This is the reason why the United States has to stop "saving" the world with "freedom":

[MiroJarvis]

Afghan women under their "oppressive socialist government" in the early 80s:



Afghan women after being "liberated" by CIA funded mujahideen:

[world wide wally]

1. Women were allowed to drive cars in Iraq...Until we "liberated" them from Sadaam.

[speak easy]

2. Women are allowed to drive cars and own businesses in Iran.

[ShazamIam]

3. That was the cover story for the real purpose, making the world safe for U.S. Investor class. nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Children just love the Russians' festive landmines!

Hey, I can find pictures too.



These shocking pictures show the haunting legacy of a war more than 25 years ago that scattered landmines in schools and fields which kill and maim dozens of children every day



But the majority of the mines, in grazing fields, schools, paths and waterways all over the country, remain from a war with Russia that ended in 1989

Source: Sorry, the Daily Mail, but you can find others.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205978/Pictured-harrowing-plight-children-maimed-Afghanistan-thousands-landmines-scattered-country-decades-war.html

[MiroJarvis]

5. If the United States let Afghanistan have their socialist government, there would have been no war.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Well, of course. What was I thinking? The Afghanis would have welcomed the Russians with

open arms, if they had had arms, except they were blown off by the Russian landmines.

Those aren't T-55 tanks. Those are wagons delivering flowers and candy.



That's my Stalin!



Fig. 3.12 ‘Thank you beloved Stalin for our happy childhood’, Viktor Govorkov, 1936, Izogiz, 71 x 103.2 cm

Source: Russian State Library

Source: https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n2129/html/ch03.xhtml?referer=&page=9

[MiroJarvis]

8. Afghanistan was a socialist republic.

They requested Soviet Union to intervene in the country to counter attack the anti-communist militias CIA was financing since 1978. The US started this mess, by trying to overthrone Afghan socialist government. BTW, Stalin died in 1953.

And you're not seriously trying to imply that only Soviet Union hurt the Afghan civilians, are you? It's a war. I mean, the US was sending OSAMA BIN LADEN to Afghanistan and giving money to 100,000 terrorists to attack them.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. You're right, comrade. A revolution is not a dinner party.

Yeah, sure, the revisionist hooligans, having seen how their backsliding was betraying the revolution, volunteered to jump out of thirteenth floor windows with their hands tied behind their backs.

People who suspect things might not have been as wonderful as some would have you believe might want to read this:

Democratic Republic and Soviet war (1978–1989)

Main articles: History of Afghanistan (1978–1992), Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, Saur Revolution, and Soviet–Afghan War

On 28 April 1978, the PDPA, led by Nur Mohammad Taraki, Babrak Karmal and Amin Taha overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud, who was assassinated along with all his family members in a bloody military coup. The coup became known as the Saur Revolution. On 1 May, Taraki became head of state, head of government and General Secretary of the PDPA. The country was then renamed the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), and the PDPA regime lasted, in some form or another, until April 1992.

In March 1979, Hafizullah Amin took over as prime minister, retaining the position of field marshal and becoming vice-president of the Supreme Defence Council. Taraki remained General Secretary, Chairman of the Revolutionary Council and in control of the Army. On 14 September, Amin overthrew Taraki, who was killed. Amin stated that "the Afghans recognize only crude force." Afghanistan expert Amin Saikal writes: "As his powers grew, so apparently did his craving for personal dictatorship ... and his vision of the revolutionary process based on terror."

Once in power, the PDPA implemented a Marxist–Leninist agenda. It moved to replace religious and traditional laws with secular and Marxist–Leninist ones. Men were obliged to cut their beards, women could not wear a chador, and mosques were placed off limits. The PDPA made a number of reforms on women's rights, banning forced marriages and giving state recognition of women's right to vote. A prominent example was Anahita Ratebzad, who was a major Marxist leader and a member of the Revolutionary Council. Ratebzad wrote the famous New Kabul Times editorial (May 28, 1978) which declared: "Privileges which women, by right, must have are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of the country ... Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government attention." The PDPA also carried out socialist land reforms and moved to promote state atheism. They also prohibited usury. The PDPA invited the Soviet Union to assist in modernizing its economic infrastructure (predominantly its exploration and mining of rare minerals and natural gas). The USSR also sent contractors to build roads, hospitals and schools and to drill water wells; they also trained and equipped the Afghan army. Upon the PDPA's ascension to power, and the establishment of the DRA, the Soviet Union promised monetary aid amounting to at least $1.262 billion.

At the same time, the PDPA imprisoned, tortured or murdered thousands of members of the traditional elite, the religious establishment, and the intelligentsia. The government launched a campaign of violent repression, killing some 10,000 to 27,000 people and imprisoning 14,000 to 20,000 more, mostly at Pul-e-Charkhi prison. In December 1978 the PDPA leadership signed an agreement with the Soviet Union which would allow military support for the PDPA in Afghanistan if needed. The majority of people in the cities including Kabul either welcomed or were ambivalent to these policies. However, the Marxist–Leninist and secular nature of the government as well as its heavy dependence on the Soviet Union made it unpopular with a majority of the Afghan population. Repressions plunged large parts of the country, especially the rural areas, into open revolt against the new Marxist–Leninist government. By spring 1979 unrests had reached 24 out of 28 Afghan provinces including major urban areas. Over half of the Afghan army would either desert or join the insurrection. Most of the government's new policies clashed directly with the traditional Afghan understanding of Islam, making religion one of the only forces capable of unifying the tribally and ethnically divided population against the unpopular new government, and ushering in the advent of Islamist participation in Afghan politics.

To bolster the Parcham faction, the Soviet Union decided to intervene on December 27, 1979, when the Red Army invaded its southern neighbor. Over 100,000 Soviet troops took part in the invasion, which was backed by another 100,000 Afghan military men and supporters of the Parcham faction. In the meantime, Hafizullah Amin was killed and replaced by Babrak Karmal.

In response to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Carter administration and Reagan administration in the U.S. began arming the Afghan mujahideen, thanks in large part to the efforts of Charlie Wilson and CIA officer Gust Avrakotos. Early reports estimated that $6–20 billion had been spent by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia but more recent reports state that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia provided as much as up to $40 billion in cash and weapons, which included over two thousand FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, for building up Islamic groups against the Soviet Union. The U.S. handled most of its support through Pakistan's ISI.

Scholars such as W. Michael Reisman, Charles Norchi and Mohammed Kakar, believe that the Afghans were victims of genocide by the Soviet Union. Soviet forces and their proxies killed between 562,000 and 2 million Afghans and Russian soldiers also engaged in abductions and rapes of Afghan women. About 6 million fled as Afghan refugees to Pakistan and Iran, and from there over 38,000 made it to the United States and many more to the European Union. The Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan brought with them verifiable stories of murder, collective rape, torture and depopulation of civilians by the Soviet forces. Faced with mounting international pressure and great number of casualties on both sides, the Soviets withdrew in 1989. Their withdrawal from Afghanistan was seen as an ideological victory in the United States, which had backed some Mujahideen factions through three U.S. presidential administrations to counter Soviet influence in the vicinity of the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The USSR continued to support Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah (former head of the Afghan secret service, KHAD) until 1992.

{snip a whole bunch}

[MiroJarvis]

11. I do think you need to read something more qualified rather than Wikipedia.

Anyway, it doesn't change anything I've said. The United States started this mess by trying to overthrow the Afghan socialist republic. Period.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. Enlighten us. NT

[Crunchy Frog]

18. Ah yes, the old invitation to their minerals and natural gas.

Such generosity and selflessness.

[Hekate]

13. Didn't they have a King and such at some point? My university had several dozen Afghan students

… in the late 1960s, and at least one was connected to the royal family. Probably died in the Glorious Revolution.

Where does that factor in to your “socialist republic”?

[MiroJarvis]

21. Yes, they did. Mohammed Zahir Shah was his name.

He was deposed in 1973, when Afghanistan became a republic. Then, in 1978, the Saur Revolution took place, when the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan came to power and founded the Democratic Republic of Aghanistan, which was a socialist republic. Without quotation marks, cause it really was a socialist republic. They nationalized companies, expropriated the bourgeoisie, instituted land reform, etc.

[Crunchy Frog]

16. Are you for real? You're yanking people's chains aren't you?

Edit, I see you've been here a full week and change. Give my regards to Putin.

[MiroJarvis]

17. Sorry, can't help you with that. Don't live in Russia. And I hate Putin. I'm a communist.

[Crunchy Frog]

20. You can throw in your bloated orange god while you're at it.

[MiroJarvis]

22. Are you implying communists like Trump? Gosh... you really need to study politics LOL

Hope you get better. Bye.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. I studied the Soviet Union practically the entire decade of the 1980s, and until it ended.

Im quite confident of my understanding of politics, but thank you for the encouragement.

Putin was high ranking KGB. You don't think they find your orange guy useful?

[MiroJarvis]

28. Putin is a right-wing, conservative, anticommunist idiot.

He's the opposite of a communist.

It does seem like you should study a lot more. Your attempt to link a right-wing fascist such as Trump to communism shows that clearly.

If you need help to understand what communism is, don't hesitate to contact me.

[Hekate]

23. Well spotted, Crunchy

[leftstreet]

7. DURec

[sarisataka]

10. Welcome to DU

Enjoy your time here

[MiroJarvis]

12. Thank you. :)

[Hekate]

14. Oh yeah

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. Is there

Is there something between Islamic fundamentalism and totalarianism?

[iemanja]

29. between Islamic fundamentalism and Communism, yes

The ideologies are entirely different. Both are totalitarian, or seek to be. The Taliban doesn't yet have the capacity to create a fully totalitarian state.

Speaking as a woman, I'd much prefer to have lived in the Soviet Union than be in Afghanistan today. Not that either would be my first choice.

[MiroJarvis]

32. Totalitarianism is a very vague concept.

It was created to make liberal bourgeois democracies seem better or less authoritarian. They aren't.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. People have short memories

Google why did Jimmy Carter place sanctions on the Soviet Union, boycott the 1980 Olympics, and propose increased defense spending?

[MiroJarvis]

27. Because Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan.

That happened after the Afghan government asked them for help with the anti-communist militias CIA was funding.

[iemanja]

30. I appreciate your point

that US interventions always go wrong, but your particular view of the Soviets in Afghanistan is unduly generous. The Soviet experience should have told the US not to try state building there.

[hunter]

31. People in the U.S.A. live under the illusion they are free.

That illusion evaporates the day they find themselves living rough.

The powers-that-be like to keep a lot of homeless people around to frighten all the people working for less than a comfortable living wage.

But mostly you can say anything you like here in the U.S.A., and believe any crazy religion you choose, just so long as you are ineffective.