Somewhere in the middle of Afghanistan, there are the ruins of two demolished Buddha statues...

[Johonny]

33. +1

eradicating long held cultural views on women seems beyond the US ability. I mean we tolerate other more US friendly countries in the region that hardly have westernized views of women. It isn't even clear 10+ years into the wars in the middle east the things like the Taliban are one organic organization. Which is of course why the US policy is/has been to work with those people in the Afghan power structure that would work with the Taliban if they were in power, but are open to working within the current power structure too. This is because in Afghanistan there are people in the political structure in many areas that go with the flow because that is what you need to do to survive. To cut off point blank any interaction with these people based on the label on a door is the guarantee the current political structure won't survive. It's like say having a country where the legislature won't work on policy with the president in the government because the name on the door is another political party. Dysfunctional governance is generally a bad start.