I dont know what would it be like under the Soviets!, but all i know is if we didnt fight there wouldnt have been so much death and destruction almost all of them at our cost. that was a proxy war being fought in our expense and in our soil, thats why i say it was a mistake by us,. we never had an effective gov, not before the soviets and not after that and none of them were any dependent either. perhaps we would have been another satelite state like cuba, or poland, slovakia or another country, whatever you say,it would have been much better than dying. we fought the russians, but sadly we are not free, if we were free today or yesterday, i had never called that a mistake.
Well...I do.
I was in East Berlin when it existed, when the Cold War was in full swing, when Raygun was face to face with several Soviet leaders who kept dying on him. The difference between East and West Berlin was like night and day, feces and food, a blow-up doll versus a
menage-a-trois, etc...etc...I saw long lines for stale bread and waxy toilet paper. I bought a roll as a souvenir I kept to this day. Anyone ask I will bring it out to show the people how East German citizens wipe themselves. Compared to what I am used to, life under the Kremlin was the toilet, and that is being generous.
An effective government? Yes that is a worthwhile dream and goal. But do not confuse an effective government with a moral government and communism was a great immorality. Probably the greatest one yet mankind inflicted upon ourselves. The less autonomy an individual has because he is willing to cede certain rights and freedoms to the government in the hope that it will become an 'effective' government, the more oppressive that government will become in the interests of self preservation. Under communism, you are less than a slave, at least a master will recognize a slave's needs and interests. With communism, you are an object. Your humanity is insulted on a daily basis. Why do you think so many were willing to die in fighting against, and escaping from, communism?
But here is a provocative question for you...If you are willing to give up some rights and freedoms for stability and effective, read 'oppressive', governance, and have Afghanistan be a Soviet client state, then would you be willing to have Afghanistan be an American client state? Look at South Korea and Japan. You have access to a computer, I presume. Parts of that machine come from either or both of those countries. In order to have any form of governance, some rights and freedoms must be limited. If you are willing to
TRADE some rights and freedoms for stability but along with it -- an oppressive government, how willing are you to
LIMIT some rights and freedoms for stability, economic prosperity and political freedoms?
everybody has the right to worry about their interests, during the soviets invasion(the start point) people of afghanistan had a completely different opinion from pakistan, pakistan was considered a brother country and a muslim country(i say this because religion is so important to the poeple in that region), in this situation nobody can say that afghanistan was with the indians or russians because the public were against both of them and everything was in favour of pakistan. but pakistan started a game with us, the game of destroying afghanistan, they even planned to destroy ever infrastructure of the country through their agents and the direct involvement of isi and army, they were blowing up every bridge, school, hospital, culverts, and whatever they could find, they succeded in this plan largely. we were never their enemy and never considered ourselves their enemy, they split the resistance groups into 7 and used them all against each other and to their own benefit, and then they brought the taliban. if they had something good in mind, none of these would have happended.
In a way, Pakistan's response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was inevitable. Like biological organisms, political organisms are also interested in self-preservation, at the expense of the weaker organisms in the immediate vicinity if necessary.
A couple of jokes for you...If being chased by an angry bear, you do not have run faster than the bear. You just have to run faster than your companion. Or -- If you are scuba diving and meet a hungry shark, stab your dive partner and fin like hell...!!!
The jokes are very appropriate in the political realm. When political organisms are faced with existential threats from a larger and more aggressive political organism, they will seek out the weakest among them and sacrifice it for temporary respite until the beast is hungry again. The ME was facing a great threat -- The Soviet Bear -- and it just happened to trespass into Afghan territory. Ergo...Afghan soil will be the battleground. But if none is weaker than the other, like how NATO countries are, then you will have an alliance where everyone is morally responsible for the group's safety and survival. That is why alliances like NATO conditioned its members that an attack on one constitutes an attack on all. Was there such an understanding between Afghanistan and the rest of the ME?
and all of these guys were considered the good guys by americans when they were using them against the soviets, why suddengly a change of heart?
There is no way to confirm if these are the same that we assisted during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Everyone would love to believe that these are the same ones just so they can use them as a convenient rhetorical club against US.
Truth is that by the time the world know them as 'The Taliban', no one really know if these are the original
mujahedeens during the Soviet occupation. Of course some were the original, but Afghanistan's borders really do not exists, except on papers. Some returned to their home countries after the Soviet withdrawal. They believed their call to help fellow muslims have been satisfied. Some remained and became 'The Taliban' and the rulers of Afghanistan. So when 'The Taliban' allowed al-Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan and the result is the attack on US on Sept. 11, 2001. The Taliban naturally became our enemy.
everybody has a reason when they want to do something, but the question is whether if the reason is legitimate or not.
And that 'everybody' include US as well. I encourage you to question why are we in Afghanistan. Do not fall for the ridiculous argument that we are in Afghanistan for 'oil'. It is on public record that US oil imports are mainly from non-ME sources.
That is from 2009 and look how much we import from non-ME sources. So we can rule out the loony conspiracy theory that we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan 'for oil'.
The US conduct trade by ships and air. So we can rule out the idea that we are in Afghanistan for territorial gains for trade routes like how the British was a hundred and something years ago.
So what you do think we are in Afghanistan for?
i am not going to argue with you in every single thing and what happened in the past, but right now i say that anybody who believe in continouation of war in afghanistan is our enemy, no matter who. all we want is to stop this bloodshed no matter what happend in the past we have to have a fresh start. if the war continues, it will only serve the interest of the enemies of our country, coming to the negoting table, joining the political process, have their say instead of shooting innocent children and suicide bombing is the only answer. if they(taliban) are true sons of the country they will stop fighting for the sake of the country and its peopole. who is/was right and who is/was wrong today/yesterday doesnt benefit us anymore. and i didnt want to start all these but some replies made me make my points.
Understandably enough. The US is not interested in Afghanistan's past, only the present and the future. The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda safe sanctuary once. How do you or we know they will not repeat themselves? But right now Afghanistan is being used in a religious war against the US. We left Afghanistan alone before and we would do so again if we can be convinced that Afghanistan will not be used as the same platform like before.