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by nickff 1759 days ago
The Taliban are power-hungry and ruthless, while their external (Pakistan/ISI & China) supporters don't mind it.

In an battle between kindness and ruthlessness, (especially where the former is less committed than the latter,) the ruthless will always win. Put another way, if you had one side giving you aid (food/medicine) in exchange for support, and the other (credibly) threatening to kill you for disloyalty, what would you do? You'd probably feign support for the former, and never betray the latter.
1 comments
captain_price7 1759 days ago
> if you had one side giving you aid (food/medicine) in exchange for support

I'm afraid you have an awfully rosy version of what life was like for an average rural afghan under American rule.

Here are some links to get started-

- https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-to...

- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-af...

- https://news.abs-cbn.com/global-filipino/world/01/12/12/outr...

link
nickff 1759 days ago
I've left out a lot of detail, because I was writing a comment, not a treatise. I also left out how the Taliban fighters routinely raped the widows and children of their opponents, as well as the Taliban's horrific history of brutality.

In addition to all of these atrocities, there are a number of outliers, such as those you pointed out.

link