[papaf]

changing Afghan society in a direction most Afghans aren't down with

Is that really so? Before the Russia invasion, Afghanistan was a relaxed country that attracted hippies. I have also yet to meet an Afghan in the West who would be against women working in robotics.

You might find this of interest if you weren't aware of it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/weekinreview/18bumiller.ht...

[arthur_trudeau]

The Russian invasion was in a large part driven by the population of Afghanistan rebelling against the central government attempting to impose that sort of liberalism. This isn't particularly controversial, even the baseline Wikipedia article about the invasion mentions this in the first couple paragraphs.

Afghans in the West are a ridiculously unrepresentative sample; you might as well talk about the views of Americans in Mecca.