Not The Onion

hideshow 6 child comments

[+] elbarto777@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

hideshow 4 child comments

parent

[–] TallonMetroid@lemmy.world 23 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Nah, those guys were boomers/gen-xers and have probably either all died off or retired from this nonsense. The Taliban in charge now are millennials/zoomers who likely grew up getting told all about the glory days but not the drudgery.

parent

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

And who probably skipped school since those were all gender integrated under the NA government the US was backing

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

And they were in power because the US helped them get there. This article praising Osama bin Ladenisn't The Independent's finest hour 😬

parent

[+] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee -7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

That's not what happened,

The US sent Pakistan materials to supply to local Mujihideen to provide support to the US assisting the Northern Alliance, AKA the guys they were later supporting against the Taliban once the Taliban basically all but chartered the planes for Bin Laden.

You'd be amazed how many of america's problems in the region trace in some way back to "Pakistan did it."

Like it's not unreasonable to guess that Kissinger croaked because his old heart couldn't take how America's foreign policy was becoming way more aligned with those "commies" in India after just a few terrorisms and genicides on Pakistan's part.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The US sent Pakistan materials

You'd be amazed how many of america's problems in the region trace in some way back to "Pakistan did it."

With the help of the US, of course, as is often the case when atrocities occur around the world..

hideshow 4 child comments

parent

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee -2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Your name is "Viking_Hippie". I assume you're embracing a Scandinavian heritage of some kind.

Vikings committed atrocities all over Europe. Genetic studies of Icelandic people indicate that their Y chromosomes are from Scandinavia and their mitochondrial DNA is from Ireland. Mitochondrial DNA only comes from your mother (from the egg).

Why do you think Iceland was settled by mainly Viking men and Irish women? Do you think those women willingly left their homes or did they leave at the point of a sword?

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] -1 points 2 years ago

I'm embracing the modern colloquial meaning of "lives in Scandinavia" (which I have since my birth 40 years ago), not the historical "commits atrocities" meaning.

You'd think that people would come to that conclusion by doing just a minimum of research into colloquial uses of regional terms before accusing me of embracing the worst acts of my ancestors.

If that's too difficult, then maybe the second half, which is much more descriptive about how I am when not discussing politics with idiots online, would be a bit of a clue 🤦

parent

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee -3 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

The point is that US aid ended up in taliban hands in spite of US policy, not because of it. We know for a fact that the US would have broken ties had Pakistan's enthusiastic cooperation with the Taliban and Al Qaeda been more understood at the time, and we know that because that's exactly what happened when it was uncovered that the mass shooting spree Al Qaeda launched in India was carried out using weapons supplied to Pakistan specifically to give to local resistance fighters against the Taliban.

Granted, the US should definitely have guessed better at the time given how Afghanistan routinely makes irredentist claims on Pashtunistan and Balochistan, meaning Pakistan would NEVER be a reliable ally in stabilizing the country, IE making it more able to press such claims with authority and millitary force, but the point still stands that people are waaaaay mischaracterizing the role the US plaid in the Taliban's rise.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

The point is that US aid ended up in taliban hands in spite of US policy, not because of it.

So because the government violated policy it wasn't the US doing it?

We know for a fact that the US would have broken ties had Pakistan's enthusiastic cooperation with the Taliban and Al Qaeda been more understood at the time

Highly doubtful. The US never had any compunctions propping up some of the worst human rights abusers in the world if there is a strategic or economic advantage to be had. See for example every right wing dictator in South America, Saudi Arabia and various genocidal governments of Israel.

the point still stands that people are waaaaay mischaracterizing the role the US plaid in the Taliban's rise.

It really doesn't. They LITERALLY couldn't have done it without both direct and indirect help from the US.

parent

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Guy I'm literally spelling it out for you, it happened because Pakistan was constantly lying about what it was doing with the stuff the US gave it

If I take a sandwich you gave me and hand it to someone I know is gonna deck you, that doesn't mean you punched yourself in the face just because you should have known better.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, that analogy doesn't translate to international aid and also doesn't explain why the US treated Pakistan as a trusted ally from the start of the Afghanistan war until finding the Osama bin Laden complex there.

Nothing will convince your Dunning Kruger poster boy ass, though, so we're done here. Have the day you deserve.

parent

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

It does go to show that people sometimes don’t think ahead. They seem to have only ever considered the present and now reality hit them in the face lol. Similar happened to Trump when he was elected and suddenly had to…you know…work.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

It does go to show that people sometimes don’t think ahead

The Independent sure didn't!

parent

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

I mean, isn't this like people predicting the year 2000 from the year 1920 and people in 2020 making fun of that being wrong? In neither situation could the future be predicted.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

Him and his Mujahideen were awful religious zealots back then too. That was just ignored due to the "enemy of my enemy is my friend and thus a hero" principle that the US have consistently applied to some of the biggest monsters in history.

parent

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

Well Ronald Reagan created the Taliban so that all checks out.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

That's a very weird non-sequitor.

parent

[–] stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Is it? He funded them in Pakistan because the USSR was in Afghanistan and it was fine to fund terrorists as long as they attacked your enemy. They just didn't foresee it coming back to hurt us.

parent

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world [S] 2 points 2 years ago

Fair enough. I sit corrected.

parent

[–] thefluffiest@feddit.nl -5 points 2 years ago

What a bunch of ~~idiots~~ Republicans

There, FTFY