeat, the hard core of the Taliban before you can accomplish anything else. It's absolutely vital that they be taken out of the picture.