I mean yeah, all that, but did you even stop to consider how absolutely insanely wealthy we made like 7 people!?
God you people are so selfish with your wah wah thousands upon thousands have died! Think of the rich people for once!
:P
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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A friendly reminder, the USA took 4 Presidents, thousands of lives, trillions of dollar and 20 years to replace Taliban with Taliban.
(media.piefed.social)
Submission Statement
Between 2001 and 2021, under four U.S. presidents, the United States spent approximately $2.3 trillion, with 2,459 American military fatalities and up to 360,000 estimated Afghan civilian deaths.
After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, approximately $7.12 billion worth of military equipment was left behind, according to a 2022 Department of Defense report. This equipment, transferred to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) from 2005 to 2021, included:
Weapons: Over 300,000 of 427,300 weapons, including rifles like M4s and M16s.
Vehicles: More than 40,000 of 96,000 military vehicles, including 12,000 Humvees and 1,000 armored vehicles.
Aircraft: 78 aircraft, valued at $923.3 million, left at Hamid Karzai International Airport, all demilitarized and rendered inoperable.
Munitions: 9,524 air-to-ground munitions worth $6.54 million, mostly non-precision.
Communications and Specialized Equipment: Nearly all communications gear (e.g., radios, encryption devices) and 42,000 pieces of night vision, surveillance, biometric, and positioning equipment.
The total equipment provided to the ANDSF was valued at $18.6 billion, with the $7.12 billion figure representing what remained after the withdrawal. Much of this equipment is now under Taliban control, though its operational capability is limited due to the need for specialized maintenance and technical expertise.
The United States has provided at least $93.41 billion in total aid to Afghanistan since 2001. This includes:
Military Aid (2001–2020): Approximately $72.7 billion (in current dollars), primarily through the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund ($71.7 billion) and other programs like International Military Education and Training, Foreign Military Financing, and Peacekeeping Operations ($1 billion combined).
Humanitarian and Reconstruction Aid (2001–2025): Around $20.71 billion, including $3 billion in humanitarian and development aid post-2021 and $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan assets transferred to the Afghan Fund in 2022. Pre-2021 reconstruction and humanitarian aid (e.g., $174 million in 2001 and $300 million pledged in 2002) adds to this, though exact figures for the full period are less clear.
didn't usa also train the taliban? because they didn't want ussr to have afghanistan
Yes but actually no. Mujahideen (did I spell that correctly?) were CIA funded as they opposed the Russian invasion.
A lot of former Mujahideen fighters did end up in both Taliban and Al-Quebec (autocorrect tells me that's the right spelling) after the soviet-Afghan war, including Osama himself. While allied, they are separate entities.
They are allies and with common roots, but saying Taliban was trained by CIA is an oversimplification. Some of its members were, yes, but that was long before Taliban was a thing.
Also, the paragon of Aged Like Milk:
Hahahahahahahhqhahaa!!!! Al-Quebec!
The French Canadian province would like a word
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No. The Taliban only got started after the Soviets left. But the US funded and trained the Mujahedeen which later created Al-Quaeda.
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“That's why the Taliban is so deadly and effective — hapkido training. Where'd they learn that? From Steven Seagal's fat ass. Why do you think Kelly Lebrock left him? 'Cause he's Taliban.”
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and the USA claims healcare for its citizens is unaffordable
We're also cutting Veteran benefits, which has been a recurring thing.
Books are where it's at!
Because yanks have always thought that they're somehow special, that things will be different when they do it
Actually, most yanks don't feel this way. Big business, CIA/FBI, Gov't wants resources, weapon sales, drug and human trafficking, all things to keep the rich ....rich. They use the two party system, which is really a uni-party system controlled by them, to keep the masses fighting amongst themselves while they proceed with war and taking away human rights under war-times.
I get you, but I'm not just talking about US military aggression
I'm talking about the whole absurd notion of American exceptionalism
I've known so many Americans who have been relatively educated and aware of the world outside of 'Murica, but even then they are shocked that the rest of the world does things differently, usually better, and that they aren't special to anyone other than themselves
If you live in a more civilised part of the country, and move in more educated and civilised circles, it's horrifying how ignorant the overwhelming majority of Americans are
Things being different is simply beyond their ken
And I understand your point, but you are generalizing also. I think it would be better to say SOME American's are like what you describe, and I would say, because it is usually a class thing within American society. Lower, middle, even some upper classes don't get to travel, or don't want to (or go on horrible isolated cruise ships,) outside the US and aren't exposed to the world they grew up in. Also, our education system, thanks to the rich again, has been destroyed. But, that doesn't apply to everyone, and when you generalize, it is offensive to many. There is an American pride that is built in to our upbringing, as in most places, but what might be unique here is the rich/corporate/gov't exploit that patriotism and use it as propaganda so it is easier to manufacture the selling of war.
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This is correct.
And we didn't learn our lesson from the Vietnamese, because most people here aren't able to read above a third-grade level.
Well, with Vietnam, we literally did a fucking false flag to give ourself a pretense.
I really can’t blame 9/11 Truthers that much, the fact that the Gulf of Tonkin shit happened is fucking insane. Vietnam won its independence fair and square, we should have stayed the fuck out.
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"Invade Afghanistan, you will regret it," is one of history's NCDish lessons. Like:
- Don't invade Russia in winter.
- Don't let Germany get too economically depressed.
- Don't let the Chinese people get too unhappy with their govt.
Iran feels geographically close enough to inherit the curse for sure.
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Is this text AI generated? The civilian death toll in the "submission statement" is about 6x higher than accepted numbers and about 100K higher than all total deaths in the entire conflict.
IMO (AI or not) slop like this just "floods the zone with shit" while doing noting to help the progressive cause.
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TBF, withdrawing was a Trump era decision that Joe Biden simply didn't stop. Trump also released 5,000+ Taliban Fighters just before. I feel like if we didn't elect people like Donald fucking Trump then the outcome might have been different, it really seems like he was intentionally causing these problems.
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Thousands of lives
Ya kinda are forgetting the lives lost on the Afghani side there buddy
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I learned 2 important lesson from this.
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You can't bomb people into liking you.
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Most people don't give a shit about number 1.
Edit: AutoIncorrect got me.
You actually think they were there to stop the Taliban?
Absolutely. The plan was to do in Afghanistan what we'd done in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Argentina and the Philippines.
We wanted a local aristocracy beholden to the US business interests with a police force willing to brutalize dissidents. Taliban wasn't that thing, so they needed to be supplanted.
Problem was, the Afghan aristocracy that the US aligned with were more vile than the Taliban and rejected by the public at large. So the US spent 23 years killing everyone who refused to submit to them.
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before that it was the mujahadeen trained by SEALs/special operations, turned taliban.
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trillions of dollar
That's a lot of dollar.
Like in the first episode of Beverley Hillbillies: "They offered me 125 dollars for the bog. But I don't know what kind of dollars. I know gold dollars and silver dollars, and even those newfangled paper dollars. But what is a million dollar?"
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Throw another 20 years at it
Hell, throw another 100 years at it, it wouldn't make a difference
Doesn't even matter which country invades, it won't hold it for long.
Even Alexander the Great only briefly held it for 25 years after defeating Darius III
The people didn't want us there and we weren't interested in forcing ourselves on them like some kind of brutal Soviet satellite state
The rampant unchecked corruption was way worse than we thought and it was a major consideration for pulling out
Can't help people who are unwilling to help themselves
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This makes it seem that it was a pointless war but it wasn't once you know the real reason the US went into Afghanistan.
Just follow the money and see who got rich from this "war". It definitely was not pointless for them and their shiny new yachts and private planes.
Trump is deporting afghan collaborators who came here after that war.
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This shit haunts me sometimes. I remember hearing somewhere that the Taliban actually offered to deliver OBL to the US if they would promise not to invade and we were like "get fucked, idiot". How many people's lives did we needlessly destroy, regardless of nationality, both in Iraq and Afghanistan? What else could have been bought besides misery with the nearly four trillion between those two wars?
I didnt know about any of this. The article I read mentioned they offered to put him on trial prior to 9/11 too for his other crimes in the 90s. America is literally the idiot bully who yells over anything you say and then eventually punches you in the face while you are confused.
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Thanks to taco to negotiate withdrawal with Taliban instead with the Afghani government.
The current war with Iran is also because he withdraw from JCPOA, and looks like we know now why Netanyahu came to Mar-a-Lago June last year to see trump.
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Super Troopers joke about the Taliban warlord was in date, then hilariously out of date, then disturbingly in date again.
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