[ExI] libertarian ideas ATTN: HENRY

[BillK]

On Sun, 22 Aug 2021 at 18:55, spike jones via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> I am surprised this kind of discussion continues considering the horrifying events which unfolded last week.
>
> The Taliban army, said to consist of less than 50k fighters, managed to defeat a government-backed army over 5 times its size, after the Afghanistan president skipped town.  An army operates on commands from above.  If the commander in chief gets outta Dodge, the army stands down, for lack of orders.
>
> Well OK then.  An army must have orders.  But a militia does not.  It is a volunteer civilian army.
>
> So… a city of nearly 5 million civilians was taken over by an army of less than 50k fighters, ratio about 100 to 1.  Afghanistan doesn’t have a militia, as America does, and its citizens do not have the recognized right to bear arms as Americans do.  So… those who worked with Americans, and in some cases American citizens, sit there, unarmed and completely helpless as the nation’s army stands down for lack of orders, waiting for the Taliban to come, identify them and murder them.
>
> What if… Afghanistan had recognized the right of citizens to bear arms?  And what if… the government there saw to it that the citizenry had dangerous weapons, plenty of ammo and were trained in their use?  The Taliban would have come into Kabul to meet an enormous armed civilian militia.  Never mind a gun behind every bush: Afghanistan doesn’t have enough bushes to cover all the guns the murderous savages would be facing.
>
> spike
 _______________________________________________


Spike,
I don't think the US population has been very well informed about the
true situation in Afghanistan.
The US were the invaders in that country. The Middle East is tribal,
they don't have the same civilisation that the US does. The Afghan population
all have relatives in the Taliban. They have seen US drones killing
civilians throughout the country. They were just taking the US
resources and money and waiting until the US got fed up and left.
The Taliban is now wearing US uniforms, carrying US weapons, driving
US military vehicles and living in US barracks.

One (of many) articles with an alternative view is here:
<https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-us-government-lied-for-two-decades>

The U.S. Government Lied For Two Decades About Afghanistan
Using the same deceitful tactics they pioneered in Vietnam, U.S.
political and military officials repeatedly misled the country about
the prospects for success in Afghanistan.

Glenn Greenwald  Aug 16, 2021
Quote:
The former soldier, whose job was to work in training programs for the
Afghan police and also participated in training briefings for the
Afghan military, described in detail why the program to train Afghan
security forces was such an obvious failure and even a farce. “I don’t
think I could overstate that this was a system just basically designed
for funneling money and wasting or losing equipment,” he said. In sum,
“as far as the US military presence there — I just viewed it as a big
money funneling operation”: an endless money pit for U.S. security
contractors and Afghan warlords, all of whom knew that no real
progress was being made, just sucking up as much U.S. taxpayer money
as they could before the inevitable withdrawal and takeover by the
Taliban.
-----------------

BillK