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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2917 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 20, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Yes, the old govt sucks. And yet the Taliban are far worse. As they were when last they were in power Every day they were out of power was a good day for Afghans.

The Hanania tweets back up both my specific points and my general argument that it was a gigantic tragicomedy.

Whether it was a tragicomedy is not the issue we are discussing. You cited them for a very different claim.

If General McNeil didn't know what he was supposed to do, how can we say that we have a better understanding of what the war was officially about?

I don't understand what that is supposed to mean.

The ostensible freedoms Afghans had under the old government are irrelevant given how corrupt and incompetent it was. The Taliban at least have some degree of popular support and accountability. Their victory should lead to the development of a functioning political system, which opens up the possibility of reform in the future.

Quite frankly, political rights are not as important as institutionalized rape of children. Under the old regime they barely had any meaningful political rights anyway, everything was so corrupt. What is the point of voting on which brigand runs the country? And who cares if Freedom House's index of political rights falls 17 points from 27 to 10? Would you rather live in 'unfree' China or 'free' Ghana?

Furthermore, I cited two tweets showing primary sources where General McNeil says he was not given any clear strategy on what he was supposed to do. This is obviously relevant to my claim that the US did not know what its goals were. If they knew what they wanted in a specific concrete sense, somebody would have told McNeil. There would have been some kind of strategic plan to win the war. If you disagree, please explain rather than saying 'those Hanania tweets do not say what you think they do'.

The Freedom House rating includes both civil liberties and political rights, so I don't know why you are only talking about political rights. I find it a bit disingenuous.

As for General McNeil, the tweet quotes him as saying that he was given "little strategic guidance." That is a far cry from saying that he was unaware that the basic goal of the war was to support the current government, keep the Taliban out of power, etc. The idea that, because he said he got little strategic guidance, therefore "we [can't] say that we have a better understanding of what the war was officially about" is just silly.

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