And, another article, which basically is a summary of a bunch of things I've read combined:
"One of the saddest truths of our time is that democracies have short memories. We are too easy not so much to forget but too eager to move on, marching towards our next goal without actually achieving the current one."
--> This is referring to the people who forget things so soon after they happen outside their country. We forget and it allows us to not see things on the timescale of governments, which is much longer than a human life, and unfortunately this makes all of our actions short lived for long-term effect.
"The nation of Afghanistan was very much on the radar throughout the 1980s, following the Soviet invasion. It was the reason we skipped the Olympics. Here was awful and savage aggression, the Red Army conquering yet another nation to add to the ever - enlarging Soviet empire.
The Soviet move worried President Carter so much that, to his eternal credit, he initiated support to ragtag bands of freedom fighters known as the mujahideen.
They would fight toe - to - toe with one of the greatest military machines the world has ever known. President Reagan continued to send them arms in increasing numbers and sophistication.
Also, President Reagan cobbled together an in - exile coalition government, a group of very different people --- everyone from supporters of the Afghani monarchy to Muslim radicals --- who would run the country once the Soviets were defeated.
And defeated they were. After 10 long years, half of which their country was brutalized under the "kindler and gentler" Gorbachev (Soviet landmines made to look like toys was _not_ empty Cold War rhetoric, but part of a methodical effort at genocide to exterminate a troublesome people), the Mujahideen drove the Red Army into ignominious retreat.
It is no coincidence of history that the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact disintegrated less than a year after the Red Army's defeat; military dictatorships don't absorb military losses very well. So when the Wall came crashing down, it was turbaned men of the Asian steppes who deserved much of the credit.
And Afghanistan dropped right off the screen.
The Soviets left. War over.
Like children walking away from a videogame, the press and politicians of the West deserted Afghanistan. "
--> This is one of many times we have left a Middle Eastern country (or stopped actively doing anything) and just walked off because the government felt it was unnecessary, people involed or otherwise.
"Then the Taliban came.
The Taliban (a Persian word meaning "student of knowledge", usually applied to a religious student) originated as vigilantes seeking to restore order. Several teenage girls were kidnapped and raped by a local Mujahideen commander / warlord. Outraged at the crime and angered that the girls remained captive, 16 students under the young (30 something) Mullah Omar stormed the warlord's stronghold, freeing the girl and executing the rapist.
The Taliban continued to grow in numbers and continued to restore order in the country. They enjoyed great success; people actually looked forward to the Taliban coming to their towns, because then the rapes and robberies and murders that were occurring hourly would stop.
The Taliban were akin to the "good" gunfighter of the Old West, swaggering into town and killing all the bad guys. They were Robin Hoods with Kalishnikov rifles, Round Table knights charging into battle.
Unfortunately, their leader, Mullah Omar, was a student of Hektmayer.
They declared that they were going to take over the country and run things. Who could blame them? Democracy had given them chaos, and the West had done nothing to help. The Taliban were supported by the majority of the public who were sick of the anarchy and who viewed the new freedom fighters (most of them so young that they had never known anything but war and refugee camps) as finishing the liberation of their country.
As the Taliban moved from the rural areas into the cities --- culture clash! The mostly pro - West (and mostly corrupt) populace of the cities viewed the Taliban as barefooted fanatics, and to the Taliban these people represented everything that was wrong with Afghanistan! "