How long would the Taliban be able to survive as a government if the September 11 attacks did not occur? Without them, the US wouldn't have an excuse to invade Afghanistan, but someone probably would have eventually given the appalling way they forced people to live.
An interesting scenario that came years before is that Iran's mullahs(?) and governement was getting PISSED OFF at them, and there ws a growing hostility - SUnni VS Shi'ah (and the Talibans are even more hardcore..).
So... Invasion of Afghanistan by *Iran* ? How sweet and ironic it may have been, maybe.
I suspect that if the war was anything other than an Iranian walkover of the Taliban then Pakistan would get involved.
And that could get nasty, now that I think of it... Irak of course couldn't and wouldn't do anything, conseridering what happened in the 90s, but India may act up is Pakistan move up against Iran in Afghanistan, and perhaps advance up in Cashmire and such...
Potentatial for shit-hit-the-fan...
A massive West Asian war and an Indo-Gangetic nuclear desert?