Kmarion wrote:
Flaming_Maniac wrote:
Kmarion wrote:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_aid_to_afg_tot_dev_aid_est-aid-afghanistan-total-development-estimates
I'm not so naive to think we didn't benefit from the relationship also. But don't play the pity card when the afghans clearly gained as well. You know damn well if we would have went in back then to help them rebuild we would be hearing from the same "nationbuilding sucks you imperialistic bastards" crowd.
Stop looking at one side.. that's the difference between opinions here.
Hahaha, that chart means beyond nothing. 83 billion - cost of waging our own war with their people - cost of rebuilding the nation that we personally bombed the crap out of = chicken feed.
Just because we have been giving them money does not mean they have "benefited" from it, or that they were even had a choice in our terms.
There is nothing wrong with abusing your power as a militarily superior nation, but to be short sighted and/or blind to the consequences is stupidity. A large part of our current situation is a direct result of our actions in the late 70s and 80s, and it should be a lesson to us in the future.
The chart has a source. You should probably check it.
The Afghans retained their independence. The US benefited also. That's the way a relationship works. I've never said otherwise. If it makes you feel better keep repeating yourself.
United Nations Development Program? Okay? The fact the chart is terribly irrelevant is the problem, not its quality.
The Afghans retained an independence hardly worth having, while the U.S. benefited greatly. It was not a fair deal, and it only worked because they weren't united enough to have any leverage.
I'll feel better when you stop dancing your increasingly ungraceful dance and say the U.S. cultivated AQ from its brutish foreign policy in Afghanistan from the late 70s and 80s.
Kmarion wrote:
Flaming_Maniac wrote:
Kmarion wrote:
Of course the cold war was a major reason in the 80's. But we also helped (more than anyone else) after the cold war and prior to 9/11.
The most does not mean enough.
No amount of money will be enough. A few thousands years of bloodfeuds is all the fault of a nation that has only been around a couple hundred. srsly
It wouldn't have taken very much to have kept the Taliban out of power. I'm not asking for a Wal-Mart flanked by a McDonald's and Starbucks on every street.