Democracy means giving some level of choice to folks, and in countries with lots of non-urban non-groovy folks that means the rural parts get what they want. Se

Democracy means giving some level of choice to folks, and in countries with lots of non-urban non-groovy folks that means the rural parts get what they want. See voting in modern Iran, Egypt (the Muslim Brotherhood was elected), etc. Afghanistan is only about 25% urban. The Cold War era led to a couple of decades of countries trying to figure out their alignment and less internal strife, but by the 70s the internal rumblings were becoming clear. We could keep Cairo, Tehran and Kabul groovy as long as we're comfy keeping the boot on the majorities necks.