Afghan culture and people

POSTED BY: dreamtrove
UPDATED: Sunday, August 30, 2026 16:20
VIEWED: 13932
PAGE 5 of 9

It's in the archives, I don't remember the title, maybe the original poster does. I'm not entirely sure that it was this year, but it wasn't too long ago. It could be that you missed it, but it also might have just predated you.

I have to say that myself I had some trouble being objective to Wulf which I feel bad about. I did try to encourage him to post on other subjects than race or 2nd amendment, and when he did, I answered them objectively, but when he posted on race or 2a, I did sort of *roll eyes* here we go again. So sure, everyone slips once in a while, but it's a goal to shoot for.

Mike just made a comment in a separate thread to the effect of "next election cycle" watch things flare up again. But so far it's been a better way to communicate, it was a good idea whoever had it. I find, even if it's someone I have issues with or completely disagree with, it help, because there's less hostility, and I think that actually has brought some old members back to the forum who weren't posting for a long time.

So, true, some people can continuously say things that you object to, but then, usually it's best to let it slide.

If I can think of a phrase posted...

First google attempt returned a thread by Pizmo on Jan 9, but that wasn't the one. It might have been Pizmo's thread...

Okay, google is being useless on the exact phrase match. I think they don't index them all.


Side issue:

This is just the sort of thing that prompts dicussions like the recent one about thread titles. Before that, thread titles were pretty random, and I'm not about to go through the last year of threads to see which one it might be, it probably doesn't have a descriptive name. All I'm finding on my google searches is references to it, but no link. It was a similar sort of thread to the one we just had about thread titles.

Anyway, it was a mutual agreement, but of course there are no rules here, people can troll endlessly if they want to, but thing did calm down a lot after that.

I'll give one scan through the archives

It's hopeless. A large organizational nightmare and 1000s of threads and I'm only back to mid november, nondescript titles, subject to change without notice. I just found other references to it, to the effect of "I do respond to the post" and "I try to respond to the post, but he always posts the same" so those comments clearly came after the original thread.

Anyway, if you find it let me know, but that was the general idea. I suggest trying it, leads to a more peaceful existence, and communication.


Oh, re mike's comment, cross thread here, I think that it was more of a madhouse at election time, but it had been a madhouse during much of the bush years. People have mellowed out a lot now.

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Thanks, Niki.

Thing is, I know more about that backwater stump of a country than I ever really wanted to, since I am involved in more machinations related to it than I am willing discuss here or anywhere else, and the reason for the latter is simple.

Sooner or later, as a sop to whatever puppet regime we try to prop up, the State Dept is going to get around to classing RAWA as a terrorist organisation, especially should they ever start takin any of my advice - and when that happens a lot of people who meant only the best are gonna fry for it, and I damned sure do not intend to be one of em.

You know what they say about no good deed goin unpunished, yes ?

Anyhows, heavens bless em, those girls could give the Taliban a couple points on stubborn.

They seem to think that if only they could get their message, their plight, out far enough, out wide enough, to many people or the right ones, make the world know - that folk would come to their assistance, and I did not intially have the heart to tell them, but eventually I did.

The world knows, such as it is, and.. they. do. not. care.
It's just that simple.

But of course, they don't wanna hear that, they don't wanna believe that, and so they don't - denying the bloody obvious in a fashion not all that different from the tribal elders who they decry, but it's a waste of time to point that out since it only gets you cussed out in Pashto anyways.

And yeah, they are stubborn as a goddamn donkey, not a ONE of em has ever taken my offer to pave the way into the US for em, they'd rather stay and "fight" the good fight, much good that it's done em so far.

They know all too well that my answer to the problem of jackass village elders is - no elders, no problem, yes ?
And for all that they do not care for what I say, they listen despite themselves - stubborn they are, stupid they ain't, and that's why someday those fundamentalist assholes are in a heap of trouble.

See, they do not want to kick off a social revolution with a bloody massacre, despite that being historically the ONLY way such changes ever have or ever will come to afghanistan, for a fact, and I would be more than happy to be proven wrong about it, but I kinda doubt it, you know ?

It wouldn't take half the effort outsiders would think, since logistically these villages have no way to support each other beyond throwing in with the roving warlords of what we mistakenly call the "northern alliance" and frankly they'd rather eat sand, shit bricks and die than do so, life ain't worth enough around there to put up with crap that would make it more miserable.

And they have ZERO air power or transport, none whatever, which under the right circumstances if they got their shit together, would be available to RAWA once a credible effort to clean house got rolling, and ground transport along with the fuel to use it would come right from the start, which would treble in effectiveness once the nomads (kuchies ?) saw which way the wind was blowing and decided to play along and be on the dishing end instead of the receiving end cause there is a little bad blood goin on there and it wouldn't take a whole lot - besides which they have an AWFUL dark sense of humor and would get a good belly laugh out of putting one in the ear of those asshats, all the while also laughing at their own folly in being something of traditional asshats themselves, albeit more tolerant ones, since all they really ask for acceptance is that you keep up and contribute your fair share of resources or effort - they'd not be happy with outside help, but once they saw which way that wind was blowin, well, "inshallah", right ?

Start from one end, and work to the other, systematically wiping out every male over the age of ten and burning the chadri? in a heap thereafter, and on to the next, and the next - ignore the cities since that isn't and never has been, where the real power in afghanistan lies, again, once they see which way the wind is blowin...

And a dark wind it would be, since bloody massacre is, unfortunately, the acce

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What did the Russians want with this place 30 years ago? What was their goal?

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Jong,

Russia has long had ambitions on Iran, The history of the two is actually interlinked: Parthians and Scythians are split more on a latitude than anything else. With the takeover of numerous parts of the former Persian Empire and a previous invasion of Iran, this is all fairly straightforward.

Immediately, they were in Afghanistan to prop up a collapsing communist govt.

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Quote:

---

Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Jong,

Russia has long had ambitions on Iran, The history of the two is actually interlinked: Parthians and Scythians are split more on a latitude than anything else. With the takeover of numerous parts of the former Persian Empire and a previous invasion of Iran, this is all fairly straightforward.

Immediately, they were in Afghanistan to prop up a collapsing communist govt.

---

Thanks for that Dream. When the US supplied weapons to the Mujahdeen to fight the Russians, they were not radical Muslims intent on Jihad against the West ( I saw Charlie Wilson's War ), so when did the fundamentalist Muslims, aka Taliban, arrive? And how long was the Taliban in power before Al Qaida found a home there? If we pull out of Afghanistan and the Taliban take power again, will this be a real threat to anyone?

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Lovely piece on the current military situation in Afghanistan, and the military future, in Slate this morning.

http://www.slate.com/id/2236148/

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JS, back when I was there it was also to keep a safe buffer country, they weren't out for conquest, just matched us in giving things to Afghanistan to keep us from getting a foothold...this was during the Cold War. Later it was as DT answered for me; to prop up a failing Communist government; again partly to ensure THEIR control of the country as opposed to anyone else's. Remember, the Afghan government INVITED them in, idiots—when we were there, the Shah knew who and what Russia was and never would have done so; he just played them against us, and kept our presence and friendship as a bulwark against an invasion. Everyone then knew one would come sooner or later.

I can't say whether DT's estimation is the whole answer or what I believe, but I don't think the initial invasion was a straightforward intent on conquest in the entire region, as they hadn’t made any attempt at occupying Afghanistan in all its previous history, or whether it was just because they saw their buffer state slipping out of their control. Tho’ he posted some time ago that “assume anything posted here is addressed to you unless it's obviously not”, he has information about Afghanistan that I don’t possess and our views differ on some things.

As to your questions, here's a brief history of the Taliban and Al Qaeda's beginnings and timeline, taken from several sources.

The mujahideen, various loosely-aligned Afghan opposition groups, initially fought against the incumbent pro-Soviet Afghan government during the late 1970s. At the Afghan government's request, the Soviet Union became involved in the war. The mujahideen insurgency then fought against the Soviet and Afghan government troops during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. After the Soviet Union pulled out of the conflict in the late 1980s the mujahideen fought each other in the subsequent Afghan Civil War.

The United States viewed the conflict in Afghanistan, with the Afghan Marxists and allied Soviet troops on one side and the native Afghan mujahideen on the other, as a blatant case of Soviet expansionism and aggression. The U.S. channelled funds through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to the native Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation in a CIA program called Operation Cyclone, as you know from Charlie’s War. The Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. With mujahedeen leaders unable to agree on a structure for governance, chaos ensued, with constantly reorganizing alliances fighting for control of ill-defined territories, leaving the country devastated. Toward the end of the Soviet military mission in Afghanistan, some mujahedeen wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world, such as Israel and Kashmir. A number of overlapping and interrelated organizations were formed to further those aspirations. One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda. So they were there first; the Taliban came later.

There was no such thing as a Taliban until the Afghanistan’s civil war in the wake of Soviet troops’ withdrawal in 1989. Hundreds of thousands of youths, who knew nothing of life but the bombings that destroyed their homes and drove them to seek refuge over the border, were being raised to hate and to fight, “in the spirit of Jihad,” a “holy war” that would restore Afghanistan to its people. They were schooled in Pakistan’s madrassas, religious schools which, in this case, were encouraged and financed by Pakistani and Saudi authorities to develop militantly inclined Islamists. Pakistan consciously intended to use the madrassas’ militants as leverage in its attempt to control Afghanistan. The Taliban’s most original aims were to “restore peace, disarm the population, enforce Sharia law and defend the integrity and Islamic character of Afghanistan.

The Pakistani intelligence ISI, the Pakistani military and Benazir Bhutto, who was prime minister of Pakistan during the Taliban’s most politically and militarily formative

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