Afghanistan in the 1950's and 1960's ..see the photos...probably not what you think...

Afghanistan, despite what we are told( that they have never made it out of the middle ages) , by the looks of these photos, was as developed as a lot of western countries.

after seeing these photos, I wonder if Afghanistan has been deliberatley held back by the west for decades with War to keep them from being masters of their own destiny...for what ever reason you wish to think of.

here are just a few images to give you the picture and something to think about. Please no Apologies for War, you sick units.








you can see more here.

Once upon a time in Afghanistan

Originally posted by 2theC
I wonder if Afghanistan has been deliberatley held back by the west for decades with War

It's been held back by the Taliban and the extremists. Does the West make sure that the women have their faces covered now a days? Or cant go to school? Or have the freedom that they once had?

How is it the West? Explain yourself.

I believe it's religious extremists that are holding it back...

Egads, They're normal ack, my brain it hurts us NOOOOO you msm liars!!!!

Sorry, I just couldn't resist that. It is definitely a different picture than the one painted today. We also have to realize that that was 60 ish years ago too.

reply to post by DaRAGE


Depends who you ask, I'm sure quite a few folks would tell you the American's helped arm and fund the Taliban at one point to tackle the soviets.

The Taliban didn't seize power over the majority of the country until 1996. There are loads of threads on ATS about all of this btw.

reply to post by DaRAGE

Afghanistan was not always a country totally dominated by warlords and reactionary Islamic fundamentalism. This brand of Islam was largely imported into the country as part of the U.S.-inspired, Cold War effort to defeat the Soviets. For a brief period, the country had a progressive, secular government which, according to University of Winnipeg professor John Ryan, "affirmed the separation of church and state, labour unions were legalized, health care and education became priorities, women were given equal rights, and girls were to go to school...A program was being developed for major land reform." That government was put in place following a 1978 military coup that removed an autocratic and unpopular president. Noor Mohammad Taraki, a Marxist (and a university professor, writer and poet) was asked by the army to form a government simply because the Marxists were the only ones who had an actual development program. Tragically for the Afghan people, however, the U.S. was not prepared to allow such a government to exist in the context of the Cold War. The U.S. used the CIA (and the assistance of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) "to provide military aid and training to the Muslim extremists, who became known as the mujahedeen and 'freedom fighters.'" Barely a year later Taraki and his closest associates were killed in another coup. It was after this that the Soviets invaded in support of the government.

source

pretty basic really. same old same old.

point is, western self interest puppeteering world politics in so many instances...

is that the end of the conversation?

ah well...

Iran Next for you War lovers...

Originally posted by DaRAGE

Originally posted by 2theC
I wonder if Afghanistan has been deliberatley held back by the west for decades with War

It's been held back by the Taliban and the extremists. Does the West make sure that the women have their faces covered now a days? Or cant go to school? Or have the freedom that they once had?

How is it the West? Explain yourself.

I believe it's religious extremists that are holding it back...

edit on 13-4-2012 by DaRAGE because: (no reason given)

And who armed those Taliban and extremists to fight the Russians?

Originally posted by getreadyalready
And who armed those Taliban and extremists to fight the Russians?

So hold on a second...

Because the US armed the Taliban to fight the INVADING Russians. It is now the "West's" fault for holding back Afghanistan, umm, how many years later?

Gimme a f'ing break.

The cold war was a long time ago.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year proxy war during the Cold war involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan[15] against the Afghan Mujahideen guerrilla movement and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen received unofficial military and/or financial support from a variety of countries including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Israel, Indonesia and China. The Afghan government, with the Soviet Union as its ally, received different aid from the government of India under Indira Gandhi. The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.[16] The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or "the Bear Trap".[17][18][19]

Originally posted by DaRAGE

Originally posted by getreadyalready
And who armed those Taliban and extremists to fight the Russians?

So hold on a second...

Because the US armed the Taliban to fight the INVADING Russians. It is now the "West's" fault for holding back Afghanistan, umm, how many years later?

Gimme a f'ing break.

The cold war was a long time ago.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year proxy war during the Cold war involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan[15] against the Afghan Mujahideen guerrilla movement and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen received unofficial military and/or financial support from a variety of countries including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Israel, Indonesia and China. The Afghan government, with the Soviet Union as its ally, received different aid from the government of India under Indira Gandhi. The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.[16] The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been referred to as the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" or "the Bear Trap".[17][18][19]

edit on 13-4-2012 by DaRAGE because: (no reason given)

So hold on a second....

The West propping up these Western Powers trained 'extremists' for Cold War Soviet fighting purposes that we then invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 in the guise of fighting these Western Powers trained 'extremist' that we the USA helped bring to power to then go on to Tyrannically rule Afghanistan is not reason enough to logically realize that YES the West played a hand in holding back Afghanistan from being able to grow?

Am I getting your stance on this right?

Whoa wait who's one of the Worlds biggest Opium producers?

Wait isn't Opium a main ingredient for Heroin?

Isn't Heroin a cash cow for the black markets?

Weren't the British Royals at one time major consumers of that Opium but then lost that?

Who controls the drug trade now making billions from it and the main reason certain things remain Illegal? Couldn't be the CIA who helped train these 'extremist' could it be? Nah.

Uh oh! Who sits on vast resources to the North? Couldn't be Afghanistan could it? Nah

U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists.

Well isn't that convenient a 'Small Team at the Pentagon' not like they could've known that long before it was 'officially' discovered

Uh oh! Now what do we do with this 'tribal' nation with so much resources to mine? They don't have the knowledge, expertise, or equipment to mine all that precious stuff? Good thing they are just a Tribal nation and not modernized like us because......

I've got a brilliant idea! How about we contract out to our mining corporations to do the job for them and hire a bunch of Afghan civilians to do all the labor and for being so gracious to offer this help we'll sell it all and give the Afghan Government we put in power a % of what we sell so that they can 'spread the wealth' to the Afghan people lol. Great idea isn't it? After all we did invade them to help topple oppressive rulers we helped bring to power....

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

I think we have a winner for the question of who would have more to gain by holding Afghanistan back to just a 'tribal' controlled Nation and not a modernized one.

Unless you've been living in a cave with those 'extremists' trained and funded by Western Powers, the writing is on the wall for all to see and understand, but only a brainwashed dope would deny it.

I guess what peeves me the most is that we are led to believe, unless we look deeper , that the afghans are a people that never really progressed much as a society.
You may say well that is not what you believe but it it what a lot do.
If we believe they are stuck in the dark ages then it makes everything almost ok, because they can only get better with the West's intervention
but the West usually has only one thing in mind...profit.
so that peeves me.
so when you see a society that was embracing new developments eductaing their men and women , as you see in the photos, only to be decimated to the situation they are in now, with only the words Taliban to be the cause its sh&* me.
Multiple Causes and one big one is the West's antagonistic approach to the "anti Captilist" ideals of the soviets and anybody else. The Cold War was a contributer to the problems and the West was a Major contributor to the Cold War.
Yeah it takes two to Tango, but who profited the most?