Comments by "LancesArmorStriking" (@LancesArmorStriking) on "Whatifalthist"
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@RogerwilcoFoxtrot
Oh, you mean one of the thousands whose non-Taliban families were lucky enough not to be killed in a bombing campaign?
You're right, it will resurge when it happens- that's why Western powers need to stay out of its affairs and let the matter fizzle out. That includes the Soviets, who triggered the creation of the Taliban.
As for Iraq, their territory, like Afghanistan's, has few natural assets, like rivers or arable land. What little they do have is controlled by Turkey, with the Tigris and Euphrates originating in Anatolia.
They need a practical, if brutal leader to keep society together and negotiate with foreign powers if it is to develop independently.
Preferably secular.
If only there were a leader like that... OH, WAIT. There was, and the Yanks killed him.
And oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was speaking with the ambassador for Iraq and Afghanistan!
My Persian friend mourns the loss of secularism in Iraq after the Revolution but doesn't realize that the Shah was just as oppressive to the religious, and sold Iran's natural resources to the UK for cheap.
Just because 2 people who moved to the U.S. don't like a current regime, doesn't mean the people don't.
If you want to sling around anecdotes, though, consider what the man who put the Iraqi flag on Saddam's statue had to say 15 years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9wC6W7EJpg
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@geetee2392
You really wanna tell me that Evangelicals successfully putting the Ten Commandments' tablets into courthouses and state capitols around the country doesn't worry you?
The insistence of millions of Americans that creationism be taught in schools and evolution be outlawed?
The promotion of (here's a secret: they're largely Christian) charter schools, by the Secretary of Education?
Or the recent attempted appeal of abortion (irrespective of your view on that, the power of religious movements to reverse political decisions?
Or the politicians promoting America as a Christian nation, insisting our laws are based in 'Judeo-Christian' values?
I also don't think it's accurate to put either religion into a vacuum. Radicalization doesn't come about solely by the merit of a religion's doctrine (not to say that it doesn't contribute at all, but): Context matters.
Iran was set to transition into a secular society until its Prime Minister was overthrown in 1953, followed by decades of forced Western-style rule, causing a religious backlash.
Indonesia is a relatively free country, with the largest population of Muslims on Earth.
Saudi Arabia is showing signs of secularization, though time will tell if the current Prince is deposed for this.
My point is, history matters, and extreme dogma is often a defense mechanism in the face of a threat to survival. 'Christian' nations also happen to be wealthy, and had longer periods of time to develop secular culture (the Franks' old civilization, vs. the Bedouin tribes being united for the first time in their history, by Muhammad).
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@joeschmoe3665
Contributing little or nothing?
The entire reason nations today consider STEM achievement key to geopolitical primacy (as opposed to Jefferson's vision for a nation of yeoman farmers) is because the USSR beat the US to space and made it freak out.
That set a precedent which still hasn't been broken and dominates global politics and economies.
Also, most nuclear reactor designs today are Soviet, Russia was one of the first countries (after Germany and UK) to have public healthcare and the first ever to have a decimal currency (like 100 cents = 1 dollar).
Russia invented the modern helicopter, the electric tram (or streetcar), rollercoasters (Russian Mountains), the Periodic Table of Elements, the satellite, Tetris, and (as someone else mentioned) the Soviets invented the montage in filmmaking. They also discovered Antarctica, and the concept of viruses.
I agree that the list could be much longer (I only listed completely indigenous inventions and not one's are an improvement, like Edison's lightbulb) but to say "little or nothing " is just being petty and spiteful.
You're objectively wrong.
All countries have their contributions.
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@artoriassif3728
To be fair, for Russia to amass enough 'civilizational gravity' that it could become inward-facing and have indigenous political changes (otherwise they would be demonized as outside influence, and purged) it had to secure geographical points.
A border made of mountains— the Carpathians the in west, the Caucasus to the South, the Altai and Karakorum to the south, and the Gobi and Tibet to the far east.
Most of these were secured under the Russian Empire, but it was still missing a few key components:
a warm-water ocean port (wouldn't have been a problem if Alaska was kept, rip), and a buffer against the Black Sea.
This would have been Constantinople, and 7 European countries set aside their differences to stifle Russia's dominance by waging the Crimean War, which Russia ultimately lost.
Additionally, the European Plain remains a problem forever, unless it can be conquered or technology can mitigate the need for occupying it.
After Napoleon, Sweden, Hitler, Poland, the Teutonic Knights— Russia has never known a decade of peace where native development was possible.
I suppose the 1910s were the closest it got, but then Lenin came from his boxcar in Switzerland..
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