Remember when the Afghan people had a phenomenally well equipped and well trained army, and then they just gave up inside a week because things were “hard”?
Like if you don’t give a shit…no one is going to give a harder shit about you than you will.
Yeah man, I feel sorry for the people who will have to live under the fucking Taliban, but we’ve spent way too much time, money and blood on Afghanistan already.
We shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but for them to just instantly roll over to the Taliban… Just compare it to Ukraine, where they are fighting for their lives and freedom against a much more powerful enemy.
It’s long past time for Afghanistan to deal with their own problems.
Yeah, like what do they expect? Another foreign military intervention?
That will not happen again for decades at best. Longer if all the developed nations really learn from America’s mistake this time.
Sure, we can sanction them, but any aid just gets intercepted, so that’s out. It sucks so many Afghans are suffering under the system, but it’s the system they let happen. Did they want to be an occupied country forever? Was this a fight America was expected to wage indefinitely? Twenty years was already too long.
They should have trained the Afghani women who have an actual reason to fight against the Taliban, instead of the lazy men who instantly capitulated.
I never thought about this at the time. It was all just shocking and frankly pathetic. Didn’t realize the men had the least at stake, while women had the most, but were not allowed to join the fight. Many men probably didn’t care or even resented the “changes”. (Women’s rights. Sounds familiar. MAGA?) Unwilling to put up any kind of fight for that kind of future for their partners and daughters.
I wonder what most Afghan women think of these men now. And if joining the military was ever a realistic possibility, and could have changed the result.
Kipling has some lines about what happens when you give Afghan women knives
Tbf Afghanistan defeated a much stronger Russia back in the 80s.
With less help than Ukraine gets.
Edit: so the downvotes are just ignorant of history or are they trying to rewrite it to suit their own agendas? Regardless, not a good sign for the future.
It’s not the graveyard of empires because it’s farmland.
Tbf Afghanistan defeated a much stronger Russia back in the 80s.
Those were pretty much the Taliban though. No one doubts the will to fight of the Taliban.
Well the Taliban took over the pieces after the U.S. abandoned the Mujhaideen.
Funny how history repeats.
The downvotes are probably because you seem to ‘ignore’ the US role in arming the Taliban.
See below. This was addressed yesterday.
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I wonder if it was “hard” or “I want the Taliban to take over.” There’s probably a decent amount of people in that area that can fundamentally agree with the Taliban. it’s a religious and oppression group. If you’re ideologically aligned with the Taliban, and male, you’re probably either as good or better of under them.
Not saying this is everything but I imagine there’s at least some people who are ok with the new government, mostly because they don’t care about others over their own self.
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Well, that sounds like propaganda videos where they had already surrendered and the taliban wanted to make it seem like all it would take was one person to make people volunteer…
But, you’re also talking about all the equipment that was expensive but neither side had the knowledge or equipment to maintain, right?
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Do you have more info about what happened then?
About why the Taliban took over so quickly?
Yeah, Afghanistan isn’t a normal country. It’s a loose collection of tribes that have been pitted against each other for centuries. There’s no unity, they’ve never really had a federal government just other countries that used militaries to try and force compliance from all the tribal leaders.
So when America left with like 2 weeks notice, everyone just went back to their tribes. The “Afghan Army” had better equipment, but it was equipment they just couldn’t maintain. After a couple weeks of fighting it would have all broken down and they’d have ran out of ammo. Meanwhile the Taliban had supply lines and decades of experience fighting with their equipment.
The Taliban is just a coalition of the most extreme tribes. One that was trained in gurellia warfare by America and is actually united in their religious extremism.
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Edit:
On second thought, there’s no point in replying anymore.
Yup. One of the first things we did in the invasion of Afghanistan was ally with the northern tribes. The Taliban mainly represent one ethnic group and constantly engaged in ethnic cleansing of Shia, other tribes, and various minorities.
They have had millennia of engaging in guerilla warfare, you could probably go back to the days of Alexander the Great.
First of all, none of these women were in that army so painting this as the consequences of their actions seems a bit dishonest.
Second, I remember when they were alleged to have a phenomenal army but it turned out most of that was on paper not real.
The facade crumbled.
I wonder how things would have turned out if the US had built up divisions of the Afghan army with women.
none of these women were in that army so painting this as the consequences of their actions seems a bit dishonest.
What makes you think that these women who choose their culture as dignity would oppose their rulers which they gained power from it?
I’m sorry but I don’t understand this question, could you maybe rephrase it or explain your reasoning? I don’t think these women have “gained power” it seems like the opposite.
First woman quoted in the article (a refugee):
“I had a beautiful house and a job that I loved. I lived with my family, I had friends and I was pregnant. But I lost my baby, I fled my country without my husband and now I live here alone. I’m safe, but do you think I’m happy, do you think I can sleep at night knowing my family’s situation in Afghanistan?”
The Afghan army seemed totally incompetent. Examples:
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Remember that the government is installed by the US and allies. If they actually care, the could have spent some time to find candidates that can gather people around and build a unionized front along with education and infrastructure. The reality is they put a thief in power who is now living somewhere in Europe and enjoying his wealth.
Blaming a victim complaining about their experience or at least expectations is in bad taste.
candidates that can gather people around and build a unionized front along with education and infrastructure
I don’t think that person existed in Afghanistan.
The ANA never had very good moral, just read the experiences of US troops with them.
Remember when the Afghan people had a phenomenally well equipped and well trained army, and then they just gave up inside a week because things were “hard”?
You didn’t read the Afghanistan Papers did you?
You gonna link or
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/documents-database/
There is also a book by the same name. I also recommend the documentary Bitter Lake by Adam Curtis.
I’d have more sympathy for the people of Afghanistan if they had actually fought back against the Taliban.
People say that America lost in Afghanistan, but we were basically the only thing propping up democracy. The people themselves made no effort.
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Nah, they didn’t make an effort. The Taliban was welcomed when they rolled in. The US military expected there would be resistance, but the Taliban had pretty much captured everything before we were even gone.
Yeah agree. Like what does the world need to do for your country internal problem.
Did the USA invade for altruistic reasons? I highly doubt so
Outside of Kabul it seemed the average rural person felt that they had to choose between a temporary US occupation supporting an uninterested government vs the Taliban who were all around them on a daily basis and would take over the second the US left. They did the safe thing and sided with the Taliban.
At some point, the people of Afghanistan should be able to take control of their own country. How can a vast majority of the people sit there and let a tiny percentage dictate the lives and rules for everyone? Kick the Taliban out of your country.
The problem is that the Taliban have popular support. The media don’t want to report it, but this is a society where public life has always been under the purview of men, it’s a largely Muslim country, very rural, and the alternative power centers there are chock full of child molesters and corrupt individuals. The Taliban, despite their strong ideological position, has a lot going for them. They’re not taking bribes to sell out their values. They’re capable of maintaining stability. Even if people disagree with some or other things about them, theyre better than the alternatives. Fact is, they’re in power there because they’re the only organization capable of holding power there.
it’s a largely Muslim country
Pretty much all the Abrahmic religions do this shit when they’re in power…
I wouldn’t have pointed it out, because it’s kind of like saying the sky is blue. But from the rest of your comment it seems like you legitimately think it’s just Muslims., And not that entire religious family
It’s not just Muslims that are fundamentalist extremists. But of every major religion, Islam has the highest rate of that kind of extremism. There are plenty of Christian countries which are socially progressive and endorse modern sensibilities. No Muslim countries are.
I have a dear friend of mine who is a religious minority in Egypt (she’s a Copt). The paranoia that she and her parents have when interacting with Muslims is saddening, because of how it’s been justified. Her church has lost several members to religious violence, and she’s lived through a suicide bombing which happened at that church and targeted Christians.
I’m not saying there aren’t Christian extremists. There are. But the Muslim extremist problem is an order of magnitude larger within that faith.
Judge individual Muslims for their own beliefs. But there is no Christian version of the Taliban state or ISIS. And Islam is to blame for the actions of its extremist adherents writ large. It desperately needs a religious reformation, but instead, the Saudis are still chopping the heads off of people who offend their religious police.
Feels like a geopolitical issue more than a religious issue.
It’s not just Muslims that are fundamentalist extremists. But of every major religion, Islam has the highest rate of that kind of extremism
Not really…
There’s over 1.7 billion Muslims in the world, that’s a lot of people.
But there is no Christian version of the Taliban state or ISIS
So basically you’re saying we can just ignore all the countries where they’re trying to do it, just ignore them till their in power?
Nah, I don’t see how that helps anyone except Christian extremists.
I’m not saying we should ignore anything. I’m saying we shouldn’t ignore the extremely high rate of extremism within Islam.
But if you want to prove me wrong, point to a single Muslim country where apostasy and homosexuality are socially accepted
I’m saying we shouldn’t ignore the extremely high rate of extremism within Islam.
And I’m saying you don’t seem to understand how large a number 1.7 billion is…
But if you want to prove me wrong, point to a single Muslim country where apostasy and homosexuality are socially accepted
Lebanon
Can you name a country where the Christian majority do that?
They’re openly against LGBT because “the Bible says so” and they claim they have to follow it.
The Bible also says if anyone even starts questioning if they should still be Christian, then they need to be executed to prevent the spread.
So they might not say it, but they’re all about it, or just lying hypocrites who are making the personal choice to harass people who are LGBT.
Lebanon isn’t a Muslim nation. It has a significant Muslim plurality. And homosexuality is de facto illegal there AND extremely socially unacceptable, with 85% of Lebanese people saying it should be “rejected by society.”
Give me a Muslim nation where homosexuality and apostasy are both legal and socially acceptable.
Since you edited your post after I replied like a dirty little liar, here’s a second reply.
Can I name a Christian majority country where being gay is generally acceptable, being an apostate is generally acceptable, and both are legal? Yeah. Canada, the US, Australia, Spain, the UK, France, Germany, etc, etc, etc.
are you lobotomized?
I said Muslim once. The rest of my comment is about Afghanistan.
They really don’t. Israel is a Jewish country and women are allowed to go to school or university.
There’s countless Christian countries and that shit happens nowhere.
You’re confusing a country where a majority of citizens are Christian with countries who are lead by Christian leaders…
I can’t think of a single equivalent than the Vatican, and if you’re acting like that’s a great government…
We probably dont agree on what makes a government good.
The statement was that this happens with all abrahamitic religions in power.
You’re confusing a country where a majority of citizens are Christian with countries who are lead by Christian leaders…
I’m not, it’s just the closest to the stated premise.
I can’t think of a single equivalent than the Vatican, and if you’re acting like that’s a great government…
Same. But then I doesn’t make sense to make that statement in the first place about the other religions.
Because there’s zero evidence to back it up.
It reminds me of Iraq right before 9/11 happened… ye they had a piece of shit dictator Sadam; absolutely. But they wasn’t being bombed to smithereens. And in the mess of war in Iraq the ISIS were able to fuck shit up n grow , even growing into syria, Afghanistan n maybe other countries…
How can a vast majority of the people sit there and let a tiny percentage dictate the lives and rules for everyone?
As an American looking at American policy right now…that’s ironic.
Yeah but they’re extremists and terrorists who want to control all aspects of the media, stop women from having rights over their bodies and return to their place in society serving men, criminalize everything that goes against their religious beliefs and restrict voting and democracy to preserve their ‘values’, carry guns with them everywhere and fanatically praise their leaders.
Err, there’s some differences somewhere I’m sure…
No shit. The second we left they fell apart. No resistance.
As far as I’m concerned we should only help those that help themselves, like Ukraine is doing. Afghanistan has always been Taliban simps. Those women know where their men sleep and have knives ffs.
I suppose the devil they know is better than the one they don’t know.
Yeah, we should only help white people right?
This is a great message for the world, we’ll help you, as long as you’re white
Bro, you went so far that you actually became racist yourself. You literally said: “Do help themselves” == “white” “Don’t help themselves” == “not white”
You are pushing the american stereotype for “lazy immigrants”
Thats kinda cringe tbh.
“Talking about the dynamics of racism is racist.” I’ll let MLK know.
Nah. Thats not racist. Stating that countries primarily populated by non-whites are somehow too weak or lazy to fight for themselves, however, is definitely pretty racist.
This particular country that we’re actually discussing was indeed too lazy to fight for itself and gave up within 2 weeks after decades of being occupied.
EDIT: And that’s if you don’t consider this the wishes of the country itself. To a large extent, I think the Taliban have popular support within the country and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were Taliban sympathizers or supporters within the ranks of the military.
Where did you see that? They were pointing out that the person they responded to made the very implication you’re accusing them of making.
That user who suggested we ‘help’ is either malicious or ignorant. Because help doesn’t mean we release the reserves of money we’ve stolen from the Afghans. It means invade them again, whether she means it or not.
The best thing we can do now is let the Afghans be sovereign and no longer interfere (which won’t happen). You can expect nothing good socially from there, as the Americans helped the Taliban defeat local progressive and secular forces in the 70s. All we can hope for is for them to eventually stand up on their own two feet.
Anyone who whines about the plight of Afghan women is either doing propaganda or is misled. Afghan women have children too btw - children that are starving - have Biden release the reserves.
Sorry I must have missed that in the above posts. When did anyone mention race?
They hail from the instance of the sensitive and easily triggered
blahaj
Man that place really is terrible. They claim to support safety and inclusivity, but appear perfectly happy to berate, attack, and bully others, as long as their opinions are the bad opinions.
They are liberals with paper thin corporate-friendly politics.
I don’t know if he edited it but he said nothing about race. It was about fighting back
Found the racist.
Are you implying that non-whites are incapable of helping themselves?
What do you think the solution is? Indefinite US occupation? At that point wouldn’t you want America to just take them over?
Has nothing to do with race. Ukraine didn’t bend over for Russia instead fucking their shit up day 1. Their president didn’t flee instead stayed and mocked the occupiers by showing off him and his crew were still in Kyiv.
Afghanistan? We trained them for twenty years to stand up for themselves as a independent democratic nation and threw it away the second we left. What a fucking waste. They didn’t even have fucking OIL to take. Nor was Osama there, or ever was.
If Afghanistan actually gave a fuck and tried but failed my opinion would be quite different. I’d be all “remember our fallen Afghan allies” o7 n shit.
So yeah take your standard operation trolling elsewhere. I’ve seen this exact same talking point before it’s not original, think for yourself for a goddamn change*
If you think that’s the timeline of events for Afghan forces, then you don’t know shit. We never trained them to use the equipment we spent trillions of dollars on. The manuals didn’t even have an Arabic translation.
We apparently spent billions doing it…
Or just shuffled money around. Either way an attempt was made.
And somehow the person calling out racism is always dubbed the racist by those who refuse to acknowledge their own privilege, let alone their blatant bias. Fucking typical.
That’s been the American motto since the country’s independence. Huge debates about helping the french aristocracy at the start of the reign of terror, but not even a single response to the former slaves in Haiti after their revolution.
We didn’t like the Reign of Terror because it was the Reign. Of. Terror. Also bribery with the XYZ Affair turned us against the murderous revolutionaries.
We didn’t help the Haitians because of Southern Slavers were scared of that happening to them. If only it did…
Thank you for your nuanced view of history that takes continuity of causal events into account. Today I learned about the XYZ affair.
No problem, it even points out within the first few paragraphs about how the French wanted to seize our ships, adding more reason for American discontempt of the French Revolution. Kinda forgot about that bit.
I see you didn’t like the earliest examples I could think of with the systemic racism in foreign affairs. How about the utter contempt from Kissinger towards PoC when he was Secretary of State? How’s that African neoimperialism? Maybe you’d prefer talking about the “war” in the Philippines? Perhaps you’d like to hear about the absolute refusal for the last 120 years to make Puerto Rico a state? Maybe the US support of Nazi Germany up until 1941 is more to your liking? The genocides of Native Americans that continued into the 70s? The ongoing hypocritical genocide of latino people on our southern border? The oil wars? COINTELPRO tactics being used abroad? I have a lot of examples of racist foreign affairs from the US.
Ok buddy, you’re just saying words by now. Get off Wikipedia and get a life.
Which ones are nonsensical? I’ll expand on the topic for you.
You use text-based social media and deride reading?
:(
The problem is that “the people of Afghanistan” don’t see themselves as a united people. Regional and tribal ties are far, far stronger in the region than any true sense of national identity outside of “let’s cooperate just long enough to kick these fucking foreigners out”. Immediately after that’s accomplished, the region regresses into very old-school power politics and warlord fiefdoms. This has happened twice now in the space of 50 years. The truly galling point, though, is that US leaders and officials should have known this… but there were effectively zero coherent plans to handle that aspect of the occupation.
How can a vast majority of the people sit there and let a tiny percentage dictate the lives and rules for everyone?
Is that a serious question?
The vast majority of the world lives like that…
Even in first world countries.
I’m American, and a very very tiny percentage of other Americans hold the vast amount of wealth and use it to buy the majority of both parties off so that literally no matter who wins any election, they’re going to be someone that puts corporate profits over the average American.
Where do you live that’s truly led by the majority?
Fun fact, the dynamic where the majority class controls the “rules” is called communism. Maybe they want us to give it a go here in the US?
Same way stuff happens in the USA… inequality n disparity keeps growing… The ruling / wealthy 🤑 class keeps consolidating wealth n we all just go on with our lives… Don’t we?
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A lot of the Afghanistan problem is that they have no national identity, they’re a collection of tribes and warlords, so the only united group in the country is the Taliban, and the Taliban has a lot of help from Pakistan and other regional powers.
What in the racist fuck is this generalization?
IDK exactly what the “world” can do here. The Taliban is the legit government of Afghanistan now (well, maybe legit should be in quotes). Do people want another war to take out the Taliban? That didn’t go so well the first time. And there are already sanctions on the Taliban’s government but other countries are still willing to trade with them.
I don’t see any international fix working here. There needs to be internal change. Whether that’s reform, coup, or whatever.
You aren’t forgotten. US and allies accepted the decision that was made within a week of us leaving. The country, as a whole, collectively chose the easy route of Taliban rule. That decision has consequences.
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They’re not saying the withdrawal was quick, they’re saying the takeover after the withdrawal was quick. Which it was, Pentagon officials said it was faster than all their estimates.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/08/16/how-afghanistan-fell-to-the-taliban-so-quickly.html
The gov had poor control over the countryside and the Taliban had infiltrated everywhere and was just laying in wait. The irony is they are now fighting another, even more extreme Islamic group, Al Qaeda.
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Exclude the actual government of the country from negotiations, and then wonder why they stand by and watch when you pull out, and your enemy storms the gates…
Yeah, I mean, we were over there for well over a decade trying to fix that shit and the country as a whole just did not want to change, so we gave up and left. It was a giant waste for everyone involved.
Lol yeah that’s totally what happened in. It definitely wasn’t a scam where we turned Afghanistan into a black hole for contractor money.
It’s unbelievable how naive and arrogant this thread is. How low can you get?
My dumb ass was 16 when it all started and even then I was aware enough to realize it was all about Raytheon, Haliburton, PMCs, etc…
I blame those fucking pieces of shit Cheney and Rumsfield for not only stealing a potential future from me (because after realizing all that I said fuck joining the military) but obviously worse all the death and destruction that was caused for their financial benefit…
Trump had a line “they’re not sending their best here” when being a dickhole in reference to immigration, but honestly that quote goes especially well for pretty much all of our politicians.
You didn’t go to fix shit. You went because you wanted revenge. You stayed because a lot of people made money.
Everybody told you back them you can’t fix Afghanistan’s issues by force. You just killed a lot of Afghanis for nothing.
Then you went to Iraq.
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I don’t really get the stance of “you wanted revenge, bloodthirsty revenge murica”. Did you forget that innocent lives were taken, unasked?
What the fuck would YOU do? Sit there and twiddle your thumbs all like “oh…3,000 people, never forget. sniff”.
That is revenge. You think it is justified revenge. Perhaps it was though history did not start on 11/09/2001. It certainly is not “we were over there for well over a decade trying to fix that shit” as the guy I replied too said.
You also kind of forgot about the guy that actually arranged the attack for a few years while many more people died than in Afghanistan and Iraq than in WTC, most of them having nothing to do with the attacks.
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That still though, doesn’t mean that those lives lost in WTC didn’t matter. That’s what you’re making it sound like. “DUUHHH THE CIVILIANS LOST IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ COMBINED OUTWEIGH THE BODY COUNT OF THE WTC TRAGEDY SO UHHH THAT MEAN THEIR LIVES MATTER MORE!” The whole damn war was a shitshow, again nothing new. But don’t go around pretending that there wasn’t a trigger somewhere for why shit happened as you’ve just demonstrated. You’re ignorant.
All lives matter the same. Therefore tens of thousands of lives matter more than a few thousand.
Of course you clearly believe American lives matter more. You clearly believe the war in Afghanistan was justified. I am neither ignorant nor barking at the wrong tree. I am barking at another racist American.
You also kind of forgot about the guy that actually arranged the attack for a few years while many more people died than in Afghanistan and Iraq than in WTC, most of them having nothing to do with the attacks.
You were completely right until this point. It was absolutely for revenge, and the Bush Administration preyed on that desire to mislead the US into an awful war where even more innocent people lost their lives.
But there’s no need to minimize the lives lost on 9/11. We can grieve for both. Arguing about which matters more because more people died takes away from the more important point – a tragedy was used to manipulate people into supporting another tragedy.
trying to fix
😂😂👆
A giant waste for everyone
😂😂😂😂😂😂👆👆👆 Except the military money machine
The feeling there was…
- The gov didn’t care about anyone outside of Kabul.
- They knew the US wouldn’t be there forever and the ANA had shitty moral. The Taliban however would be there when the US left and people didn’t want to be targeted for revenge killings, etc.
20-year boondoggle, you know… The easy route…
Many people including Americans are suffering and have been forgotten because of what happened over there. I guarantee there are many that wish they had done things differently and just minded their own business. Patriotism is a powerful con.
There was an attempt at nation building and it didn’t go well. Afghanistan and the Middle East is a culturally complicated place, it’s mostly tribes and smaller villages with a lot of history. It’s hard to point fingers at the US for leaving when a decent chunk of the country either didn’t care, or didn’t want them there anymore.
Even if the US intentions were good (and they were not great, basically being revenge for 9/11), who wants to be ruled by a foreign invader?
If some alien superpower invaded the USA tomorrow, gave them free healthcare, 40 days holiday a year from work, legalised abortion again and mountains of affordable housing in the places people actually wanted to live, they’d still fight back. Even if it meant things going back to how they were before.
Bold of you to think people would fight back against that lol.
That actually sounds incredible
Just like Afghans, many liked the US, the taliban didn’t. There’d be a percentage of the population fighting tooth and nail.
And it creates the question – what should the aliens do long term?
If they leave, what do they owe those of us who liked them?
I really struggle with this. I can’t say as an American that we don’t owe them anything. But I also can’t say that it’s our job to go back and invade once more. We’ve done that. I don’t know what changes we could make to change the outcome.
Sorry for the sudden musings, haha
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People won’t fight back against anything because they are morally opposed to fighting back, regardless of what’s actually happening.
They would. Just point anyone they think deserves less then themselves and they Will fight tooth and nail. So so many americans will gladly cut off their nose to spite their face
I would take that deal. All hail our Alien overlords. Now, the south would not be pleased … but they have a losing record in armed conflict.
I would not fight that. I already think that we are ruled by outsiders (rich, geriatric boomers).
Most boomers are just who the oligarchs have pointed angry millennials at.
They’ll watch you fight for crumbs while they scoff cake. This is Bumfights for them.
I mean, literally any other country in the world is welcome to step in and fix it. Imagine the bragging rights at the next UN summit. “We fixed Afghanistan!” No? No takers? Alright.
As cynical as a take as that is, yeah national building hard espically out there. People will resist change, you have very little infrastructure to work with, and a poor little esucation population
The proper noun Middle East needs work.
Thank you
The second part sounds a bit like a copout. They have done military interventions in a lot of different regions. The US has ransacked a growing number of countries just to get rid of a small amount of “baddies”.
You don’t get to destroy shit and leave. If you play world police, start doing the whole job, not parts of it. And I’m totally fine with US starting less interventions because they don’t wanna clean up after themselves. Probably a net positive given the history in the middle east.
I think at this point it’s best that the administration just got out because it appeared it was never going to get better. Just my perspective at reading about the attempts to build administration and actually get local citizens to build and manage their own sustainable government structures in place and it never taking off. Just read anything about the army’s attempts to create a competent Afghani security force.
We never should have intervened in the first place, and should have gotten out as soon as we could.
I agree with you, but also… they absolutely did not want us there. America isn’t trying to colonize.
The people in power are corrupt, the world around. Religious states, doubly so.
We can’t even control the zealots rising up in our own country.
The thing is, we weren’t there for a decade just destroying things. A few years, absolutely. But the rest of the time was spent trying to clean up and rebuild. Maybe the US just isn’t good at that, but what else can we do at this point? Returning would just be meddling again and earn ire.
Rebuilding translates to funding the lavish lifestyles of our puppets. Very colonial.
Quickly forget? Didn’t US spend like 20 years there?
Yeah, but we aren’t reporting at the level we used to.
But to be fair, we still ignored Afghanistan a lot during the occupation.
Why should we? Honestly, if I was American, I would be salty about this as hell. So much money spent and then they give up the moment US leaves? Apparently they got exactly what they wanted. Sure, not everyone likes it, but don’t blame the world “forgetting” about you, this shit is entirely of their doing.
As it was reported by the Onion in the late 2000’s: The majority of Americans support emotionally withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Were you ready when your dad left to get milk and never came back?
You should slap your father for not having the common decency to wipe you on the curtains.
Sounds kinky
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What else would you call it?
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If all you use are facts, the soundbites aren’t as good.
I’m not sure what people want, exactly. 20 years of occupation wasn’t enough to change their culture even a little bit. Do they want permanent American occupation? That’s clearly untenable for many reasons. I don’t want America to be the world police, and I don’t want them invading countries on moral grounds.
Any aid given to Afghanistan immediately ends up in the hands of the Taliban now.
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No, the Spanish Republicans definitely put up a real fight. If the Afghan Army had the same mettle as the Republican Army of Spain, then the Taliban would have been kicked back to Pakistan because of massive materiel superiority.
100% . The dude you responded to is just wrong. Franco started the Civil War in 1936, but it went until 1939. He had a lot of the army plus the backing of the Nazis. The Spanish Republicans had… Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.
The painting “Guernica” is about Nazis bombing a small town. If you have to kill a horse and some children with a bomber, you aren’t going to be winning any time soon.
It was mainly women’s lives that were improved without the Taliban, and sadly those aren’t important enough.
Might as well annex Afghanistan and make them a state of the Union, then some changes could happen.
We spent twenty years fighting their battles for them, $2.3 trillion spent helping build up their infrastructure, supplying them with weapons and training, and trying to help them build a legitimate democratic government. After all our efforts, expenses, and American lives lost, it took the Taliban just ten days to retake the entire country. Freedom can’t be given it has to be won, and frankly they weren’t willing to fight for theirs… and I say this as a disabled combat veteran who lost dozens of friends to this conflict either in combat or to their own hands once they returned home. What a waste.
When externals were (unsuccesfully) trying to change something in the country, it was a total bust. I read in these comments that intentions were not pure from America, and I can imagine that. I also saw interviews with US military personal after they came back from Afghanistan, who seemed to genuinely want to help, but had to deal with a lot of corruption, low education, internal theft and child abuse (Bachi Bazi). Now no one is helping, and even though I’d like for the local population to live free lives, I don’t even know how one would start to help. The Taliban will just hide and guerilla it’s way back after occupation has dissapated. It seems like a real life Kobayashi Maru situation. No winners, only losers here :(
It reminds me, I read about veterans who went to volunteer and fight for Ukraine because they wanted to help, and they felt like they hadn’t in Afghanistan.
What do they expect? Permanent US occupation? If they really expect that, then they’re going to need to make themselves a US territory or deal with themselves.
Did they expect the USA to invade in the first place?
Yeah, that’s America’s whole thing
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The organization ended up fracturing, and one of those factions went on to become a terrorist organization. Not all of them though.
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Uh, wrong.
We only invade brown people and commies.
Germany was brown commies?
It’s not really an invasion when they start it.
It’s karma.
Wall Street funded them bro.
I think they just expected empathy and interest in them as a people.
Ok, they have our empathy and interest. How does that translate into meaningful physical action?
Do they? You’re more focused on trying to have a gotcha on the internet than displaying any empathy or interest in them.
Thoughts and prayers won’t make the Taliban go away lol
Is that your idea of what empathy or interest looks like?
What is yours? How would you have supported them without actually helping the Taliban?
Please explain to me how sending thoughts and prayers is your idea of having empathy or interest in something first.
I never said that. But it’s clearly not yours, so please elaborate on what yours is.
And yet you came in defending it for some reason. Now you refuse to actually elaborate on why you decided to speak up at all and want me to make up something new just so you can have something to argue about.
All I said is that asking what a repressed and destroyed community expects is probably some basic humanity, and not a bunch of internet commenters being condescending assholes. I also said “thoughts and prayers” isn’t empathy or interest, and if I have to explain that, then I may as well be asked to explain to a Republican why “thoughts and prayers” is a shit response to a school shooting.
What do you think it should look like? I’m not pleased with the situation but I don’t know what we could do differently.
It definitely doesn’t look like thoughts and prayers, a phrase which is often used by people who show the opposite of empathy or interest.
Not to be a dick but if they don’t like it they could do something about it themselves. Hoping that “the world will do something” rarely has good results.
Yeah haven’t they been at war or occupied for like 200 years? The withdrawal was a clusterfuck but it was never not going to be one. Idk what the rest of the world can do at this point. I read China wants to tap into those sweet lithium mines. Let them give it a shot I guess?
Honestly, I’d love to see them try. Mostly because it’d be hilarious for them to be inconvenienced, but still
Putting aside the humanitarian aspect and destabilizing the region etc etc I agree it would be an entertaining show. From what I’ve heard maybe we won’t have to wait very long.
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The Taliban are not the Nazis, not even close. They’re a guerilla group, and not a particularly effective one. They lost almost all engagements with the US and allied armies. They were mainly good at running away and doing drugs in the mountains.
The problem is, the people of Afghanistan do not have the ability or desire to be a unified country right now, so there is no one to oppose them. The Yugoslav Partizans (who did fight the Nazis) would have beat their brains in. The IRA would have easily beaten them. There are even modern day rebel groups who would beat them.
The opposition was mostly murdered by the Taliban before and after the fall. The military aid we gave the Afghans was also entirely fake and we allowed it be stolen.
But then people in this thread have the arrogance to come in here and go on rants about how it’s all the Afghans’ fault when we literally occupied their country for 20 fucking years and achieved nothing. The US is fully responsible for his situation.
It’s disgusting to see Americans attack Afghans in this thread because they’re butthurt that a woman said Afghans were forgotten, which they absolutely were. No wonder so many people in the world hate us.
White Supremacist rhetoric, wonderful
I left reddit because most of you are just nazis, now you’re here spamming the same garbage
Do you… think it’s good that Europe has some of the craziest guerilla groups in history? Like do you think that’s something to brag about? Ok…
Nigeria still has Boko Haram, which was the deadliest group in the 2010s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram
In DRC, there were militias responsible for multiple civil wars in the 90s and 2000s. Latin America has had a ton of rebel groups (both left and right wing) too.
Are you happy now?
The overwhelmingly left leaning reddit, which practically never had any even right leaning headline upvoted to /r/all (besides The Donald, when it existed) are mostly Nazis…
If r/politics are Nazis, then Mao must be a centrist by your standards. Just how deluded are you?
The world spent trillions of dollars and thousands of lives to help you. It didn’t take.
Gotta love all the 'muricans trying to defend their exceptionalism and blaming Afghanistan and its people for the country’s woes.
USA never cared about Afghanistan or its people. In the 1980s, it, along with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and United Kingdom, helped fund the muhajideen fighting against the Soviet Union (Soviet-Afghan war). As soon as the war was over and the soviets retreated, the funding dried up.
After 9/11, USA went into a bloodlust, invading Afghanistan because they (Taliban) wanted proof that Osama bin Laden was involved with the terrorist attack first. bin Laden fled to Pakistan, but the USA didn’t invade them, nor threatened to. Instead, USA just kept their boots on foreign soil because, hey, free real state and cheap poppy, amirite?
Also, since at least 2010, it’s been publicly known that Pakistan has been helping the Taliban in fighting for Afghanistan. Yet, there were no sanctions, no tough talks, no threats, nothing, against Pakistan.
Afghanistan is full of a bunch of small tribes. They all hate each other and refuse to work together. Just go Google “dancing boy parties Afghanistan” you will quickly lose any sympathy for the people and culture. The US had to turn a blind eye to pedophile parties, which are a time honored tradition, in order to keep the peace.
The forces the US trained and equipped were basically the dregs of society that would be in prison in most countries. They would steal and sell shit to the Taliban. Claiming to have driven many miles on patrol to syphon and sell the gas was common practice. They sold the guns and trucks. There is no helping this country. It’s going to be a shit show until they get past their tribal hatred and work together.
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Fuck me for wanting one as a trans person, amirite?
