Baktash Ahadi says this is all about culture, but doesn’t mention what drives the cultural differences: religion. Many Afghans often viewed the U.S. with suspicion because the U.S. was not Muslim. Many understood “hearts and minds” initiatives as an attempt to entice Afghans away from Islam: “And the Jews will not be pleased with you, neither will the Christians, until you follow their religion.” (Qur’an 2:120)
“Opinion: I was a combat interpreter in Afghanistan, where cultural illiteracy led to U.S. failure,” by Baktash Ahadi, Washington Post, August 31, 2021:
…How could Afghanistan have collapsed so quickly?
As a former combat interpreter who served alongside U.S. and Afghan Special Operations forces, I can tell you part of the answer — one that’s been missing from the conversation: culture.
When comparing the Taliban with the United States and its Western allies, the vast majority of Afghans have always viewed the Taliban as the lesser of two evils. To many Americans, that may seem an outlandish claim. The coalition, after all, poured billions of dollars into Afghanistan. It built highways. It emancipated Afghan women. It gave millions of people the right to vote for the first time ever.
All true. But the Americans also went straight to building roads, schools and governing institutions — in an effort to “win hearts and minds” — without first figuring out what values animate those hearts and what ideas fill those minds. We thus wound up acting in ways that would ultimately alienate everyday Afghans….
gregbeetham says
Yes and it isn’t as if the USA hadn’t had plenty of opportunity to gather accurate intel on Islamic culture during other co-existing regional wars while occupying Afghanistan and the likelihood of success using the same principles that failed on every other occasion.
gravenimage says
Too many Americans didn’t *want* to know. If they had, they would have realized that civilizing Afghanistan was never possible in the first place.
Eleanor says
Exacrly GI, but if what he says is true, and I don’t doubt it, why were there thousands wanting to escape to the USA? Perhaps they heard that they would live in their own litle Afghani enclave, with the leftie do-gooders fund raising from lemonade stands and cake stalls, to build them their own mosque in the Republican small town the Dems have chosen for them.
gravenimage says
A few may genuinely oppose Islam, but this is rare–Afghanistan is statistically 100% Muslim. Living is pretty good here in the Infidel west.
Wellington says
The chief conclusion I draw from this is that the Islamic world is hopeless and all along should have been as isolated from the West as much as the West tried to isolate (and contain) Communism during the Cold War.
Frankly, I don’t give a damn what happens to the Islamic sphere of mankind. It can rot as far as I care, though of course I would prefer that Islam finally be placed on the trash heap of history and virtually exist no longer, but this isn’t going to happen for a long time if ever.
But I do care about the West and right now the West remains in stupid mode where proper assessment of Islam is concerned. Islam is a mortal enemy of the best of the West and should always be seen in this light. Right now it isn’t and the cost for this blindness in human life and treasure has been enormous.
Westman says
Wellington, you are so right that the best policy would have been isolation from Islamic nations.
The US ignorance of the true nature of Islam has us trying to plant a beneficial crop among weeds in Islamic nations and then importing and planting those weeds in our beneficial crop.
Wellington says
Thanks for your reply, Westman.
If only virtually all Western politicians in our era had realized all along that while you might have to deal with the Islamic world at times, this should have never translated into assuming Islam is OK.
Yet again is revealed, I would argue, that Islam, to its eternal obloquy, and yet in a twisted, weird way to its credit, functions to this day as the best disguised, longest-lived malevolent ideology of all time. No contest actually.
N.B., I expect someone like Biden, inveterate fool that he is, not to get what I wrote above, but what really bothers me is that people like Bush 43 and Senator Lyndsey Graham still remain utterly clueless about Islam’s true intents. Absolutely inexcusable.
gravenimage says
Yes–Islam should be isolated as much as possible.
mortimer says
It was never about the culture. It’s about preventing Afghanistan from being a Disneyland for Islamic terrorism.
NATO troops will soon have to return to finish the Taliban and Afghans will help them find the Taliban and finish them off.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda are Siamese twins.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, I know you continue to claim that there are only a handful of pious Muslims in Afghanistgan, and that Afghan Muslims are not really Muslim, and that they would have stood up to the Taliban if only the Infidels stay there forever.
But this is not borne out. 99% of Muslims there want the imposition of Shari’ah law. Is this true of any non-Muslims?
Giacomo Latta says
I have my dreams too.
tim gallagher says
I could not agree more, Wellington. I also think that islam, this primitive leftover from knuckle dragger times, is hopeless. Hungary has the right idea. Keep Muslims out. They can rot away in their crappy, barbaric lifestyles. As for this report about how the Afghans would prefer Islam and the Taliban, well i hope they enjoy the coming years of pure Islamic life under the Taliban vermin. You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Most Muslims want to wallow in primitive islam’s way of life, so they can have it. Unfortunately, they also want to impose Islam’s barbaric bullshit on all of us. As you say, Muslims need to be isolated. Nothing else works. Muslims have nothing but misery and strife to bring to any non-Muslim country. I agree with what you say as well, Westman.
Wellington says
Again, tg, we are in accord, and this provides me some hope that someone from Australia and someone from America can agree on a most important matter.
I mean, what’s the alternative, to give up against the forces of darkness (nothing darker than Islam)? No way. Better dead than an obedient slave of Allah, read a devout Muslim here, or, even worse, a dhimmi under Islamic servitude.
I refuse to be anyone’s slave or dhimmi. No exceptions. I’m certain you feel the same.
How I do desire that the bulk of mankind would comprehend that where Islam reigns, so does slavery of one kind or another—not only literal slavery but slavery of the mind and spirit as well. Islam’s own antipathy to romantic love, evidenced by its hostility to Valentine’s Day, functions as just one example among so many that Islam is warped and twisted to its core.
Time for a beer and may I again wish you the best to you and yours, tim.
tim gallagher says
Thanks, Wellington. Enjoy your beer. I think that, fortunately, there are still plenty of people who see things the way you and I do. As for the many sleepwalkers who still don’t see how evil Islam is, well, what can I say, to me, their inability to see what should be obvious to almost everybody by now, astounds me. All the best to you and yours as well. I live in hope that enough of our populations will wake up to islam’s nature and appropriate policies will be enacted.
Jerry says
Chicken come home to roost
Originally the USA via the CIA were complicit in founding, establishing, supplying, arming and training the Taliban as a bulwark against the Soviet occupiers.
Wellington says
Jerry: Yes, but America also had to align with Stalin in order to defeat Hitler.
It would be wonderful if all of America’s allies through all of America’s history were freedom-loving polities and societies, but the real world doesn’t work that way and, frankly, I am getting very tired of people faulting America for aligning temporarily with certain non-liberty forces in order to defeat other non-liberty elements.
Such criticism is Monday-morning quarterbacking at its easiest, it most lazy degree. It is not rooted in reality, common sense—or overall truth. Think Realpolitik.
gravenimage says
Jerry, the Taliban is perfectly Islamic. Claims that it was actually created by the ‘filthy Infidels’ do not hold water.
Infidel says
Also it was created by Benazir Bhutto’s ISI, which would carry out a jihad attack on anyone who dared suggest that they were/are filthy infidels
Donovan Nuera says
But… but…. each kumbaya US commander from Lt. Col. to 4-star general had 3 cups of tea with every Afghan army commander and village elder!!!
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
“There are none so blind
as those who will not see.”
donynam says
That’s the reason why western countries should not take in any Muslim refugees. No point to import enemies of the state from Islamic countries.
gravenimage says
Afghan interpreter: ‘Vast majority of Afghans always viewed Taliban as lesser of two evils’ compared to US
But the Americans also went straight to building roads, schools and governing institutions — in an effort to “win hearts and minds” — without first figuring out what values animate those hearts and what ideas fill those minds. We thus wound up acting in ways that would ultimately alienate everyday Afghans….
………………
In other words, we didn’t impose Shari’ah law. Most Muslims consider taking little girls as sex slaves, beheading religious minorities, and stoning women to death a “lesser evil” than emancipating women, building roads and schoosl, and allowing girls to get an education.
These are the values of Islam.
gravenimage says
And here’s another question: what are Baktash Ahadi’s values? He has never quite said, to my knowledge.
He is very keen on importing hordes more Afghan Muslims into America, though.
One of his Tweets:
“The United States has a moral responsibility to accept Afghans as refugees. The gallant people of Afghanistan served US interests and sacrificed immensely. In return, the US owes Afghans a debt of gratitude for their service, loyalty, and contribution. #Afghanistan”
No indication of the sacrifices Americans made for Afghanistan, note.
Infidel says
That reminds me of something I read recently, maybe here on JihadWatch. Two Afghans – one pro Taliban and one anti Taliban were arguing. The pro Talib accused the other, “You’re a puppet of the US”. The anti Talib responded, “You are a puppet of Pakistan”. The other guy retorted, “At least the Pakis are muslims”. The anti Talib had no comeback
gravenimage says
That does not surprise, Infidel.