Reply #60: Not quite so

[Bragi]

The Taliban are a recent development, but religious medevelists, drug barons and tribal war lords have governed this place for a long, long time (like the past 200 years or so.) That's what makes it hopelessly impoverished and backward.

This isn't going to change anytime soon, if ever. And it sure won't change because Americans stupidly think they can drive change at gunpoint.

If Americans and others truly cared about Afghans, they would find a way of supporting an exodus of people from that dismal and dreadful place (no doubt at far less cost than the the invasion and unending occupation of that country.)