What could have been
I think Afghanistan was the greatest loser of the Cold War. With Soviet help they'd likely have been modernized to level of the stan SSRs at least.
What could have been
I think Afghanistan was the greatest loser of the Cold War. With Soviet help they'd likely have been modernized to level of the stan SSRs at least.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
America tried for many years to modernize Afghanistan too. How did that turn out?
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
The destruction of ISIS and Al-Qaeda
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
Americans thought of them as brown Americans. That couldn't have ever worked. What they needed to do was find 50-100 people they could legit trust as characters, instead of relying on people with tribal connections like Karzai since those connections can only be maintained with intense bribery and nepotism that hollowed out the state from within(incompetent goatfrickers being given command of units and pilfering all equipment and money etc) and bomb to dust anyone that resisted them. The afghan people would have respected them, as they did the soviets. Remember, the commie regime in Afg outlasted the USSR itself. If they had kept getting supplies from Soviets they'd likely have held the cities and eastern areas indefinitely. Cause they built a primarily meritocratic system and so everyone from bureaucrats to army officers was invested in it actually surviving, because it was only option they had to be anything more than dirt farmers. The people living in the plains and cities of Afg have a permanent siege mentality with regards to the mountains barbarians, Soviets used this very effectively too. America's attempt at tapping into same power structures that supported Talibs just ended with them flipping back to Talibs the moment Americans left. They needed people at the top who had enough enemies on the other side defecting wouldn't be an option.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context
More options
Context