How many people have really been to Afghanistan?

@BoredDarkLord Honestly it amuses me. I usually ask for pics or ask bout that tv series "caravan hunters", coz it's super popular among soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan, u can't not know of it🤷‍♀️.

@Alison Yeah everyone has so far failed this except that Russian guy, who it turns out really was in Chechnya and Dagestan and doesn’t pretended to be Rambo about it.

@BoredDarkLord the war in Afghanistan was bloody unnecessary and evil. There was no reason to be there, all based on vicious deliberate lies. I should post photos of innocent people messed up there because of the USA imperialist mentality.

SWeeps mostly have NO connection to reality

the real kind.

@Elevatorpitches ...I don't think it was our "imperialist mentality" which made this happen, but the hubris of

1) Rumsfeld et al. in getting rid of the post-Vietnam doctrine concocted in part by Powell ("always have a defined exit strategy before going in"; i.e., pre-define victory, when you get out, etc.),

2) complete inability of leadership to understand even the rudiments of other cultures (not consulting area experts in the State Department, CIA, etc., and having no education in it [salute to the typical American education...]),

3) inability to learn from history (the Russians/Soviets went into Afghanistan, spent a long time in that quagmire, lost people, time, money, face...and yet WE were going to simply waltz in & glide through),

4) supersaturation of NIH syndrome & too many people who are all the smartest one in any room (just ask them!)

all combined to create the huge money-/time-/life-/etc. pit which Afghanistan, Iraq, became.

Not entirely unpredictable.

@SomeMichGuy Shameful philosophies are always built on denial exploitation and fatalism...and of course...violence. No education...bullocks.

And endless blather.

not 4 me.

I was just reading about Tom Paine again...u know that "Common Sense" guy.

I am starting to figure out in my deep old age....that the more talk, the more watch out.

I also have read Chomsky, who knows language is really important for civilization but that's such a bloody double edged sword.

Meditation is silence, we need more of that. Feels civilized, at least the conscious pursuit of mindfulness and compassion

@Elevatorpitches

[quote]Shameful philosophies are always built on denial exploitation and fatalism...and of course...violence.[/quote]

Sure, but from there, "Oh, please."

[quote]No education...bullocks.[/quote]

The average American is terribly under-/uneducated about the rest of the world. Even people who have post-secondary education don't always emerge "educated". Remember when, after being in Iraq for around 18 mos(?), the US government at the top level suddenly figured out that "local imams are really important"...? This is BASIC info in any intro class about Islam (I had a history course in this in college); so I am sure area/regional experts know this & would have had this available to decisionmakers...

There are people all across the US who misrepresent the Constitution all the time.

Yeah, that's lack of actual education.

[quote]And endless blather.[/quote]

You broke in with a very tangential reply. I took you seriously and disagreed in a structured, reasoned fashion.

I guess responding in kind is harder than just shifting.