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There have often been buddhist, muslim and other kingdoms or larger military organizations in power in Afghanistan. It's not that the borders don't make sense,
by bayesian_horse 5y ago
There have often been buddhist, muslim and other kingdoms or larger military organizations in power in Afghanistan.
It's not that the borders don't make sense, it's that the area as a whole is hard to rule and it's hard to pay for that ruling. Currently one could argue that the medieval kind of "political technology" used by the Taliban is superior to the democratic political technology, for this very reason.
- ryneandal 5y agoRe-watched the video I was misremembering, and they're iterating exactly what you mentioned. I learned more about Afghanistan from this than anything in the news for the past two decades -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab9zK8yT4_Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab9zK8yT4_Y
- bayesian_horse 5y agoAlso the win condition of the government and government forces was to keep order in all of Afghanistan, guarantee the rights of women, and generally promote economic progress. The Taliban's win condition was basically to inflict just enough damage the former condition would be impossible. Their troops are not far removed from criminals themselves: they loot, rape and torture.
- ryneandal 5y agoI mean, we've seen conclusively with leaks like Collateral Murder -- there are no winners in war.