[throwaway0a5e]

>It's really hard to see that Ukraine by itself could defeat Russia

There are many paths but they are all long term "replace the Taliban with the Taliban" type ones that people don't wanna talk about.

[einarfd]

Fair enough, I was thinking more of a classic win by defeating the Russian army on the battlefield. But the kind of loss the USSR had in Afghanistan might be possible without much if any help from abroad.

[watwut]

The kind of victory Afghanistant had also means ending up with deeply authoritarian and violent society. It implies complete destruction of democratic civil society, unfortunately.

[throwaway0a5e]

>The kind of victory Afghanistant had also means ending up with deeply authoritarian and violent society.

The current Taliban are way, way more liberal than the 90s Taliban. They've embraced modern communication, dropped most of their Pashtun ethnic supremacy stuff and are a little less violent across the board. That's really a big change all things considered.

[KptMarchewa]

Unless you're a woman.

[cudgy]

Or a christian. Or your Jewish. Or an American. Or your gay. Or you want to educate your daughters. Or you …