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Afghanistan update

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Two stories struck me. The first is from the Wall Street Journal, that well known extreme leftist media outlet. Note the comment about girl's education and hijab. Compared to 2001, this is dramatic. Trump lovers will no doubt hate what the second story had to say about Trump's negotiation with the Taliban.

Many in Rural Afghanistan Welcome an Unfamiliar Peace After Taliban Victory
...
“In the past, we couldn’t go outside after 5 or 6 p.m., we were afraid. We didn’t know who were our enemies and who were our friends,” he said. “Now, we have freedom. The democracy has ended.”


As in many Afghan villages, some of Mr. Momand’s neighbors have served in the Afghan army and police, while others joined the Taliban. The Taliban have proclaimed an amnesty, and some of these former soldiers have been back to their homes after Aug. 15. “We’re Muslims, humans and Afghans, our hearts are wide enough,” said Mr. Khan, the village elder. “We forgive them all.” The men, he added later, didn’t stay long and have since left for Kabul.


Mr. Usmani, the district’s military commander, said the Taliban’s focus in Baraki Barak would now turn to improving schools, providing better healthcare and rebuilding infrastructure. Schools for boys and for girls, closed earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, have reopened. Shops and businesses on Baraki Barak’s central road are open, too, including several barber shops whose billboards feature photos of Justin Bieber and Gulf music stars. Women are allowed to move around without a male guardian as long as they wear the hijab, Mr. Usmani said.


The biggest of Baraki Barak’s schools is located just a few hundred yards from the district headquarters, with girls studying in the mornings in one part of the compound and boys in the afternoons in another.

For some Afghan women, the U.S. and the Taliban are a problem

Since the beginning of the “Global War on Terror” in 2001, certain sectors of Afghan women at home and abroad have adopted an anti-imperial feminism that has fervently characterized both the United States and the Taliban as repressive and violent. For many of these women, the Taliban and the United States reflect two sides of the same coin. While the Taliban actively denies women their human rights, the United States has funded warlords who have gone on to do the same and actively resuscitated the Taliban’s power in the 2020 Doha negotiations.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
It is a disgrace.
This is why we don't do wanton destruction and invasion for something that wasn't even an act of war against a nation.
But nation building isn't good even when it is "successful." That was a massive driver of communist revolutions.
Who's going to be Uncle Sam's next self-created own worst enemy?
 

Kangaroo Feathers

Yea, it is written in the Book of Cyril...
Two stories struck me. The first is from the Wall Street Journal, that well known extreme leftist media outlet. Note the comment about girl's education and hijab. Compared to 2001, this is dramatic. Trump lovers will no doubt hate what the second story had to say about Trump's negotiation with the Taliban.

Many in Rural Afghanistan Welcome an Unfamiliar Peace After Taliban Victory
...
“In the past, we couldn’t go outside after 5 or 6 p.m., we were afraid. We didn’t know who were our enemies and who were our friends,” he said. “Now, we have freedom. The democracy has ended.”


As in many Afghan villages, some of Mr. Momand’s neighbors have served in the Afghan army and police, while others joined the Taliban. The Taliban have proclaimed an amnesty, and some of these former soldiers have been back to their homes after Aug. 15. “We’re Muslims, humans and Afghans, our hearts are wide enough,” said Mr. Khan, the village elder. “We forgive them all.” The men, he added later, didn’t stay long and have since left for Kabul.


Mr. Usmani, the district’s military commander, said the Taliban’s focus in Baraki Barak would now turn to improving schools, providing better healthcare and rebuilding infrastructure. Schools for boys and for girls, closed earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, have reopened. Shops and businesses on Baraki Barak’s central road are open, too, including several barber shops whose billboards feature photos of Justin Bieber and Gulf music stars. Women are allowed to move around without a male guardian as long as they wear the hijab, Mr. Usmani said.


The biggest of Baraki Barak’s schools is located just a few hundred yards from the district headquarters, with girls studying in the mornings in one part of the compound and boys in the afternoons in another.

For some Afghan women, the U.S. and the Taliban are a problem

Since the beginning of the “Global War on Terror” in 2001, certain sectors of Afghan women at home and abroad have adopted an anti-imperial feminism that has fervently characterized both the United States and the Taliban as repressive and violent. For many of these women, the Taliban and the United States reflect two sides of the same coin. While the Taliban actively denies women their human rights, the United States has funded warlords who have gone on to do the same and actively resuscitated the Taliban’s power in the 2020 Doha negotiations.
Afghanistan? That was, like, an entire news cycle ago! No one even knows what an Afghanistan is anymore.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Just let Afghanistan get on with being Afghanistan, run by the Taliban or not. If they're mostly happy now, let them to it.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Afghanistan? That was, like, an entire news cycle ago! No one even knows what an Afghanistan is anymore.
That I agree fully with.

*Don't suddenly fall down and hurt yourself cause I agree. I need to keep my various nemesis healthy on this forum to do battles with.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Just let Afghanistan get on with being Afghanistan, run by the Taliban or not. If they're mostly happy now, let them to it.
I agree but with concern to the fact that a terrorist organization now has been givin governmental power.

Not good imv.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
I agree but with concern to the fact that a terrorist organization now has been givin governmental power.

Not good imv.
I'd consider the CCP a terrorist organisation, tbh, as is usual with almost any communist government. I think we should watch closely but having direct interference has proven null at this point.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
I'd consider the CCP a terrorist organisation, tbh, as is usual with almost any communist government. I think we should watch closely but having direct interference has proven null at this point.
I consider the US government a terrorist organization armed with nuclear weapons, but there's nothing we can do about that.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
I consider the US government a terrorist organization armed with nuclear weapons, but there's nothing we can do about that.
Why do you hate the Anglo-Sphere or US and UK so much? I mean honestly, what is your problem?
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Why do you hate the Anglo-Sphere or US and UK so much? I mean honestly, what is your problem?
Please don't attribute emotions to me based on my political position. Not only is it rude to characterize a person you don't know like that, but it's also inaccurate.

I realize that I do not entirely live up to my own standards at times, but I try my best to judge people based on their individual merits, not based on where they are from or in what god they believe. Note that when I talk about my issues with the US, I try very hard to specify these as concerning the government, and never the people.

Fact is that the US government has used its towering military might to spread terror and misery all across the world, perhaps even more than any other nation since WW2 - certainly more than many of the "terrorists" you would like to see destroyed. Only, when the US government is killing people or destroying their livelihood, it is often framed as a valiant struggle for freedom, for the correct lifestyle, for the good of everyone.

This thread is about Afghanistan, a country that saw decades of war directly linked with US involvement in the region - first as the trainers and arms suppliers for the anti-communist forces that would later split into Taliban and Northern Alliance, then as arms suppliers for the direct supporters of the Taliban (Pakistan and the KSA, two close US allies in the region) and finally as invaders and occupiers, destroying countless civilian lives and ending tens of thousands.

EDIT: The Taliban are a horrible bunch by all accounts, but nobody on this forum or elsewhere on the Anglophone 'net will sing their high praises, but we still have people here on RF talking about the US military as "the good guys", because as we all know, the good guys only ever kill bad people (and all their civilian casualties are frequently framed as "terrorists", too).
 
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Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Please don't attribute emotions to me based on my political position. Not only is it rude to characterize a person you don't know like that, but it's also inaccurate.

I realize that I do not entirely live up to my own standards at times, but I try my best to judge people based on their individual merits, not based on where they are from or in what god they believe. Note that when I talk about my issues with the US, I try very hard to specify these as concerning the government, and never the people.

Fact is that the US government has used its towering military might to spread terror and misery all across the world, perhaps even more than any other nation since WW2 - certainly more than many of the "terrorists" you would like to see destroyed.

This thread is about Afghanistan, a country that saw decades of war directly linked with US involvement in the region - first as the trainers and arms suppliers for the anti-communist forces that would later split into Taliban and Northern Alliance, then as arms suppliers for the direct supporters of the Taliban (Pakistan and the KSA, two close US allies in the region) and finally as invaders and occupiers, destroying countless civilian lives and ending tens of thousands.
It just seems that every thread that is made criticising some government or other, your knee-jerk response is 'But the US!' or 'But Israel!'. But I suppose as a nationalist and a pan-Anglo nationalist, we're not exactly on the same page pretty much ever.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
It just seems that every thread that is made criticising some government or other, your knee-jerk response is 'But the US!' or 'But Israel!'. But I suppose as a nationalist and a pan-Anglo nationalist, we're not exactly on the same page pretty much ever.
I see nothing wrong with nationalist beliefs, provided no nationalist ever gets to be in a position of political or military power.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
I see nothing wrong with nationalist beliefs, provided no nationalist ever gets to be in a position of political or military power.
'I see nothing wrong with progressive beliefs, provided no progressive ever gets to be in a position of political or military power.'
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
'I see nothing wrong with progressive beliefs, provided no progressive ever gets to be in a position of political or military power.'
If that works for you, sure why not.

EDIT: I could of course try to convince you that nationalism is a genuinely dangerous ideology whose adherents, once in power, have initiated countless tragedies in the form of linguistic oppression, cultural assimilation, deportation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, but I don't expect you to buy any of my arguments or even listen to them to begin with, so I'm not going to waste my time with that.

Since I don't live in the US or the UK, all I can do is point out the failures of their governments and hope against hope that their majority population will eventually cotton to these things on their own.
 
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sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
No need to wait 3 months, they have already replaced the women's ministry with the ministry for the prevention of vice and promotion of virtue, and have not reopened secondary schools for girls;

Source:

Taliban ban girls from secondary education in Afghanistan

In my opinion

I'd say there's a struggle going on because we're seeing stories like the one you cited and other stories about girls in school and this one where a woman is still on TV:

Afghan TV host smiles at the camera even through fear
 
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