re: #92 theheat

You hit the nail on the head. Hard. After ten years, this? They behave like this? Sickening.

Well yeah.

Of course.

From a perfectly rational standpoint, and worse, from the standpoint of Afghanistan, which is not rational at all, the Afghans don’t figure as they owe us anything, or have any special relationship with us. We got rid of the Taliban? OK, they’ll be back, or more warlords will. The warlords who get the spaces the Taliban left behind may like us for making room at the table, but that will soon turn to ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately”. Women who remember the old days when you could wear Western clothes on the street may want us to stay, or little girls who like going to school, or old men who get food from a UN program, but they are not the people who control this society.

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, we are just one more invader. They never last long. We built them some shit—fine, the Soviets also built them some shit. (The Kandahar airport is a hilariously fine example of 1960s-era Soviet construction.)

We never had a deal with the Afghans. They never signed on to be part of a nation-building plan. Karzai and his minions may have said so, but that was mainly to get us to pay them.

We’ve been hosed, and we still don’t know Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden.

Rant over now.