Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   "Lessons Learned from Afghanistan" Date:   9/2/2021 1:47:00 PM

I think you are absolutely right.  Do you remember early on, when we were trying to throw huge amounts of cash at them (A State Department plan, no doubt) that they laughed at us, saying that their money changers didn't have that much money.  And how, when we got there, we were amazed that they played a game on horse back of stealing the calf from each other?  They have never had an intereset in a "strong central govenrment" because they have always relied on village elders to run things.  I'm not sure much has changed outside of Kabul.  One of the reasons that is attibuted to the Russian failure was that they thought they would get control by cutting off communications between villages, but of course that didn't work.  The villages are self contained and most Afghans don't know or care about Kabul or it's "President".  That was our consruct.  Also that women and girls must be considered "equal".  We never understood the culture or people.  

And yes, Shortbus, we did give them shoulder fired rockets, some of which they managed to hold onto after we abandoned the pre-cursor of Al Quesda and then we worried about them using them against us.