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--- overview_of_afghan_conflict [2022/11/06 12:44] – kc
+++ overview_of_afghan_conflict [2022/11/18 12:52] (current) – kc
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 The following graph, built on FDD's website, seems to indicate that the Taliban never stopped getting stronger despite efforts to counter it. A veritable leaning tower of Pisa of cards was created, and then at one crucial moment a card near the bottom was withdrawn and the whole thing collapsed.
-{{:graphoftalibantakeoverendgame.png?|}}
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+{{:graphoftalibantakeoverendgame.png?400|}}
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-{{:afghanistandynamics.png?600|}}
+{{:afghanistandynamics.png?400|}}
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 By going through FDD and other maps that give information in terms of colored district images and applying some digital technology, approximations of land amounts controlled or contested at various critical periods have been produced.This graph indicates a remarkable narrative.
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 {{ :2019-08-29.png |}} \
 {{ :2019-11-21.png |}} \
 {{ :2020-12-31.png |}}\
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-====ACCESS====
+====Summary Charts====
-{{:talibandynamics2.png?400|}}
+Two views on what happened to Afghanistan over the last two decades. The first chart depends on the first series of maps given above, and it appears to me to give an understandable narrative of how the Taliban emerged as winner. The second chart depends on the second set of maps given above, and it appears to be an overly optimistic view of the fortunes of Taliban and anti-Taliban forces. The reports had to conform more to reality as contested areas nominally recorded as being under government control were revealed to be certainly under Taliban control. The second chart is almost a perverse mirror image of the first. If one bases oneself on the second chart, it is more possible to view things in soft focus and claim that Afghanistan was in good shape until Biden became president. However, even the second chart shows things falling apart for the government during the Trump years.
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+{{:talibandynamics2.png?200|}}.....{{:dynamicsgilliam.png?200|}}
+----
+{{:inverteddynamicsgilliam.png?200|}}
+(Inverted image of the second chart.)
+----
+The moral of the story is that if you wear rose-colored glasses\\ you can't see the flashing blue lights of the police car bearing down on you.\\
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