the pervasive sentiment on :reddit-logo: is that the Taliban are just wantonly raping and pillaging, but how much of that is reality vs typical :amerikkka: jingoism.
it doesn't make sense to me why the nominal liberators of the imperialist regime would just turn around and destroy the same country that they're liberating. though I don't doubt that it must be happening at some level, surely the incidence of rape and murder is less than that inflicted by actual invaders, right? I just would have to believe that there would be fighting going on from many pockets if such acts were occurring at large scales.
it doesn’t make sense to me why the nominal liberators
of the imperialist regimewould just turn around and destroy the same country that they’re liberating.check out what the US military does
My point being, the Taliban are a hyper-reactionary right wing fundamentalist religious group founded on anti-communism and the most misogynistic views possible. They claim to be liberators because they defeated the imperialists; they did, in fact, defeat the imperialists, but that alone does not make their governance good for the people of the country.
Remember that anti-imperialism isn't arguing that every country the US wants to topple is "good"; it just means recognizing that US intervention is never well-intentioned and always makes a situation worse. Iran is a good example: the current Iranian government is repressive and right-wing. It's nowhere near the Taliban, but it is bad for women and workers. In some ways, it is more repressive than the US is to its own citizens. But by understanding the way imperialism operates, we see that the US has neither the interest nor the capacity to improve the conditions of the people of Iran, and that any attempt at intervention would only make their already bad situation much worse.
edit: China is good tho
But by understanding the way imperialism operates, we see that the US has neither the interest nor the capacity to improve the conditions of the people of Iran, and that any attempt at intervention would only make their already bad situation much worse.
Libya is the (modern) poster child for this. Whatever one's opinions are on :gaddafi-happy:, the U.S. undeniably decimated that country.
we don't know a lot of the on the ground details, but it's not good that's for sure. the Taliban are like really really bad, this is not the North Vietnamese army liberating Saigon here we're talking about. yes a lot of it is being played up by lib outlets, yes a lot of it is "those savages!!!", but the Taliban are not nice guys here either fam, they have done a lot LOT worse that has been factually proven in the past
they are gonna ban opium production
You got a source on this? Because that's a huge revenue stream for them to refuse.
Yeah because religious fundamentalists never compromise their own morality for personal gain 🙄🙄🙄
I'm asking for a source, not an assumption.
The Taliban executed the last true president of Afghanistan, comrade Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai. Let there be no mistake that they are the enemy of the socialist movement and of the people in Afghanistan.
That said, after 20 years of occupation the Taliban has transformed from being a radical reactionary organization to being a more broad popular front of national liberation. This is not saying that the radical reactionary section that started the taliban are gone. They are still there, yet the question is how much power do they still have as the reactionary faction versus all the other elements within the new emergent Islamic Emirate.
Best thing to do is wait and see. Keep an ear to the ground to listen to local sources should you have any. The media has lied, lies, will lie according to their class interests, and that without hard proof with full circumstantial conditions, anything stated should be taken with a salt miners worth of salt
Any time there's a bunch of armed dudes running around doing whatever they want there will be atrocities.
so it's probably the same as during US occupation, at worst (think about how many undisclosed Abu Ghraibs you don't know about)
Yes but now the reigning power can be pressured internationally for human rights abuses, unlike the US.
US special forces were running amok blowing up random groups of people, hospital, etc. Australian special forces were making new troops murder random civilians as part of an initiation rite. 20 years of shit like this.
On a more macro level, there are different types of people in the Taliban: the higher-ups are geanerally more stability-oriented (see public statements on women and religious minorities), while more ideologically hardcore rank and file could simultaneously perpetrate wanton acts of sectarian or gender-based violence
They're not liberators. People were literally clinging to the side of a plane to escape the Taliban. Sounds like you've been spending too much time on the genzedong subreddit or something.
its basically just gonna be a flip, during the war ppl in the country had it the worst, getting bombed and murdered while ppl in the city enjoyed peace/defense.
Now ppl in the country don't have to worry about walking in the wrong area and getting murdered for no reason by US/ in the past Soviet troops. (many remote villages upon meeting US soldiers thought they were the Soviet soldiers they had heard rumors about through the years) while the people in the city lose a lot of rights and western luxuries that were brought by NATO
I'm just going to point out something I heard from an Afghani in the last couple days. The reason the Taliban walked into power with no resistance is because they are seen as the legitimate government by the people of Afghanistan. True or not, it made me think. :thinking-about-it:
I agree with you. I'm not pro-Taliban by any means, but they seem to be handling the takeover better than anyone expected, and so far their statements have been conciliatory and positive:
Mujahid also said that the Taliban wanted to make the country “no longer a battlefield of conflict,” and added that anyone who fought against them has been pardoned. “Animosities have come to an end,” he said. “We don’t want any external or internal enemies... We want to live peacefully.”
During the conference, Mujahid added that foreign countries and aid agencies would remain safe in Afghanistan, saying, “Your security is ensured, we will not allow anyone to do anything against you.” The reason the Taliban entered Kabul, he said, was because “the previous government was so incompetent. Their security forces could not do anything to ensure security ... We had to enter Kabul to ensure the security of the residents.” World News ‘I Keep Crying’: Young Afghan Women Are Terrified About Life Under Taliban Rule
The Taliban spokesman then promised the formation of a new “strong, inclusive” government, one which would soon have functioning agencies. He said that women would not be discriminated against in Afghanistan and would work “shoulder to shoulder with us” within “our frameworks.” The Taliban, Mujahid said, is “committed to the rights of women under the system of sharia (Islamic) law.”
Of course we should wait and see, but so far it seems like things are at least moving in the direction of peace and reconstruction after decades of war. I'm cautiously optimistic based on what I've seen so far.
