The entire Muslim world is NOT anti-West, no matter how it appears ... not yet, anyway.
andyt
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:35 pm
Didn't say it was. That doesn't mean that Astan would remain West friendly even if it was a reasonable democracy. And reasonable democracies in the Muslim world are in short supply.
Jabberwalker
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:41 pm
Pakistan will likely keep Afghanistan in their "sphere of influence" no matter what. We had a decade and a half opportunity to substantially improve the material situation of the Afghans and we came up pretty short. Had we succeeded, they would not look to Pakistan any longer. We failed badly at that and just poked away at helping one of the poorest places on Earth. We lost that major battle by being cheapskates.
andyt
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:46 pm
I don't think there was any way we could have done better on that front. The days of the Marshall plan are long over, and that was for a country that already had all the basics in place. Here you have a country that is between two states not friendly to the US, China and India are both jockeying for influence and the country is one of the most backward in the world with a very strong anti-west culture. Just face it, there was nothing to be done here. Kick the shit out of Al Qaeda, get Bin Laden (including going into Pstan if necessary) and get out. Just as with Ukraine, we can't fix or control everything. Never could, certainly can't now we're on the downslide.
Jabberwalker
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:49 pm
Karzai wants the rest of the Western armies out by Christmas. I wonder what he's smoking? He is in power ONLY because of that huge ISEF bodyguard. I wonder if he has already picked out his exile residence in Malibu, yet?
andyt
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:51 pm
Who knows. If he's planning on fleeing, why would he care if the armies are there or not. Guess he's delusional, or following somebody else's agenda. Probably the latter. Probably want to turn Astan into a proper narcostate.
Jabberwalker
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 3:53 pm
He might actually fancy himself to be a great leader of his nation. Most of the time, he's been the "Mayor of Kabul" and that's about it.
GreenTiger
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:44 pm
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
during the soviet occupation women enjoyed more freedom too....the irony
They did have more freedom under the Soviets rather than the Taliban.
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