Comments by "Comm0ut" (@Comm0ut) on ""Totally mad": Rory Stewart on the UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan | Red Box" video.

  1. If Afghans wanted the Kabul government no withdrawal would have stopped them. The Taliban NEVER gave up despite B-52 strikes. They won the Afghan popular mandate, end of story. Their opponents were free to fight as hard (they did not come close), organize an effective rural government along traditional lines (they hid in the cities and stole foreign aid), lead by example (at which they failed utterly) and do everything the Taliban not only did but fought hard to do to win. The Taliban earned their victory and there was never a chance for a Quisling government installed by foreigners to win against a region (A-stan is not a nation in the Western sense) whose cultural identity rests on repeated successful rejection of foreign attempts to impose conventional nation-state structures! The humanitarian impact of withdrawal is minor, the Talibs proved not to be Khmer Rouge, and Westerners should remember the bloodthirsty lot we backed like Dostum before casting stones. The Taliban fought a classic Maoist civil war and won.
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