Astonishing Pictures Of Afghanistan Before The Wars

And women were highly educated - imagine that. Most of the Doctor's, Dentists, all professions were women. Imagine how that 'helped the country' when the Taliban (regardless of backing) forced women there back into the dark ages.

Something I never hear about - The Poppy Fields. I imagine they are abundantly producing and funding the CIA. Never mentioned.

Chamberf=6
I agree to a point, but I'm not sure "we" are responsible for the disappearance of universities for women or the (un-pictured) destruction of Buddhist images carved in mountainsides.

Quite so. I'm sure that Muslim fundamentalists and the Taliban had plenty to do with the eradication of evil Western influences and a return to the comfortable Stone Age. We went in to help stop wholesale slaughter, and are still trying. But it's a long fight, and we're not done yet. Hopefully, once the fighting is over, they can rebuild.

I'm not tremendously hopeful, though. Fundamentalist Muslim extremism is spreading, not fading away.

reply to post by iRoyalty


There are many parts of Afghanistan that still have the glimmers of modernization. I fly over it everyday.

Kandahar has a vibrant mining industry and farming communities surround the city.

Tarin Kowt, while remote, has a BIG farming community that feeds much of the south central Afghan nation.

Lashkar Gah is starting to build up again. The markets are always busy and the housing market is starting to modernize. The days of the mud-brick shelters are beginning to disappear.

Kabul has a massive industrial base, massive farming in the outskirts and a housing market that would make the US jealous.

They are building and it shows. I see it everyday. As a matter of fact, when I first arrived in Afghanistan I was very surprised to find any such things here. By all accounts including here on ATS, these people all live in mud huts and caves. That is simply not true.

Kabul until the mid 70ies, was called "the Rio de Janeiro of the Orient", all kinds of western celebs hung around there... you could see girls wearing mini-skirts and smoking cigarettes on the streets... it s a shame what both soviet and modern imperialism have done to this country... Iran pre the CIA backed coup was exactly the same...

reply to post by iRoyalty


Wow just based on the first pair of pics in your OP, wow. I'll be checking them all out at the link shortly. What is a bit scary is my response to your statement at the end regarding it being no wonder they fight back - I wonder if they still know. Heck, anyone under 40 only really knows through faint childhood memories at best, or secondhand accounts.

I say scary because they probably can never go back, even if left in peace, the indelible scars of decades of war will always affect them, and closer to home...it could happen anywhere. The relative paradise you're fighting for becomes a fight for survival, a fight for vengeance, and when it's all over, most of a population will know little, if anything of the world before.
Extremely sad, and I hope their is some kind of pain reserved for the perpetrators, not the pawns, in this life or the next, while I sincerely hope they and others who have gone through wars can find their way back someday. War certainly has never begat love.

Plugin

jaffo
reply to post by Plugin

 

To be fair, we went into Afghanistan to go after OBL. That much is plain and clear. And we got out as soon as we could. There was no "spin" to it. We asked them to turn him over and they refused. And it was not just the U.S. who went in. We had allies who also supported our cause. Just saying.

Right, as bush said he didn't cared 1 bit about Bin Laden. So how you explain Iraq with the same logic?
No Bin Laden there.. Sure but it helped to sell the war(s), that's for sure.

And yes allies supporting, not much but still you right, ass kissers.. but maybe they get wiser, they should be by now.

And getting out of Afhanistan as soon as possible?? they still there today as far as I know and longer then even WWII.

listen carefully from 30 secs to 50. should tell you something.

edit on 14-1-2014 by Plugin because: (no reason given)

What does Iraq have to do with this thread or with Afghanistan. Please stay on point. Thanks much.

Thank you.

Xtrozero
We didn't invent the Jihadist...that would be like saying we invented the Muslin religion...

Of course we didn't, but we empowered them.

I would personally prefer the soviets over the jihadists. You've seen what the Jihadists do and whilst the soviets aren't great they are 100% the lesser of two evils.

All the womens rights taken away, the suicide bombers... we helped push for that by giving them support, our support for them is not a hidden thing, we added petrol to the fire. Anyone who says NATO countries have 0 involvement in the current state of affairs is blind. (not a personal stab at you my friend)

Interests in the area have peaked world attention over the past 30 years. They have TRILLIONS of dollars worth of minerals, natural gases, oil and of course opium (you are naive to think the someone will leave opium which is valued at one trillion dollars in Afghanistan).

The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year.

According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess “previously unknown” and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively to be of the order of one trillion dollars (New York Times, U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, See also BBC, 14 June 2010).

Source

Governments don't care about right or wrong, black or white, they only care about GREEN. Money keeps them in power, money keeps their enemies at bay and their populations QUIET... Just like any good business (which countries ARE, perhaps not in the same sense as normal companies) they still have one direction the the 'CEO' must take, this is to expand. A resource rich country would certainly help, and we definitely couldn't leave it in the hand of the soviets could we??

Look up proxy wars, we have been fighting them since WWII.

jaffo
What does Iraq have to do with this thread or with Afghanistan. Please stay on point. Thanks much.

That we used Afghanistan to invade Iraq, as long as we don't spiral off and start a conversation about Iraq I think it is still quite relevant.