Politics
Out of context: Reply #32964
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- yuekit2
One thing that stands out in all this is the disconnect between America's self-appointed role in the world vs. the total lack of engagement/interest from actual Americans.
Watching the Taliban give a press conference the other day was like watching Skeletor or some comic book villain be interviewed. After 20 years of occupation I don't think most people have any conception of who they are beyond just these generic bad guys who had some association with 9-11.
Just like with Iraq, there is no explanation by the media that this is a state made up of warring tribal groups and that the Taliban actually represent the majority ethnicity, which might help explain their staying power. And how many were aware that Taliban had already taken over significant parts of the country years ago, and that the US-backed side was slowly losing the war?
When you read an article like this one from the Washington Post, which is based on secret government documents, the fact that the whole enterprise collapsed so quickly is less surprising. Apparently even back in 2002, Donald Rumsfeld was declaring it a failure.
But the rest of the media (since no one reads long newspaper articles), wasn't really explaining this to anyone.
- Taliban are Afghanistan, to win a war against them you have to partially kill them all, so this war is no sense.********
- Truemonospaced
- unshorten link :
https://webcache.goo…Salarrue - Taliban are absolutely not Afghanistan. That's one of the stupidest armchair takes I've seen in the past few days.garbage
- About half of the tribes polled a decade about were half in favor of Taliban rule. The same tribes were polled 2 years ago and that percentage was about 13%.garbage
- https://asiafoundati…garbage
- They are fractured lingustically, ethnically, religiously in a thousand different ways. If you've just started paying attention, best let the adults speak.garbage
- Also 2002 was the only time I've agreed with Rumsfeld. The real reason we stayed was poppy, and then after the smartphone boom we stayed for lithium.garbage
- I always assumed there must be some ulterior motive behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars...but after reading that Washington Post article and seeingyuekit
- how quickly the USA abandoned Afghanistan, seems like whole thing was just a giant grift or ponzi scheme.yuekit
- We weren't even there to exploit the natural resources, it was a totally pointless war that funneled money to military contractors and corrupt politicians.yuekit
- The CIA definitely had their hand in the poppy fields, but if you want to look deeper it's any iteration of Blackwater / Academi.garbage
- https://www.buzzfeed…garbage
- Taliban are Afghanistan, to win a war against them you have to partially kill them all, so this war is no sense.