Comments by "Heads Full Of Eyeballs" (@HeadsFullOfEyeballs) on "How Afghanistan became a failed state" video.

  1. I find your description of the 1979 Herat uprising kind of unhelpful/misleading. You make it sound like there was a civilian protest during which a couple of Soviet advisors got beaten to death by the mob. That's not what happened. The city was in full, armed revolt against the government -- an anti-communist uprising led by religious fundamentalists. The government sent in an Army division, which promptly mutinied and joined the rebels. They hunted down Soviet citizens (depending on who you ask, they killed up to 350 Soviets) as well as anyone who didn't seem sufficiently pious and conservative. So while the Soviet reaction was certainly, uh, heavy-handed, they didn't bomb Herat to rubble over a simple civilian riot. They were responding to a serious threat.
    20