Banjo, the problems in Afghanistan are because the poor buggers are never allowed to get any rest from the parade of outsiders wanting to blow them up.

That has created a lot of damaged people and a broken society. The way some have responded is to become fiercely protective of what they see as their cultural prerogatives, or to simply react against what they see as a Western attempt to impose their own.

It's everyone who suffers and it won't stop until the invaders stop coming and let everyone relax for a couple of generations.

Yes, Anti....and, strangely enough, Afghanistan is a place that one would be well advised not to invade.

The most recent show of Western force has only managed to cork the bottle of enmities, not to engender anything of lasting value.

Of the myriad invasions of that country, I think only one has been "successful".

So, along with directive of "don't invade Russia in the winter" - we should put, "don't invade Afghanistan".

Antiseptic may be you will fit in at Uni if you can talk such twaddle.

Have you forgotten the Taliban enforcers who went around beating any women that they considered not compliant with their Islamic code?

Don't forget most of the Taliban were home grown.

If there were no foreigners to fight the Afghan tribes fought each other, or among themselves. Fighting is life to most of them.

I must say however, at least they won't suffer the catastrophe that is affirmative action.

The Taliban were invaders too, Hasbeen. Afghanistan's location has meant they have had a vibrant and advanced culture in the areas where the trade routes concentrated, while the hill tribes have maintained a strong defensive stance to keep outsiders from straying and some have taken up the trade of bandit as well.

The response of some of those people to a perception that one of their tribe has been corrupted by outsiders is very strong, whether man or woman. We don't hear about the men, though...

Arf, arf, arf,....Hasbeen.

You might like to reflect on the fact that the Taliban was the direct creation of US support in response to the Russian invasion in the eighties. They were armed by the US in order to counter the Russian incursion back in the days when "public enemy number 1" was communism.

Unfortunaely, the power they derived from US support was turned inwardly for dominance once the Ruskies pulled out.

Of course, now the focus is on errant Islam - and "The War on Terror.

@Poirot (& any other lefty deficient in history)

<< the Taliban was the direct creation of US support in response to the Russian invasion in the eighties>>

NO it wasn't.The Taliban evolved much later.
YES the US used Jihadi groups to needle the Soviets.

BUT, NO, it did NOT create them--nor did it create the Taliban --they are the natural children of Islam.

Such jihadi & fundamentalist groups gravitated to Afghanistan in much the same way as they now do to Syria, or Indonesia , or Southern Thailand --and will perhaps one day soon to a suburb near you.