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> How did a government with 350,000 soldiers, trained and equipped by the best armies in the world, collapse so quickly? A better question: how did the (arguab

by aazaa 5y ago

> How did a government with 350,000 soldiers, trained and equipped by the best armies in the world, collapse so quickly? A better question: how did the (arguably at this point) most powerful country on earth fail to understand even the most basic principles of life in Afghanistan and why any counterinsurgency effort, no matter how well-funded and armed, must ultimately end where it has? And even worse, why did this country not learn exactly the same lesson 50 years ago?

ohmysoks 5y ago
Having soldiers deployed to a country for 20 years, yet barely any interest in learning the local language and customs just shows arrogance. The kind that leads to hate i presume since day one they left all tribes turned against the us. Sending illiterate midwest boys to fight illiterate mideast boys doesn't win wars it would appear, nor do pompous speeches about democracy and equal rights when at home the wrong race can get you killed. Instead, sending hordes of goats, agriculture tools, building irrigation systems, and generally speaking showing them what the alternative to their current lifestyle is may have won the war. But you know, deluding one selves with statements such as “the most powerful country on earth” show an utter lack of understanding of one’s position. Richest? Yes, for now. Most powerful? Well, recent events in ag, a failed coup in the us, a barely winning fight against a pandemic and the many examples of rampant corruption puts some serious questions over that tag. Certainly the us cant protect those working for them, such as translators and local allies, let alone defend the status of “mOsT pOwErFuL” country. The us needs to spend some time reflecting over its past decades because other than debt and wall street shares not much is going up - not its reputation nor its ability to actually win wars. Edit: imbeciles censoring harsh truths.
LatteLazy 5y ago
They did understand. The agreement with the Taliban includes the assumption they'll be running the country. It requires them to do the sorts of things governments do like issuing visas and being responsible for the whole place. Now, after the agreement made months ago, and unanimously supported by the UN security council, everyone wants to pretend this wasn't part of the plan.
- dandotway 5y ago
  +1, this is the text of the February 2020 deal signed between the USA and Taliban which stipulates full removal of all USA troops: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-F... Reading between the lines, the USA is shifting focus to 'containing China', and now the USA and China are competing over who the Taliban will have better relations with given that Afghanistan shares a 47-mile border with China that leads into Uygur Xinjiang where the Communist Chinese are putting Uygur Muslims in "Re-education through labor"[1] camps. Thus China has already been courting the Taliban[2] in hopes of preventing, say, the CIA from supporting the Taliban in a proxy-insurgency along the Xinjiang border, just as the CIA supported the pre-Taliban Mujahedeen against the Soviets in the 1980s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labor [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/asia/china-taliban-afghanistan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/asia/china-taliban-...

by aazaa 5y ago

ohmysoks 5y ago

Having soldiers deployed to a country for 20 years, yet barely any interest in learning the local language and customs just shows arrogance. The kind that leads to hate i presume since day one they left all tribes turned against the us. Sending illiterate midwest boys to fight illiterate mideast boys doesn't win wars it would appear, nor do pompous speeches about democracy and equal rights when at home the wrong race can get you killed. Instead, sending hordes of goats, agriculture tools, building irrigation systems, and generally speaking showing them what the alternative to their current lifestyle is may have won the war. But you know, deluding one selves with statements such as “the most powerful country on earth” show an utter lack of understanding of one’s position. Richest? Yes, for now. Most powerful? Well, recent events in ag, a failed coup in the us, a barely winning fight against a pandemic and the many examples of rampant corruption puts some serious questions over that tag. Certainly the us cant protect those working for them, such as translators and local allies, let alone defend the status of “mOsT pOwErFuL” country. The us needs to spend some time reflecting over its past decades because other than debt and wall street shares not much is going up - not its reputation nor its ability to actually win wars. Edit: imbeciles censoring harsh truths.

LatteLazy 5y ago

They did understand. The agreement with the Taliban includes the assumption they'll be running the country. It requires them to do the sorts of things governments do like issuing visas and being responsible for the whole place. Now, after the agreement made months ago, and unanimously supported by the UN security council, everyone wants to pretend this wasn't part of the plan.

dandotway 5y ago
+1, this is the text of the February 2020 deal signed between the USA and Taliban which stipulates full removal of all USA troops: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-F... Reading between the lines, the USA is shifting focus to 'containing China', and now the USA and China are competing over who the Taliban will have better relations with given that Afghanistan shares a 47-mile border with China that leads into Uygur Xinjiang where the Communist Chinese are putting Uygur Muslims in "Re-education through labor"[1] camps. Thus China has already been courting the Taliban[2] in hopes of preventing, say, the CIA from supporting the Taliban in a proxy-insurgency along the Xinjiang border, just as the CIA supported the pre-Taliban Mujahedeen against the Soviets in the 1980s. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-education_through_labor [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/asia/china-taliban-afghanistan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/asia/china-taliban-...