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.
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.
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.
The downvotes are probably because you seem to ‘ignore’ the US role in arming the Taliban.
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.
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?
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.
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:
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.
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?
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.
Yeah agree. Like what does the world need to do for your country internal problem.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sorry I must have missed that in the above posts. When did anyone mention race?
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*
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
