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.
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.
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.
I hate it when you see the media (e.g. the BBC) going on about the latest awful government somewhere or some nation falling apart. The implication of course is they want someone to march in and save it, of course this means using force because the people there who are the problem aren’t going to leave willingly. So then you end up with a war and all the things that go with war (our guys dying, civilians get killed, accidents, etc) and then the media comes back and says how awful this war is, how civilians are getting killed, how things aren’t much better, etc.
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.
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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.
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.
To be fair Russia, the UK and the US also took turns totaly destroying the country for the better part of the last century. We can’t give them their freedom back on a plate but we shouldn’t forget that we’re also the ones that took it away. That money and those lives weren’t some kind of gift they were an attempt to undo the collective damage we’ve done. Well the American/British money and lives, pretty sure Russia didn’t give a crap.
The Soviets had their go at nationbuilding. Their puppet state survived eight years after they withdrew as well, which is a fair bit longer than the ten days we managed.
You can go back to Alexander the Great. Mountainous regions have always been notoriously hard to control with other regions like the Caucasus and the Balkans as examples. They tend to be fragmented and loosely connected.
Wow I’m american and this is some american kool aide if I’ve ever seen it. The Taliban is evil but the framing of the invasion and occupation as some noble humanitarian effort is like newsmax propaganda.
Some good things did happen. More girls went to schools. You can look up data and see the infant mortality rate plummet.
We didn’t go over there for humanitarian reasons, and our true goal wasn’t noble – but there was still good that came of it. Enough good for them to ask us why we’ve forgotten about them. And I don’t blame them – but I also can’t blame us.
You’re right, but it seems like this post is asking for it again. Whatever framing it’s given, it didn’t work and was a massive waste, of lives and money.
I agree, the hard truth is it’s on them. The people of Afghanistan collectively lacked the will to fight for their freedom. It’s a stark contrast with places like Ukraine.
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We built schools and got girls into the schools. The first thing the Taliban did was close all of those schools.
Who’s We, why We went there in the first place and on what grounds?
We went there because the Taliban didn’t want to kick Al Qaeda out and 9-11 had just happened.
O fuck off. You invaded them and then left. 2.3 trillion went to pay your military and contractors.
“You should’ve extended the war by a few more decades!”
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.
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Ok, they have our empathy and interest. How does that translate into meaningful physical action?
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Thoughts and prayers won’t make the Taliban go away lol
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What is yours? How would you have supported them without actually helping the Taliban?
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I never said that. But it’s clearly not yours, so please elaborate on what yours is.
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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.
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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
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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.
Yep didn’t we remove their horrid government, hold elections, try to support a more liberal government through multiple decades in the longest war the US has ever engaged in?
And wasn’t that a massive overreach of our role in the first place?
I feel for these women but this headline can go get fucked.
Yeah, those helpful drones.
Oh, don’t act like that’s all the last 20 years was.
We spent two decades trying to train up their army with direct hands on mentorship and equipment, they rolled over and surrendered immediately.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make the people overthrow their religious fascist government.
The United States Department of Defense lists 2,462 servicemembers as having died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Of these, 1,926 were due to hostile action and 536 non-hostile.
United States military casualties in the War in Afghanistan - Wikipedia
On behalf of all the veterans of this conflict, fuck you.
Those needless military casualties are equally on the hands of our elite and their shares in arms companies.
And think of the Afghan people themselves. They don’t know peace because of us.
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You got me! I’m the head of Exxon, and Raytheon, I also manufacture opioids on the side. I’m all about empire.
Fuck the 250,000 Afghanis that died.
No you’re just a thoughtless clod who said something stupid on the internet. Try not to enjoy being called out on it.
Keep pretending Captain Amerika was saving the Afghans.
Whatever, fool, I protested that war in the streets.
Decent point. But then why send them back?
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.
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?
Just to add to your point.
What do you think should happen going forward? How should the US address this? How should your country, and the rest of the UN address this?
It’s very easy to look at the past and just lay blame. I can’t and won’t argue with you on any of that (except the Mujahideen but I’ve discussed that in a different comment). Looking forward however, I don’t see any paths that aren’t just a retread of what was already done. And I don’t know if we could’ve done anything differently which would have a good chance of leading to a different outcome. I legitimately want to know what you think, because I’m at a loss.
Considering that some tribes still remembered and resented the British from their colonial abuses, you can bet your ass Afghanis won’t forgive the USA anytime soon. If any president actually had the balls and humility to admit the USA fucked up big time, committed an international crime and several war crimes, and was actually willing to work together with the current government, under certain conditions, like ensuring women regain some of their lost rights, to repair some of those wrongs, that would go a long way. It’s not going to happen, and my guess is mainly because many other countries would start to pester the USA to admit wrongdoings against them, too.
It’s very easy to look at the past and just lay blame
The irony is that USA apparently didn’t learn anything from invading Vietnam, or watching the soviets invade Afghanistan 20 years prior.
As for what I think, apparently Pakistan and Iran will step in and work as “good neighbors”. Women will still be treated like slaves and neither neighbor will bat an eye, which is horrible. If the Taliban is still being so heavily helped by the Pakistani government, then Afghanistan will just be their puppet. In that case, pressuring Pakistan to pressure the Taliban into being less radical would be more likely to yield results with lower resistance. Considering that the USA never hinted at strong arming Pakistan, despite having several bases on their territory AND knowing of their ties with Taliban, then that is unlikely to happen in the future. The “why” for that is what I’d love to know.
It’s also rather weird when you look at Iran-Pakistan relations, which seem to be very good, despite one being a USA bogeyman and the other being an ally.
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.
