The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
Here is an unbelievable story about how we tried to reshape Afghanistan in our image 50 years ago. This story has a sad ending that we need to bear in mind as we now try to do the same thing all over again.
If you look beyond the soldiers, and into the distance, what you are really seeing are the ruins of one of the biggest technological projects the United States has ever undertaken. Its aim was to use science to try and change the course of history and produce a modern utopia in Afghanistan. The city of Lashkar Gah was built by the Americans as a model planned city, and the hundreds of miles of canals that the Taliban now hide in were constructed by the same company that built the San Francisco Bay Bridge and Cape Canaveral.
But almost immediately things started to go wrong......
posted by Jeff @ 5:51 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I remember back in 2002 recieving my classmates approbation as a I denounced the looming Afghan foray as both misguided and immoral. I also remember the stupified silence when I asked them to join me in the real fight; the fight to reinvade Vietnam. The battle plan, entitled Operation Regain Pride, would catch the Vietnamese Regular Army flat footed. In order to fund the plan, I stuffed envelopes from home until I had accumulated the 1.5 million Rands to purchase a battle hardened team of Boer War Veterans and apartheid holdouts who eh no one is gonna read this.
-Praveen
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