Yeah, I definitely feel like the Afghanistan war gets a way worse rep than it deserves since Iraq happened right after.
Sure, we left the country and the Taliban regained power, but Al-Queda is basically a non-threat these days. Osama is dead, most of their leadership is dead, their training and infrastructure is mostly gone, etc. etc.
So al Qaeda specifically as an organization is a non-threat, kinda in the same way that the Mujahadeen is a non-threat, the leadership is non existent, disrupted by the relevant forces (Soviets in the 80s vs the American funded Mujahadeen and the US in the 2000s against al Qaeda) leaving the area a broken mess, never making the locals lives better in any way letting them fester in anger, and opening up a new power vacuum for a new charismatic leader to rally people together and strike back at the giant empires that broke their country, drawing them into another protracted war, repeating the cycle.
Yeah, I definitely feel like the Afghanistan war gets a way worse rep than it deserves since Iraq happened right after.
Sure, we left the country and the Taliban regained power, but Al-Queda is basically a non-threat these days. Osama is dead, most of their leadership is dead, their training and infrastructure is mostly gone, etc. etc.
If they’re a non threat, how the fuck did they steamroll the damn country before we even finished leaving?
So al Qaeda specifically as an organization is a non-threat, kinda in the same way that the Mujahadeen is a non-threat, the leadership is non existent, disrupted by the relevant forces (Soviets in the 80s vs the American funded Mujahadeen and the US in the 2000s against al Qaeda) leaving the area a broken mess, never making the locals lives better in any way letting them fester in anger, and opening up a new power vacuum for a new charismatic leader to rally people together and strike back at the giant empires that broke their country, drawing them into another protracted war, repeating the cycle.
Maybe I’m wrong! I haven’t been following super close, so I’m definitely open to being corrected.
I thought that was just the Taliban that took back Afghanistan, and not Al-Queda.