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The Taliban are the people of Afghanistan (obviously not all of them, but a substantial portion). We could have avoided this had we learned a lesson by watchin

The Taliban are the people of Afghanistan (obviously not all of them, but a substantial portion). We could have avoided this had we learned a lesson by watching the Soviet Union go through this same exercise a few decades ago. When you invade and occupy a hostile nation, you can either stay forever at tremendous cost in blood and treasure or eventually leave and watch the native inhabitants regain control.

everybodyknows 5y ago
Exception to that being the non-Pashtun minorities, who actually will fight, in numbers big enough to matter. A plan might have been devised to carve off a new, defensible state, a la Kurdistan. But that would have required bureaucracies to admit partial defeat - an acknowledgment of reality unnatural to them. So instead we have total defeat: collapse, massacres, oppression. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-14/afghanistan-taliban-surrounds-key-city-of-mazar-i-sharif/100349140 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-14/afghanistan-taliban-s...
rhino369 5y ago
The Taliban are not the people of Afghanistan. Less than 20% of the population supports them. The rest of the population just isn't strong enough and coordinated enough to beat a highly motivated and organized minority. While I didn't support continuation of the war because I don't see how it benefits the USA, it wasn't an unjust war. Quite the opposite. We were allies of the democratically elected Afghan government, fighting against the tyranny of a small group of religious fanatics.
- StanislavPetrov 5y ago
  It was a predictable disaster from the very beginning - there was never any other possible outcome then the one we see today. We don't have the ability (let alone the right) to invade a country on the other side of the world with a completely alien culture and turn it into some sort of 51st state with our values. This would be true even if Afghanistan wasn't a hodgepodge of cultures and different peoples, most of which never recognized a central government of any kind and exist in a tribal system. Then consider the fact that our so-called allies in Pakistan (the ones who harbored Bin Laden) support the Taliban as a proxy force, and have all along. We could have (and should have) pursued those who attacked us on 9/11 (Al Qaeda - not the Taliban) without launching any misguided, expensive and disastrous foreign invasions with delusions that we could remake the world in our image.

everybodyknows 5y ago

Exception to that being the non-Pashtun minorities, who actually will fight, in numbers big enough to matter. A plan might have been devised to carve off a new, defensible state, a la Kurdistan. But that would have required bureaucracies to admit partial defeat - an acknowledgment of reality unnatural to them. So instead we have total defeat: collapse, massacres, oppression. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-14/afghanistan-taliban-surrounds-key-city-of-mazar-i-sharif/100349140 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-14/afghanistan-taliban-s...

rhino369 5y ago

The Taliban are not the people of Afghanistan. Less than 20% of the population supports them. The rest of the population just isn't strong enough and coordinated enough to beat a highly motivated and organized minority. While I didn't support continuation of the war because I don't see how it benefits the USA, it wasn't an unjust war. Quite the opposite. We were allies of the democratically elected Afghan government, fighting against the tyranny of a small group of religious fanatics.

StanislavPetrov 5y ago
It was a predictable disaster from the very beginning - there was never any other possible outcome then the one we see today. We don't have the ability (let alone the right) to invade a country on the other side of the world with a completely alien culture and turn it into some sort of 51st state with our values. This would be true even if Afghanistan wasn't a hodgepodge of cultures and different peoples, most of which never recognized a central government of any kind and exist in a tribal system. Then consider the fact that our so-called allies in Pakistan (the ones who harbored Bin Laden) support the Taliban as a proxy force, and have all along. We could have (and should have) pursued those who attacked us on 9/11 (Al Qaeda - not the Taliban) without launching any misguided, expensive and disastrous foreign invasions with delusions that we could remake the world in our image.