New answers tagged afghanistan
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Starting back with W. Bush, the US expected it could build an effective political culture in Afghanistan, a condition in which Afghans became accustomed to the benefits of political rights, appreciated the implicit power representative governance gave them, and developed aspirations for their future and the future of their children that would break up ...
4
Considering that the West subsidized the Afghan government, any payment would have been an accounting fiction. Something like half the government budget was aid in recent years. Afghanistan had several billion dollars trade deficit per year. So any money the Afghans might have had to pay could not have been earned in-country.
The US government "...
2
Not sure what you mean. The military was the last one out from the evacuations as far as I know, on Aug 30th. And that withdrawal had to be done by a timeline already extended from the Doha accord, to Sept 1st.
While the whole mess is deeply regrettable and while the evacuations were chaotic, too late and insufficient, I don't see how the US could have ...
answered Oct 8 at 3:28
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica
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4
Strategic decisions of that importance are inherently political and, in the US, the president's responsibility. The military's job is to offer several solutions to reach the goals it is given and assess the risks and costs (human and material) of the various options. Military leaders (especially retired staff-level experts, rarely active-duty top-level ...
5
Probably not, but some came close
My understanding of the question is that it primarily is asking whether a Secretary of Defense who held that office during a war ever admitted that the war itself as a strategic error.
That seems unlikely, and some searching was unable to find an example, although that does not prove definitively that it never happened. In ...
2
Afghanistan is rich in deposits of iron, copper, lithium, rare earth elements, cobalt, bauxite, mercury, uranium and chromium. Perhaps the most significant of those is lithium - for battery technolgy.
This site appears to know what it is talking about on the subject.
The country's mineral wealth has been estimated at more than a trillion dollars.
My guess is ...
2
Note: all quotes in this answer are taken from this website, and according to Wikipedia they’re the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for China.
Political Influence and an UN seat.
The Taliban are likely to take over most, if not all of Afghanistan soon, and since they are recognized by most major powers, it is not possible for them to get a seat on the UN general ...
answered Sep 27 at 16:09
Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
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0
The Taliban do not restrict the activities of women because it is in their interests. This is not the conclusion of a logical train of thought on their part.
They do so because it is in their nature.
That is one aspect of their traditions, that their hardline interpretation of Islam includes a very dated concept of women that comes from the time of Mohammed.
...
3
The Taliban are a theocratic organization who derives their concept of "gain" in terms of a faith based system centering on moral or spiritual capital, rather than a western\capitalist system where the concept of gain is centered on economic capital.
They "gain" a closer adherence to "the correct way to live" in accordance to ...
-7
What the Taliban has to gain is the confidence of Afganistan. There were US campaigns in the 80s and 90s for womens rights in Afghanistan which were beginning to gain quite a bit of traction bit were deligimitised by beconing associated with the Afghanistan war by an invading and then occupying force.
Islam values education: There is a weak Hadith that ...
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Almost all traditional cultures and religions are paternalistic, meaning that social, political, and economic power is vested in men, and women are rendered as either second-class citizens, non-citizens, or outright property. This is as true of Western (liberal Christian) nations as any other. For instance, in the US, women have only had the right to vote ...
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To put in a simple manner, secularism in the West is divided in two groups/forms, Anglo-based secularism, followed by countries such as UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc. and French-based laïcité. Secularism is based on freedom of religion, and laïcité is based on freedom from religion. This is why the hijab bans are in countries such as France and Switzerland,...
2
I have only observed the situation in France in passing and I have almost no idea what the situation is in Canada or elsewhere in the western world. However, I did witness the situation in Germany where there was a big discussion (Kopftuchstreit, litereally dispute concerning headscarves) in the first decade of this millenium and multiple attempts at banning ...
5
I would challenge the frame of the question: many in the West are concerned about these hijab bans. Attitudes towards religious freedom, as well as free speech, are both far more absolutist in the US than in some other Western democracies, and in the US such a law would be both extremely unpopular, and unconstitutional.
Indeed, your exact point was made in a ...
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The Taliban do not operate in terms of maximizing material gain, otherwise they would've long abandoned Islam and adopted western values (to simplify the term) trying to gain international support that way.
They operate within the framework of their understanding of Islam, which is rooted in the Deobandi school of thought, a Sunni school of thought within ...
4
I take strong issue with at least two of the three main premises of the question, which seem to be as follows:
France and Canada and unnamed other countries have banned the wearing of the hijab, and are representative of the "West" in their attitudes toward "hijab-practicing" Muslims.
Wearing the hijab is an essential part of "...
3
All the potential political background aside, there is a fundamental qualitative difference between Banning a particular thing and requiring a particular thing:
Banning one piece of item removes one option from a huge list of choices (in the example: also many that are fine with the beliefs of most Muslims)
Requiring one particular attire removes all but ...
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The Taliban owe their success (in coming to power) in large part due to their ideology, or at least to the social-military organization that it enabled. And while technically the Deobandi schools in Pakistan where the Taliban leadership is mostly educated is distinct from Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi, they came under strong influence of the latter. And a ...
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First of all. We don't know whether they are really banning girls education or they suspended it until segregated schools will be avaible. Anyway this is one of the rules that attracts the attention, but actually what matters is the entire set of rules which will come with the implementation of the Sharia.
By enforcing a lot of moral rules first of all ...
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Since Afghanistan is a majority muslim country, Sharia law would be implemented whether the Taliban was in government or a regime approved by the West. The question is, not "the country's move to sharia law", but the interpretation thereof.
Although restrictions on women have been reported, such as not being able to drive alone, the coverage lacks ...
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The moral motivation of Colonialism was colloquially called, 'the white mans burden'. Neocolonialism could similarly called 'the white womans burden'.
Just as the moral justification for Colonialism was critiqued as being simply a figleaf for the colonial empires of Europe; one can just as easily argue that the feminist moral motivation for Neo-colonialism ...
-1
In general:
Objecting to change (Afghanistan) tends to be seen as more pressing and more justified than pushing for change (Saudi Arabia).
Whether or not it actually is either more pressing or more justified is beside the point. The point is just that people tend to see it as such.
It's "more justified"
Humans are rather strongly biased towards ...
1
The premise of your question is, quite simply, false. While it's true that there are many restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia, it is not true that they have no rights, nor is it true that the Taliban imposes no restrictions that Saudi Arabia doesn't impose. Furthermore, while the Taliban has suggested that they will not be as harsh as when they were last ...
1
It's an us vs. them mentality where the "us" side believes "them" should also do as they do, because "us" is "better" (quotation marks because what's better is ill-defined).
In other words, because Western men and women think Western-style clothing is better and can't imagine anyone would actually want to wear Islamic ...
19
One it's face both laws seem similar -- requirements on what women can wear. But when examined there are many differences:
The French law allows women a great range in clothing, whereas the Afghan law much more strongly limits free choice -- no exposed skin or hair except a small part of the face.
Part of the French ban (the 2004 "school headscarf ban&...
5
If I understood your question correctly, what you call hypocrisy of standards is linked to the paradox of tolerance:
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without
limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by
the intolerant.
You don't have to agree with it, but I think it's the justification for the bans on ...
5
Two answers to this, one cynical and the other practical. Cynical answer first.
Cynical answer
The media is biased, always has been, always will be. The bias can be small, but it's noticeable and there. That's why conservatives read Fox News and liberals read Huffington Post.
Another way to have bias is to decide what to report on. It's why when Crimea voted ...
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