[MichaelGroves]

> commit China-style ethnocide, or at the least institute authoritarianish high-security measures, depopulate the rural areas

The PDPA and Soviets tried this, and it didn't work. Together they killed tens of thousands of combatants and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of civilians. Millions more were displaced. And what did they get for that bloodshed? Certainly not the reform they sought.

You may as well try to crush a fistful of water.

[tonyedgecombe]

The West had some influence over that, we were busy propping up the opposition.