It's amazing how the west leaves their responsibilities after 20 years of war.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
78 points (97.6% liked)
News
23311 readers
4052 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Fighting for the Afghani people for 20 years, trying to teach them how to fight for themselves, and they still aren't fighting for themselves.
Nobody needed to "teach" them how to fight for themselves.
All the gd money spent on that shit would have been better spent rebuilding infrastructure, roads, markets, etc that Russia had destroyed. That's how you build goodwill vs creating more insurgents ... which is what happened instead.
America needs to dump its "great white saviour" complex.
The US was trying to rebuild infrastructure, the Taliban blew up a lot of it as a means to fight the US since the same roads can also deliver troops.
The US spent a very small portion of the $133+ billion dollars on infrastructure (which is not the same as their advertised 'restructuring' or 'reconstruction').
By some measures, life in Afghanistan has improved markedly since 2001. Infant mortality rates have dropped. The number of children in school has soared. The size of the Afghan economy has nearly quintupled.
but
... those interviewed said Washington foolishly tried to reinvent Afghanistan in its own image by imposing a centralized democracy and a free-market economy on an ancient, tribal society that was unsuited for either.
and
Congress and the White House made matters worse by drenching the destitute country with far more money than it could possibly absorb. The flood crested during Obama’s first term as president, as he escalated the number of U.S. troops in the war zone to 100,000.
It all failed because of
haphazard planning, misguided policies, bureaucratic feuding. Many said the overall nation-building strategy was further undermined by hubris, impatience, ignorance and a belief that money can fix anything. Much of the money, they said, ended up in the pockets of overpriced contractors or corrupt Afghan officials, while U.S.-financed schools, clinics and roads fell into disrepair, if they were built at all.
So money was being spent, but the US led coalition was trying to push change too much in the society, which fought back over several decades, and the USAl was bad at spending the money in Afghanistan? And it isn't like the US just left, but it was being pushed out both via a negotiated peace deal and eventually at gunpoint.
You can advocate to give aid to the Taliban government currently running Afghanistan, but it isn't like the US has the will or authority to do much more in the country currently.
The US was forcing/enforcing its own image on a sovereign nation who didn't need or want that ... just like they had so many times before. And it failed spectacularly like it had before.
Maybe next time they'll ask what help the people want and provide that instead ... but if Biden's demands on the Palestinian Authority are any indication, America hasn't learned anything from its failures.
It wasn't like the Taliban were asking for help in 2001.
I referenced 'the people' not 'the leadership'.
But you're going to have to go through the government if the help is against the wishes of it.
Why?
There are always other ways to get the required info, like asking the tribal leaders what help they and their people wanted and/or needed.
I get the impression there was nothing the US government could have done that would have satisfied you.
Fr. I think Afghanistan demonstrates that the desire for change needs to come from within a country because even if you have an imperialist force come in and nation build for 20 years, it won’t stick. The best you can do is try and educate people.