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Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s. It has devolved into a paranoid backwater after decades of attacks, occupation and other meddling by

Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s. It has devolved into a paranoid backwater after decades of attacks, occupation and other meddling by external powers - first the USSR and then the USA. Let's recall that the Taliban were formed out of the [terrorists|freedom fighters] that were trained by the Pakistani ISI and financed by the CIA to undermine the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

w1ntermute 14y ago
> Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s. As was Iran. But they didn't get there because of Western intervention back then, and there's no reason to think that it would work now.
tokenadult 14y ago
Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s. I am old enough to remember the 1960s, and accounts from people who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960s, and I would like to see more evidence for this extraordinary claim. Until I see the evidence you kindly provide, I will be hard put to believe that "modern, progressive" is as appropriate a designation for Afghanistan at any time in the last 500 years as it has been for, say, Denmark all that while. AFTER EDIT: Thanks for the first reply from new user gongador linking to a photo essay I remember seeing not too long ago. I had that photo essay in mind as I described "Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s" as an extraordinary claim, as I think the photo essay shows by concentrating its description of Afghanistan only on the largest urban center of the country, rather than the rural countryside seen by other travelers. The majority of the population of Afghanistan have never lived in Kabul, and illiteracy has always been high there, especially among girls and women.
- gongador 14y ago
  Here's one viewpoint: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a...
  - gongador 14y ago
    I agree, it's hardly representative of the whole country, which is why I referred to the photo essay as a viewpoint rather than claiming that (the whole of) Afghanistan was a modern progressive country in the 1960s. I have no knowledge of what life in Afghanistan was like in the 1960s, I just remembered reading this essay and looking at the photos some time ago. If I recall history lessons from school correctly, customs and habits formed by a country's elite (most often in the country's capital) tend to spread and be mimicked around said country. I wonder what life in rural Afghanistan would have been like today had not the USSR and the USA got involved. EDIT: Sigh, this should have been an edit in my previous comment of course.
- batista 14y ago
  >I am old enough to remember the 1960s, and accounts from people who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960s, and I would like to see more evidence for this extraordinary claim. Go read some books then. That they had religion and that they didn't had rock n' roll and modern luxuries didn't mean they were not a progressive, tolerant country compared to what it has become today. It's not about literacy and poor living in villages either. It's about living in a tolerant go-about-your business place and a civil-war/starvation/religious nuts running the show place.

w1ntermute 14y ago

> Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s. As was Iran. But they didn't get there because of Western intervention back then, and there's no reason to think that it would work now.

tokenadult 14y ago

Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s. I am old enough to remember the 1960s, and accounts from people who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960s, and I would like to see more evidence for this extraordinary claim. Until I see the evidence you kindly provide, I will be hard put to believe that "modern, progressive" is as appropriate a designation for Afghanistan at any time in the last 500 years as it has been for, say, Denmark all that while. AFTER EDIT: Thanks for the first reply from new user gongador linking to a photo essay I remember seeing not too long ago. I had that photo essay in mind as I described "Afghanistan was a modern, progressive country in the 1960s" as an extraordinary claim, as I think the photo essay shows by concentrating its description of Afghanistan only on the largest urban center of the country, rather than the rural countryside seen by other travelers. The majority of the population of Afghanistan have never lived in Kabul, and illiteracy has always been high there, especially among girls and women.

gongador 14y ago
Here's one viewpoint: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a...
- gongador 14y ago
  I agree, it's hardly representative of the whole country, which is why I referred to the photo essay as a viewpoint rather than claiming that (the whole of) Afghanistan was a modern progressive country in the 1960s. I have no knowledge of what life in Afghanistan was like in the 1960s, I just remembered reading this essay and looking at the photos some time ago. If I recall history lessons from school correctly, customs and habits formed by a country's elite (most often in the country's capital) tend to spread and be mimicked around said country. I wonder what life in rural Afghanistan would have been like today had not the USSR and the USA got involved. EDIT: Sigh, this should have been an edit in my previous comment of course.
batista 14y ago
>I am old enough to remember the 1960s, and accounts from people who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960s, and I would like to see more evidence for this extraordinary claim. Go read some books then. That they had religion and that they didn't had rock n' roll and modern luxuries didn't mean they were not a progressive, tolerant country compared to what it has become today. It's not about literacy and poor living in villages either. It's about living in a tolerant go-about-your business place and a civil-war/starvation/religious nuts running the show place.