Remember when the Afghan people had a phenomenally well equipped and well trained army, and then they just gave up inside a week because things were “hard”?
Like if you don’t give a shit…no one is going to give a harder shit about you than you will.
Yeah man, I feel sorry for the people who will have to live under the fucking Taliban, but we've spent way too much time, money and blood on Afghanistan already.
We shouldn't have been there in the first place, but for them to just instantly roll over to the Taliban... Just compare it to Ukraine, where they are fighting for their lives and freedom against a much more powerful enemy.
It's long past time for Afghanistan to deal with their own problems.
Yeah, like what do they expect? Another foreign military intervention?
That will not happen again for decades at best. Longer if all the developed nations really learn from America's mistake this time.
Sure, we can sanction them, but any aid just gets intercepted, so that's out. It sucks so many Afghans are suffering under the system, but it's the system they let happen. Did they want to be an occupied country forever? Was this a fight America was expected to wage indefinitely? Twenty years was already too long.
They should have trained the Afghani women who have an actual reason to fight against the Taliban, instead of the lazy men who instantly capitulated.
I wonder if it was "hard" or "I want the Taliban to take over." There's probably a decent amount of people in that area that can fundamentally agree with the Taliban. it's a religious and oppression group. If you're ideologically aligned with the Taliban, and male, you're probably either as good or better of under them.
Not saying this is everything but I imagine there's at least some people who are ok with the new government, mostly because they don't care about others over their own self.
First of all, none of these women were in that army so painting this as the consequences of their actions seems a bit dishonest.
Second, I remember when they were alleged to have a phenomenal army but it turned out most of that was on paper not real.
The facade crumbled.
I'd have more sympathy for the people of Afghanistan if they had actually fought back against the Taliban.
People say that America lost in Afghanistan, but we were basically the only thing propping up democracy. The people themselves made no effort.
At some point, the people of Afghanistan should be able to take control of their own country. How can a vast majority of the people sit there and let a tiny percentage dictate the lives and rules for everyone? Kick the Taliban out of your country.
The problem is that the Taliban have popular support. The media don't want to report it, but this is a society where public life has always been under the purview of men, it's a largely Muslim country, very rural, and the alternative power centers there are chock full of child molesters and corrupt individuals. The Taliban, despite their strong ideological position, has a lot going for them. They're not taking bribes to sell out their values. They're capable of maintaining stability. Even if people disagree with some or other things about them, theyre better than the alternatives. Fact is, they're in power there because they're the only organization capable of holding power there.
No shit. The second we left they fell apart. No resistance.
As far as I'm concerned we should only help those that help themselves, like Ukraine is doing. Afghanistan has always been Taliban simps. Those women know where their men sleep and have knives ffs.
The problem is that “the people of Afghanistan” don’t see themselves as a united people. Regional and tribal ties are far, far stronger in the region than any true sense of national identity outside of “let’s cooperate just long enough to kick these fucking foreigners out”. Immediately after that’s accomplished, the region regresses into very old-school power politics and warlord fiefdoms. This has happened twice now in the space of 50 years. The truly galling point, though, is that US leaders and officials should have known this… but there were effectively zero coherent plans to handle that aspect of the occupation.
You aren’t forgotten. US and allies accepted the decision that was made within a week of us leaving. The country, as a whole, collectively chose the easy route of Taliban rule. That decision has consequences.
Yeah, I mean, we were over there for well over a decade trying to fix that shit and the country as a whole just did not want to change, so we gave up and left. It was a giant waste for everyone involved.
We spent twenty years fighting their battles for them, $2.3 trillion spent helping build up their infrastructure, supplying them with weapons and training, and trying to help them build a legitimate democratic government. After all our efforts, expenses, and American lives lost, it took the Taliban just ten days to retake the entire country. Freedom can't be given it has to be won, and frankly they weren't willing to fight for theirs... and I say this as a disabled combat veteran who lost dozens of friends to this conflict either in combat or to their own hands once they returned home. What a waste.
To be fair Russia, the UK and the US also took turns totaly destroying the country for the better part of the last century. We can't give them their freedom back on a plate but we shouldn't forget that we're also the ones that took it away. That money and those lives weren't some kind of gift they were an attempt to undo the collective damage we've done. Well the American/British money and lives, pretty sure Russia didn't give a crap.
Wow I'm american and this is some american kool aide if I've ever seen it. The Taliban is evil but the framing of the invasion and occupation as some noble humanitarian effort is like newsmax propaganda.
IDK exactly what the "world" can do here. The Taliban is the legit government of Afghanistan now (well, maybe legit should be in quotes). Do people want another war to take out the Taliban? That didn't go so well the first time. And there are already sanctions on the Taliban's government but other countries are still willing to trade with them.
I don't see any international fix working here. There needs to be internal change. Whether that's reform, coup, or whatever.
There was an attempt at nation building and it didn't go well. Afghanistan and the Middle East is a culturally complicated place, it's mostly tribes and smaller villages with a lot of history. It's hard to point fingers at the US for leaving when a decent chunk of the country either didn't care, or didn't want them there anymore.
Even if the US intentions were good (and they were not great, basically being revenge for 9/11), who wants to be ruled by a foreign invader?
If some alien superpower invaded the USA tomorrow, gave them free healthcare, 40 days holiday a year from work, legalised abortion again and mountains of affordable housing in the places people actually wanted to live, they'd still fight back. Even if it meant things going back to how they were before.
Bold of you to think people would fight back against that lol.
That actually sounds incredible
I mean, literally any other country in the world is welcome to step in and fix it. Imagine the bragging rights at the next UN summit. "We fixed Afghanistan!" No? No takers? Alright.
Can't believe the victim blaming going on in this thread. What the fuck? You people can't understand that ordinary people didn't want to rise up and risk their lives? They weren't asking for help from citizens of other countries like them, they were asking for help from other militaries since their own failed them. Yet, the people are to blame? How is that a popular opinion? The complete lack of empathy from the privileged is alarming.
Gotta love all the 'muricans trying to defend their exceptionalism and blaming Afghanistan and its people for the country's woes.
USA never cared about Afghanistan or its people. In the 1980s, it, along with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and United Kingdom, helped fund the muhajideen fighting against the Soviet Union (Soviet-Afghan war). As soon as the war was over and the soviets retreated, the funding dried up.
After 9/11, USA went into a bloodlust, invading Afghanistan because they (Taliban) wanted proof that Osama bin Laden was involved with the terrorist attack first. bin Laden fled to Pakistan, but the USA didn't invade them, nor threatened to. Instead, USA just kept their boots on foreign soil because, hey, free real state and cheap poppy, amirite?
Also, since at least 2010, it's been publicly known that Pakistan has been helping the Taliban in fighting for Afghanistan. Yet, there were no sanctions, no tough talks, no threats, nothing, against Pakistan.
What do they expect? Permanent US occupation? If they really expect that, then they're going to need to make themselves a US territory or deal with themselves.
Damn, a lot of "Fuck Afghanistan, hoo rah America is great" kinda vibes in here :-/ I left Reddit to get away from the constant USA Defaultsm nonsense...
Yes, let's ignore the most important issue - people are suffering and as decent humans we have a duty to them, when we can instead use it as an excuse to point out how much better Americans are at being a country, etc etc :-(
Not to be a dick but if they don't like it they could do something about it themselves. Hoping that "the world will do something" rarely has good results.
The world spent trillions of dollars and thousands of lives to help you. It didn't take.
When externals were (unsuccesfully) trying to change something in the country, it was a total bust. I read in these comments that intentions were not pure from America, and I can imagine that. I also saw interviews with US military personal after they came back from Afghanistan, who seemed to genuinely want to help, but had to deal with a lot of corruption, low education, internal theft and child abuse (Bachi Bazi). Now no one is helping, and even though I'd like for the local population to live free lives, I don't even know how one would start to help. The Taliban will just hide and guerilla it's way back after occupation has dissapated. It seems like a real life Kobayashi Maru situation. No winners, only losers here :(
Jfc, the comments here are disgusting.
As if this is the first time an imperial superpower has intervened so heavily in a country and then backed the fuck up once there was no profit left to be made and left the locals to go fuck themselves.
And yet fuckers whose only knowledge of the situation over there comes from their biased racist google search abilities, and who not only would, without a shadow of a doubt, run and hide and piss themsleves if they ever encountered any situation a tenth as threatening as Afghan people have had to put up with, but probably end up joining the oppressive force because that's what people with tiny fragile egos tend to do - seek ways to abuse others, get to sit here and judge those poor people who are nothing but pawns in a war for profit for "not helping themselves"?!
The fucking audacity of you fuckers is beyond belief.
I'd say go read some fucking history and educate yourselves about the hundreds of examples of how imperial and colonial powers have ravaged and then abandoned people all across the globe, but I honestly don't think it'd help people with their heads so far up their own asses that they actually think their ignorant selves are somehow qualified to pass judgment on these people's lives.
Afghanistan is full of a bunch of small tribes. They all hate each other and refuse to work together. Just go Google "dancing boy parties Afghanistan" you will quickly lose any sympathy for the people and culture. The US had to turn a blind eye to pedophile parties, which are a time honored tradition, in order to keep the peace.
The forces the US trained and equipped were basically the dregs of society that would be in prison in most countries. They would steal and sell shit to the Taliban. Claiming to have driven many miles on patrol to syphon and sell the gas was common practice. They sold the guns and trucks. There is no helping this country. It's going to be a shit show until they get past their tribal hatred and work together.
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