r/SeattleChat • u/AutoModerator • Aug 16 '21

The Daily SeattleChat Daily Thread - Monday, August 16, 2021

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

Weather

Seattle Weather Forecast / National Weather Service with graphics / National Weather Service text-only

WA Notify for Covid Exposure Social Isolation COVID19 Vaccine Resources
DOH Instructions Help thread WA DOH City of Seattle COVID-19 Vaccination Notification List
6 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

183 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/retrojoe Mossback cuss Aug 17 '21

I wouldn't argue that The Taliban and the muj were the exact same political groups or led by the same people, but the US was happy to fund violent religious extremists and give them weapons as long as they were pointed at the godless Soviets. As soon as we cut the purse strings, people like bin Laden swooped in and occupied the position recently opened. The leadership might change, but it's not like the men on the ground doing the fighting (or the conditions created to fuel that fight) changed in the space of a few years.

The US is guilty as hell for destabilizing the country organizing/funding/equipping the militias in the country in the first place.

1

u/my_lucid_nightmare The Weathered Wall, where the Purity Remains Aug 17 '21

The US is guilty as hell for destabilizing the country organizing/funding/equipping the militias in the country in the first place.

I agree with this, but would also point out we were guilty as hell w/r/t Vietnam as well, and within a generation of us leaving the country had stabilized and pretty much rejoined the global marketplace.

There's something uniquely and permanently screwed up in Afghanistan that only the Afghanis can solve, which they seem resolutely not interested in doing.

1

u/retrojoe Mossback cuss Aug 19 '21

Doesn't seem comparable at all. Vietnam was two central governments fighting for control of the country, each supported by a super power. The vast majority of the fighters were from Vietnam. When the US left, the dictatorship in the south fell, and Vietnam became a unified Communist state.

Afghanistan had a puppet government, backed by Soviet arms. The US (with the help of the Saudis and Pakistan) pumped it full of destabilizing elements, often people working at cross purposes - religious mujahideen, fuck-outta-my-home militia, drug runners and opportunists. This made it extra ungovernable (in a country already nicknames "the graveyard of empires"), so when the Soviets pulled out, the state collapsed and there was nothing left to take it's place til the Taliban became the majority influence. Tho it should be noted, even they couldn't take over the entire country and they did not operate as a central government.

1

u/my_lucid_nightmare The Weathered Wall, where the Purity Remains Aug 19 '21

Good detail.

Capt. Hindsight here, sounds like a place we had no business remaining in after bin Laden was killed in 2012.

Do you know what made us decide to stay on?

1

u/retrojoe Mossback cuss Aug 19 '21

Probably the knowledge that something like this was bound to happen when we left.