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I think that the Afghanistan war/occupation is not discussed enough. Perhaps we are all so used to government failure that we just nod our heads and ignore what happened over there.
The US occupied that entire country for 20 years. It spent an estimated $2.3 trillion. When the US went in there, the place was controlled by authoritarian Islamists who oppress women. Today, the place is controlled by authoritarian Islamists who oppress women.
People's sense of what is important is so delusional sometimes. Here in the US, people often argue over minor issues like who gets to go into what bathroom, or whether there are enough strong women in television shows. Meanwhile, the US taxpayer spent $2.3 trillion on Afghanistan, there was a major opportunity to actually do some real feminism, to actually reshape Afghan culture to make it more liberal, and it just didn't happen. I'm not sure how much it was even attempted.
I get that the original reason for occupying Afghanistan was 9/11, but the US was in there for 20 years. There is no way you can tell me that you can't reshape a society of just 40 million people when you're there for 20 years, you spend $2.3 trillion, and you have overwhelming military force. Societies have been forcefully reshaped in the past and they will be in the future. Take Germany or Japan for example.
Did the US even try over there? Was the whole thing just an excuse to put taxpayer money into rich people's pockets? People just nod and smile about the whole thing, like "of course we spent $2.3 trillion and got nothing for it other than neutralizing Al Qaeda, that's just how the government works". It's kind of weird to me that there isn't more outrage about the whole thing. Neutralizing Al Qaeda did not use up 20 years and $2.3 trillion. One can argue about whether foreign interventionism and nation building is good or bad, and there are good cases to be made for both sides, but that's not really my subject matter. My point is that since there was a supposed attempt at nation building over there, we at least should have gotten something out of it. If the taxpayer supports you to the tune of $2.3 trillion, and you achieve no nation building after 20 years despite having overwhelming military force, then it seems to me that the taxpayer has been massively ripped off.
The Soviet-installed government had originally tried this back in the 1970s. From Wikipedia
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To be clear, the attempts to repress the reactionary violence against modernization was brutal enough that even the freaking Soviets thought it was too much.
You cut off "Some claim that" from the begining of the sentence, and the only source is a book by an American journalist written twenty years after the event is said to have taken place. Far from me being some Soviet fan, but a mass murder of such enormity requires a bit more evidence.
"The freaking Soviets" would go on to enact Loudness, Perestroika, and agree to dissolve in just a couple of years. The stereotype of ruthless invaders, who destroy everything and anyone whom they see as a threat, is based on Stalin, not every General Secretary. Hard to imagine Gorby ordering the Katyn Executions.
I do wonder how the Soviets of the latter-era Union felt about these kinds of extreme measures compared to the Soviets of Lenin and Stalin. This was the era of the Gerontocracy, men like Andropov were most likely alive to witness Stalin's regime. Then again, perhaps the gerontocrats were soft by comparison precisely because they were alive to witness Stalin's regime.
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