Comments by "" (@SusCalvin) on "Does Afghanistan have a future?" video.

The US-supported afghan federal government was also a centralized thing. A lot of governors and strongmen out in the provinces continued to do as they liked. Including getting back into the opium trade they'd opposed the taliban over.
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I think this was one of the issues that created tension between the taliban in Kabul and different opium-growing local strongmen during their first tenure in government. The taliban weren't a strong central government either.
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@alexanderzwollo3825 There is a number of mining possibilities. This has come up in their relation with the PRC, the party likes to pick up mining concessions from weird places without asking too many questions about local stuff. The taliban used to oppose opium growth for a bit. A lot of the growing is done by whatever local strongman who influences the province.
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@nathanreay3234 You can grow some foodstuff in Afghanistan. Transporting it out is more expensive. Opium is a lot more valuable for its weight than tomatoes and more affordable to transport when infrastructure is crappy.
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@agentsteell The CCP seems a bit interested in mining concessions. I guess security and US influence was holding them back. The party is one of the neighbouring entities which has kept embassies in Kabul.
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What are Afghanistan's neighbours up to? I know their greatest support came from Pakistan. Russia and China kept their embassies in Kabul when the NATO nations evacuated.
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The factionalism makes it complicated. The USA negotiated with a certain group of taliban, the ones who worked out of the taliban not-embassy in Doha, Qatar. These guys are not necessarily in control of all taliban factions.
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I'm much more interested in what the neighbouring regional powers want to do with Afghanistan. Iran, Russia, China, India etc. They can't decide to pull out when they're right next to the whole thing.
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@Kal17 China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the other neighbouring powers can't really decide to go home from their own region. All of them have to work out what relation they want with the taliban. It's a similar situation to before, Afghanistan is a centralized nation where control of Kabul doesn't mean control of the rest. China has their own separatist groups who might start to filter back and forth over the border. Russia and China are among the powers who still have embassies in Kabul, I think. Parts of the pakistani state still support them. I haven't checked how the relations between China and the taliban progresses. Usually China wants resource concessions and port infrastructure, and doesn't care how you run your people. I don't know why China would want to replace the taliban, and why the taliban would want to expand a war into China.
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Well, this is the second run at an attempt to run a taliban central government. It still has the same weaknesses as before the US invasion and everyone involved knows it.
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It's always nice to hear perspectives from the locals. I'm curious what the taliban think about their other neighbouring powers. India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran etc.
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@faxmachine5306 I think the afghan federal government opposed a lot of that process. They figured just how reliant they were on NATO support. One of my friends mentioned the old soviet puppet government who stood at least a few years after the soviet withdrawal as soviet support lingered.
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