Marine 83; Possibly. Many times there is no perfect response, and everything has consequences, either positive or negative, so at this point it’s hard to say what may have been.

The Afghans I worked with in different areas all had eerily similar descriptions and explanations for the events that followed the pullout of the Soviets. They all included a brief period of everyone, including the (Soviet-backed) Afghan Army, getting along, during which the ISI instigated some incidents to pit the factions against each other, followed by a massacre of Army troops, followed by backing the Taliban.

The Taliban never took the entire country; but they did take most of it including Kabul. They announced themselves the winner, but the HiG and Northern Alliance, to name two, remained players. Gulbuddin rocketed Kabul numerous times during the Taliban’s rule.

It’s interesting to get the Afghan’s spin on it. One consistent thing; they portray Pakistani interference via the ISI. Many Afghans hate Pakistan.

sirius_sir; Afghanistan does have oil and a bunch of natural gas. They also have huge deposits of copper and iron. Nuristan and the Panjshir’s biggest industries are gems, which they destroy a goodly amount of by using primitive mining (TNT) techniques.

Afghanistan is a closet wealthy country, but the closet is locked. All these years that other countries have spent developing and accessing their resources have been spent in battling the occupying Soviets and internecine warfare.

Helping the Afghans to unlock the wealth of their country and build their own industry would go a really long way towards reducing insurgency. Idle hands are the mullah’s workshop, you know.