Why don't we learn from History ?

[Who2]

Kabul 1842....
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/H ... abul-1842/

[John Landon]

History lesson.

All empires come to an end after invading Afghanistan. Then there is those who think they know better.

[crewmeal]

Britain and the US should hang their heads in shame for pulling the rug from Afghanistan. We are no longer a trusted nation, we're shown as weak and our standing in the world has dropped. It makes you wonder if any nation would want to do business with the UK. That buffoon Boris should go before he does anymore damage to the nation.

[newcastle]

Britain and the US should hang their heads in shame for pulling the rug from Afghanistan. We are no longer a trusted nation, we're shown as weak and our standing in the world has dropped. It makes you wonder if any nation would want to do business with the UK. That buffoon Boris should go before he does anymore damage to the nation.

And what do you suggest was an alternative?

To continue, at vast expense, propping up a hopelessly corrupt administration, a country which supplies a good part of the world’s heroin? Sacrificing the lives of our soldiers?

In all likelihood, women will be excluded from any meaningful participation in society, a brutal form of Sharia law and punishment will be reintroduced ( although theTaliban have said otherwise)....but that’s what the majority of men ( not just Taliban) want in that benighted country. It no use the West trying to impose its ideas of democracy , human rights etc on a nation that doesn’t want or appreciate them.

We ( or rather the US) only went into Afghanistan to capture Bin Laden and clear out the assorted nests of terrorists based there. If they return....then we may need to return.

Unless, and until, that happens they’re best left to their own devices. If they choose a path abhorrent to the rest of the world, they will become , like North Korea, a pariah state.

But, like North Korea, they’ll find allies with the likes of China or Russia who, likewise, don't give a fig for democracy or human rights.

If history teaches us anything...and we wish to learn from history...then don’t interfere in Afghanistan.

[crewmeal]

And what do you suggest was an alternative?

A good question indeed which I doubt no one in this world can answer at the present time and I agree with everything you say. Having worked in Peshawar teaching English some 20 years ago, I've come into contact with the taliban spouting off their propaganda, which is the same is today as it was then.

Seeing thousands of Afghanis trying to flee Kabul including 2 that dropped out of the sky from a departing US aircraft horrifies me because these people know what's in store for them if they stay. No matter what any organisation such as the UN will alter anything, so we can now assume Afghanistan will go back to the dark ages.

What's going on at the airport defies belief.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... idges.html

What about the veterans who are asking was it all worth it??

[newcastle]

I agree that what is likely to happen....indeed may already be happening....is truly horrible.

But I fear trying to resist the Taliban, fighting for each town. would be far worse ....leading to massive destruction and thousands of civilian deaths.

Some problems have no solution and one is left with adopting the least bad course.

[John Landon]

The problem was, invading Afghanistan in the first place. The reasoning in that statement is written in the history books.

[newcastle]

The problem was, invading Afghanistan in the first place. The reasoning in that statement is written in the history books.

It’s been a temptation for US, ever since it became the world’s predominant power, to tell others how to run their lives. The sheer arrogance and effrontery of the proposal seems to have escaped them.

The invasion of Afghanistan was a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11.

The invasion of Iraq was based on a non-existent threat and a reaction to a regime which thumbed its nose at the great US.

North Korea stymied them courtesy of its Chinese allies and is now a nuclear armed state and too powerful.

Vietnam.....well......they just lost. Pretty dumb of the US not to realise they had a parallel situation developing in Afghanistan.

They need to learn that if you’re going to go into a country to remove a government with which you have a problem, then you need to ensure there’s something to replace it.....or be prepared to run the country yourself. Perhaps forever.

[Teddyboy]

"Some problems have no solution and one is left with adopting the least bad course."

Not wanting to drift the thread, but that's what happens when you vote in a democracy!

[newcastle]

"Some problems have no solution and one is left with adopting the least bad course."

Not wanting to drift the thread, but that's what happens when you vote in a democracy!

A tad cynical...but I know what you mean

And then the great unwashed have the nerve to complain when the government they voted into power screws up....and they’re stuck with it for several more years!