Ex-Taliban hostage calls Afghanistan war 'pointless'

The United States should pull its troops out of Afghanistan because the war cannot be won and neighboring Pakistan is funding the Taliban to undermine U.S. interests, the author of a new book says. Journalist and veteran Afghanistan expert Jere Van Dyk is intimate with the war-torn country, after spending 45 harrowing days in 2008 jailed there and terrified he would be killed. His new book "Captive, My Time As A Prisoner Of The Taliban," published by Henry Holt's Times Books imprint, recounts his experience. His captivity gave him plenty of time to think about prospects for the military struggle in Afghanistan, where the United States has been bogged down in a messy war since 2001. "They (the Taliban) will never give in," Van Dyk told Reuters in an interview, adding, "There is fundamentally no difference between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban -- they are all deep down Pashtuns." The Pashtuns live in a series of tribal regions that lie along the mountainous border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Van Dyk, who lives in New York, has written for many publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and has traveled in Afghanistan and the region since the 1970s, reporting for CBS, CNN and other broadcasters.