You thought Bengozi was hard to see, look at this (Page 16/16)
rinselberg SEP 04, 08:51 AM

quote
Originally posted by 2.5:

Thoughts on this mans point of view?

Too long?... Try the last half...all the way to the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjJBKX3v8WQ

Personally I think what we were doing was keeping the fight over there, which was a good thing.



Just for the record, I did view that YouTube video, from 7 minutes in, to the end. I didn't have my speakers on. I used the Closed Caption option or "CC."

I won't say that I am "jazzed" by the idea of a kindler, gentler Taliban--"Taliban 2.0"--because I would rather have seen the Afghan national government hold on in Kabul, even if the entire remainder of Afghanistan yielded--as it has--to the Taliban.

I think as the coming days, weeks and months come and go, this story becomes less of a negative for the Biden administration's standing across the entire spectrum of U.S. public opinion and transnational or international public opinion, as well.

It's been reported that the Taliban actually helped some of the people who have been evacuated with their luggage at the entrances to the airport. (I wonder if they were tipped?)

I think we are going to see more tragic reports from Afghanistan, but on the whole, not as thoroughly tragic, disturbing or menacing (from a U.S. national perspective) as some here are seeming to predict or expect.

I think the U.S. (and even my very self, personally) have to rethink their ideas about "nation building" and "standing up democratic governance" in nations that are not in the Western-leaning tradition, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

BUT I don't think the 20-years of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan have gone completely down the drain. Afghans, particularly in Kabul, have had a taste of a more Western-aligned life and governance, and I don't think the Taliban can overcome that without accepting some compromises about individual and particularly women's rights and liberties.

I think it is also well to look at the other players here--the nations that are contiguous with or close, geographically, to Afghanistan. China in particular. I don't think the very authoritarian government of mainland China is going to be passive or cavalier about the possibility of Islamic radicalism under Taliban rule in Afghanistan adding any extra "octane" to the problems that the Chinese government already has with the Muslims (Uyghurs) in China's Xinjiang province.

Maybe I'm wrong. And then (maybe) someone down the line will remind me of this forum post, if I don't bring it up again myself.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 09-04-2021).]

sourmash SEP 04, 09:07 AM
Here, they have a federal court with 1 judge that overturns the will of the people by overruling State constitutions and State law that recognized marriage as only valid if between 1 man and 1 woman.

The Afghan people overruled the American government in rescinding their forced subversion of traditional conservative values.