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=====Gleanings=====
===Quora===
James Cheatham
Former MSgt at U.S. Air Force (1990–2012)1y
==Who destroyed Afghanistan==
Well if you look at their history, it would be the Afghani’s themselves. You go back to the early 1900’s they had a king, mostly progressive married to a progressive woman. He was the one who tried to bring Afghanistan into the modern world, bringing education to the masses (including women, which seems to be a red line for them), roads and so on. He was traveling the world with his wife when he was essentially told to not bother coming home. A general took over from there in the 30’s till he was killed and his son took over. That lasted till the ‘60’s when a democratic government was created. In the ‘70’s a coup occurred, the king was removed and a President declared. Late ‘70’s communists took over invited the Soviets in. Soviets supported the communist government and invaded when it looked like they were going to lose. (They had their version of the domino theory.) Country was pretty much destroyed during that time. Naturally we helped the side that didn’t like the Soviets. Once the Soviets were chased out and communism defeated. Everyone shook hands at a job “well done”. Now there was a power vacuum, the country was in shambles. A few of the factions turned to their friends, the Americans asking for some help, naturally having given them all the freedom they needed we told them “good luck” and happily went along our way, knowing they could take care of themselves. Meantime warlords were fighting amongst themselves for control, and the people turned to a group of Muslim Scholars who were the only ones who were organized enough to actually get things under something resembling control (the Taliban). They in turn, turned to their rich friend Osama Bin Laden for help who helped them build roads, schools and so on. He in turn got a nice base of operations and, well, you know the rest of the story. Don’t get me wrong, we could have helped them out and probably prevented a lot of the later stuff from happening, (Amazing how quickly we want to help out when it involves blowing things up, but not when it comes to building things) but ultimately it was the Afghani’s themselves who chose the routes to where we are today. Heck, they could have saved a lot of the problems over the last 20 years just by handing over bin Laden.

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==Do Afghan people support the Taliban?==
==Anonymous==

I'm an Afghan and now I'm living under Taliban rule. Just I want to clarify some points. Because I'm Afghan, I was born and grew up in Afghanistan, I spent more than two decades of my life in Afghanistan, I may have a good answer.

Short answer: There is an ethical support of Taliban for sure. Most of Pashtuns support Taliban because most of Taliban are Pashtuns. Other ethnicities (Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks etc) majority of them dislike Taliban. So when nearly 30% of Afghans may support the Taliban but still more than 70% of the people are against them.
For a longer answer let's review and scrutinize the following questions to have a broader understanding of what is happening in Afghanistan.

1- What effect did the withdrawal of foreign forces have on the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan?
The withdrawal of foreign troops led to the further advance of the Taliban. In the cities there are more educated people who oppose the Taliban, but in the villages many people still live with traditional ideas and their level of knowledge is very low. That is why the Taliban and any other group can easily recruit them or impose a primitive life on them. Unfortunately, with the withdrawal of foreign forces, the villages fell more than before. No one wants foreign forces to be stationed in their homeland and stay for a long time. I do not think the American soldiers had such an intention. They also have families, wives, children, and parents, and they would like to be in touch with them and embrace them, but we expected an interim government to be formed before they left completely.

2- Were Afghan people optimistic about the future of Afghanistan?
The Afghan people were unaware of the provisions of the Doha Agreement between the United States and the Taliban. They were tired of nearly fifty years of war. They were waiting for peace. The Doha Agreement provided the prospect of peace. We thought that the United States would never leave Afghanistan like this, and before leaving, they would definitely try to establish a peace government or an interim and inclusive government so that both the Taliban and various other factions would be included in the government. Prior to August 15, rumors had circulated (and may be true) that the planned plan and agreement between the Taliban and the United States was for the 33 provinces of Afghanistan to be taken over by the Taliban, and then an interim government would be formed, including the Taliban. The Afghan National Army and Police will not be disbanded, and the Taliban will be included as well, but the escape of President Ghani and the arrival of the Taliban turned everything upside down, paving the way for a more totalitarian government.

3- Why was no national mobilization against the Taliban formed?
In a speech to the Afghan parliament on August 2, President Ghani called for a national mobilization against the Taliban. People were mentally ready to defend, but unfortunately behind the scenes, it was something else. According to First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, the Red Force of Taliban (their special forces) is led by the Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army, and Rahmatullah Nabil, the former head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), acknowledged that thousands of jihadist fighters enter Afghanistan across the border daily from Pakistan. They were going to increase the Taliban forces. Afghanistan has really become a Harvard of terrorists (Afghanistan does not have a strong border control with Pakistan because of Pashtunism, and terrorists make the most of this opportunity). Furthermore, Afghan commandos frequently reported that we have moral to defend but we recieve orders from presidential palace to surrender your bases. Those who did not surrender were removed from office or relocated by high-ranking government generals. The government did not even support or equip the popular uprising forces. They fought with the least weapons they had, like Ismail Khan in Herat; But the government did not send supporting forces to them. Meanwhile, corps commanders, the Afghan army chief of staff and senior military officials (except for the defense minister and the national security chief, who were symbolically non-Pashtun) were all Pashtuns. Unfortunately, without any fighting, they surrendered the army with thousands of soldiers and equipment to the Taliban. Many former officials also acted as the fifth pillar. Between August 7 and August 15, all 34 cities in Afghanistan fell to the Taliban without any heavy fighting as government and military officials made a deal with the Taliban and left the popular uprisings alone. No weapons were distributed to the people to fight the Taliban. The president said every day that the situation was calm and do not worry, but he deceived the people and finally escaped on August 15 and the Taliban disarmed everyone. There are two theories among the Afghan people about President Ghani: One, which is best known among Pashtuns, is that Ghani was a good president but had to flee to save his life, and he did the right thing. Many of them now both support Ghani and welcome the Taliban. The second theory, which is mostly prevalent among non-Pashtun tribes, is that President Ghani and all high-ranking officials surrendered everything to the Taliban because they hated other tribes because of their bigotry and ethnicity, and President Ghani left the people to the hand of an extremist group. He forbade resistance and finally surrendered the country. He betrayed the people and the country and left the people alone in the hands of murderers.

4- Why did all the cities of Afghanistan fall to the Taliban in just 9 days?
Between August 1 and 15, there were divisions among large numbers of Afghans. Many Pashtuns supported the Taliban (many did not), while other ethnic groups predominantly supported the resistance. Seeing ethnic support (among traditional and illiterate Pashtuns, who are not few in number), the Taliban began to move fast. They are not subject to any law and even threatened to kill civilians. City after city fell without resistance due to the betrayal of high-ranking officials. Military equipment did not reach Afghan soldiers and civilians fighting the Taliban. The people of Afghanistan were convinced that these falls were not miraculous and accidental, but had been planned and traded in advance. The Taliban threatened the people who resisted with genocide and the Holocaust. It is natural for non-Pashtun tribes, who have been massacred by Pashtun rulers for years, to fear this genocide. Their survival was and still is under threat. The fall of all the cities of Afghanistan in just 9 days does not show the power of the Taliban, but shows the lack of unity of the people and the great betrayal and high treason of the politicians of this country. This advance is not unlike the advance of ISIS in 2014 and 2015 in Syria and Iraq. There are deep points. People mainly wanted resistance, but empty-handed??? No equipment was given to the people and they were not supported. The smallest resistance, for example, was severely suppressed in Panjshir. People were massacred and many were forced to migrate. Even the Taliban have forced many Tajiks and Hazaras to migrate, otherwise they are massacred. This scenario is exactly like the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews and the victims of the Holocaust. The situation in Afghanistan before the fall was such that on the one hand, a large mass of people supported the Taliban and on the other hand, government officials were in favor of the surrender of the government. In this case, the possibility of civil war and even the disintegration of Afghanistan became more obvious. No one denies that the Taliban are part of the bitter reality of Afghanistan, but not the whole reality. They want to impose themselves. If they really think that the people of Afghanistan are in favor of them, then why not hold a democratic election so that the people can decide what kind of government and what rules they want? Why did they impose the Islamic Emirate on the people and oppress the people by force?

5- Have ethnic tensions in Afghanistan contributed to this conflict?
There are deep ethnic tensions and differences among Afghan citizens. Persian-speakers and Turks ruled the country for hundreds of years, but in the 18th century, the Pashtun Durrani government ruled the country using the turbulent situation of Nader Shah Afshar. Since then except for two short periods (1929 and 1996-1992), the Pashtuns have ruled this country. They prevented the democratic participation of other ethnic groups in the country through genocide, massacres, and severe repression, but from the 1980s onwards, other ethnic groups played a major role in both the communist regime and the Mujahedeen. They also held senior government positions (except for the presidency) from 2001-2021. Most Pashtuns think that the reason for the weakness of the government is that other ethnic groups weaken the government by launching demonstrations, criticism, etc., but other ethnic groups believe that these approaches are only for the sake of seeking rights and expanding their citizenship rights and preventing the monopoly of power by one ethnic group. Pashtuns mostly speak Pashto (about 48% speak Pashto as the first and second languages according to some statistics), but the language of many other ethnic groups (Tajiks, Hazaras, Imaqs and Ghezelbash) is Persian, or their languages are Uzbek, Turkmen and ... but are fluent in Persian (more than 77% of Afghans use Persian as their first or second language). As Persian is more ancient and the official language of many ruling dynasties from the ninth century until now and most people know it, it is used as lingua franca in Afghanistan. But Pashtun nationalists are trying to impose the Pashto language on the people. They even changed the Persian name to Dari, sang the national anthem in Pashto, banned the use of pure Persian words, and sought to humiliate them by addressing "immigrants" to other ethnic groups. I must say that there is no ethnic majority in Afghanistan, but ethnic differences have made this country very fragile. I do not want to be pessimistic about the Pashtuns, but we expected much more from them. Other ethnicities forgive all the repressions of past Pashtun rulers for a good life, but still many of Pashtuns continue to repress other ethnic groups, even at the cost of supporting the Taliban. They also proudly supported election fraud! Moreover, there have been religious differences among the Afghan people, but given the favorable conditions of the last 20 years, a good brotherhood has developed between Shiites and Sunnis, and practical work has been done to support non-Muslims (mostly Sikhs and Hindus), all of them which have been destroyed by the recent crisis. Despite all this, Pashtun nationalists are now trying to impose their identity on the country, both inside and outside the government. Even the "Afghan" word which means Pashtun, has been imposed over others. The people of Afghanistan are in an identity crisis. They realize that everything is imposed on them. The history emphasized above is limited to the last 300 years. There is no mention of the Greco-Bacterian Kingdom, the Kushans, the Hephthalites, the Saffarids, the Ghaznavids, the Ghurids, the Timurids and the Mughals. People think themselves who are we really? Who are the inhabitants of this land? What is our identity? Why does a nation impose its primitive culture on everyone? If the someone want a Taliban regime, then why impose it on everyone? Even those who grew up in the West are fueling ethnic tensions inside Afghanistan.

6- What is the role of ethnic culture above the Taliban?
The Taliban is not only a religious extremist group, but also an ethnic fanatical group that grew up with traditional Pashtunwali ideas that exemplify medieval tribal culture. In this culture, woman is worthless. Freedom has no meaning, it strongly opposes modernism and does not value education and knowledge. While it values war, killing and revenge. The combination of this traditional tribal culture with religious extremism has created a terrible kind of extremism.

7- What is life like under the Taliban now? Do the Taliban also have positive aspects?
Relative security is established because suicide bombers are now in power. When you go out, no one will have anything to do with you if you wear the hijab accepted by the Taliban or have not shaved your beard. Schools are open only up to the 6th grade. Schools for grades 6-12 as well as universities are closed. Demonstrations are prohibited. Thieves and kidnappers are dealt with seriously, which people welcome, but the work is minimal, people live in poverty. The movement of people seems normal, but poverty has hidden its violent face. According to the United Nations, if no immediate action is launched on the political and economic situation in Afghanistan, by mid-2022, about 97% of the population will be below the poverty line. Given the current situation, there is little hope for a better future unless the Taliban adhere to human rights and democratic values which seems too unlikely. People will die of poverty. There many cases of suicides because the father had nothing to give their children. Women are suppressed by prohibition of going to school and university, losing their freedom. They are facing a sexist violation and a gender discrimination harshly.

8- As an Afghan citizen, what do I see as the solution?
In my opinion, there is only one solution, and that is to be united, to accept each other regardless of ethnicity, language, religion and race, and not to allow any recessive supporters to come to power and take the country back. Also no other country should be allowed to interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs. The people must be the main decision makers because sovereignty belongs only to the nation. Isn't it time to put aside selfishness, fanaticism and hatred for each other and join the ranks of the civilized nations of the world?

9- What is my advice to the Taliban?
Even I know that Taliban didn't change and has no intention to bring reform and keep pace with modern world and they are those were in 1996-2001, but still I want the Taliban to know that they are Afghans (I hope they oust the Pakistani Taliban) and that the Afghan people do not hate them because of their faces, but do not want to lag behind the world. In no country are women barred from going to school and university and going to work. It has been shown everywhere that the hijab does not work by force, but makes people hate Islam more. Teach people about it and put them free to choose what they like. Instead of overworking on hijab or beard, it is better to work on the economic and political situation of the country. In the Taliban cabinet, regardless of other issues, it is devoid of educated and knowledgeable people. Afghanistan has a large number of people who have received their doctorates (PhD) from the best universities in Western or Eastern countries. We have thousands of people with master's degrees and several hundred thousands bachelors and millions of people studying in school, half of whom are women. These achievements should not be reversed. I read somewhere that the head of the central bank appointed by the Taliban is not even school literate and can only read and write. The Jama'at Imam of a mosque in Badakhshan appointed as chancellor of Badakhshan University. A Talib who is just told to have a bachelor degree has been appointed as chancellor of Kabul Univeristy when we have dozen of PhD graduates. Is it not cruel to appoint an illiterate person at the head of the Central Bank or a renowned university of the country in a country where dozens of people have PhD in economics and other fields from the best universities in the world and also have work experience? We have educated people in Oxford, Stanford, Berlin, California Berkeley, Columbia, etc., but no posts are assigned to them, except for the educated mullahs of Pakistani Madrasas. Is it the justice of Islam for the literate to remain unemployed and the illiterate to rule? In which Islamic country are women flogged and deprived of education and work? You said that we are independent and we fought against the United States, why did you allow the head of the Pakistani intelligence service to come to Kabul without a visa and lead the war against your brothers in Panjshir and the Pakistanis to bombard Panjshir? Is this independence? You disbanded the 300,000-strong Afghan army and police, which was the work of the Afghan government and people for 20 years. Is there any stupidity higher than this? You forbade women to be judges or to hold high government positions. You love Pakistan. Was not Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, a Muslim woman? Is not the current President of Singapore Halimah Yacob a Muslim woman? Is not the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina a Muslim woman? Isn't Samia Suluhu Hassan, the current president of Tanzania, a Muslim woman? Was not Khadijah the first Muslim the wife of the Prophet of Islam? Didn't women reprimand the caliphs for injustice during the Islamic caliphate? Didn't they have freedom of speech? Didn't women walk side by side with men? Was not the oldest university in the world founded by a Muslim woman named Fatima bint Muhammad al-Fihriya in the ninth century AD in Morocco? Do you still think women should not study? Do you still think that they can not occupy high government positions? Why do those who support you in the name of- -so-called- Islamic law and jihad not want such a system in their own countries? If you really think about Islam and Afghanistan, then put aside bigotry and extremism and see with open eyes who you are fighting for? Afghanistan has been the cradle of great emperors and scientists. Here the Persians and the Greeks brought their rich culture, we formed the Greco-Bacterian Kingdom. The Kushans and the Hephthalites established their governments here. We were the crossroads of Asia. Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc. passed through this way. We played a very important role in the flourishing of the Silk Road. Saffarians, Ghaznavids, Ghorians, Timurids, Mughals, etc. established their government here. This is the land of Avicenna whose father was from Balkh, Jalal-al-Din Mohammad Rumi, Sanai Ghaznavi, Khajeh Abdullah Ansari, Rabia Balkhi, Nasser Khosrow Balkhi and Al-Biruni. The brilliant history of Islam is full of great scientists and brilliant civilization. So why should we go back to ignorance age?

Just look at these pictures.

Afghan girl protesting against Taliban “I'm hungry because my father is unemployed”

Afghan girl protesting “Taliban! For what crime did you deprive me of education?

These people are representing Afghanistan

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atS9IR60dXU|Discussion on the debasement of capitalism.]]

Not these puppets

Afghan women despite being sick, having a serum in her hand and another one having a baby but still want to participate in Kankor (University Entrance) Exam. They are the real face of Afghanistan.

These below photos for those who think Taliban have changed (They captured the presidential palace and the parliament, beat women and journalists; one of thousands examples). Are we in the 21st century or medieval ages?

They even have no mercy on aminals. How do you expect they treat good toward humans?
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