ISI had their hands, legs, face, mouth, nose all in it.
Several former ISI officers have said a lot on this stuff. Few interesting things have been extracted.
1st they say they did not create the concept of Taliban but did get involve in its creation. But they do agree they had lot to do with it since they were the only direct party involved.
2nd; US interest was involved. Central Asia had just gotten its independence & there were natural resources to be exploited. However, the the sea rout was via Pakistan & to get these resources via Pakistan ports the resources had to pass through Afghanistan - & Afghanistan was in Civil War. They too were interested in a stable Afghanistan under stable regime. Hence US signaling a silent nod. That is why US did not criticize the Taliban much in the early years. Instead US invited Taliban officials to US in late 1990s.
When a deal was being planned between US, Central Asian States, Afghanistan [Taliban] & Pakistan to extract the natural resources US expected all work to be done by American companies. But the Taliban handed the contract over to an Argentinian company & refused to back off. This is where the ISI says the rift began to grow between US & Taliban. ---> Some see it one of the main reasons for Afghan war.
However, just to your statement: Agreed; Americans did not establish Taliban. They did not participate in its creation (even if they did they didn't do directly) nor were Taliban their idea. But somewhere in between they found it to be a good idea.
Having said all; when did I say US created Taliban? :unknown
