Interesting, thanks for sharing your experience. I don't doubt the Taliban is evil, but I don't think they're stupid. That they hold family hostage to force people to fight for them I can easily believe. That they kill the family of someone that just carried out an attack for them, and hasn't betrayed them or anything, seems counterproductive for them. As far as I understand paramilitary are part of almost all armed conflicts, to do the dirty work that isn't wanted to be associated with the official military. In some of latin america like you say the US had no official military role for optics and cost. Other countries like Guatemala, Colombia, etc the US had official military advisors present, and funding and cooperation with the official military. And then paramilitary groups also operating that are really just an extension of the official military and intelligence institutions, for doing the dirtier stuff.