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I've been listening to an audio book called The Afghanistan papers. I recommend it and might pick up a physical copy later.

 

It reports on what really happened over there and reveals all of the stupid ways that a government will waste money.

 

It turns out that after chasing Al Qaeda out nobody had any idea what to do.

 

The most hilarious/sad part must be the efforts to curtail the opium trade.  Britain was offering Afghan farmers $700 per acre to destroy opium crops.  Many farmers went out and planted poppies immediately.  Some even harvested the opium resin prior before destroying the crops for a double payday.  Some efforts were made to encourage farmers to grow other crops instead.  Offering people something like $100 dollars a month to dig irrigation ditches.  Sadly teachers were only getting 60% of that so many quit teaching to go and dig ditches.  For some reason the other crops were not profitable so were abandoned.  Don't worry though as all those ditches would end up being used to irrigate opium crops anyway.  Many of the empty schools would be repurposed by Taliban.  During all of this the Afghans would ask why they couldn't grow poppies if the U.S.A. and Europe had such high demand for opium resin.  It might have been an idea to discourage the demand over here but the West is increasingly busy facilitating it.

 

I think the U.S.A. spent about 2 trillion dollars over there. This book is a great reminder of how useless government spending can be.

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9 hours ago, ranger_syntax said:

I've been listening to an audio book called The Afghanistan papers. I recommend it and might pick up a physical copy later.

 

It reports on what really happened over there and reveals all of the stupid ways that a government will waste money.

 

It turns out that after chasing Al Qaeda out nobody had any idea what to do.

 

The most hilarious/sad part must be the efforts to curtail the opium trade.  Britain was offering Afghan farmers $700 per acre to destroy opium crops.  Many farmers went out and planted poppies immediately.  Some even harvested the opium resin prior before destroying the crops for a double payday.  Some efforts were made to encourage farmers to grow other crops instead.  Offering people something like $100 dollars a month to dig irrigation ditches.  Sadly teachers were only getting 60% of that so many quit teaching to go and dig ditches.  For some reason the other crops were not profitable so were abandoned.  Don't worry though as all those ditches would end up being used to irrigate opium crops anyway.  Many of the empty schools would be repurposed by Taliban.  During all of this the Afghans would ask why they couldn't grow poppies if the U.S.A. and Europe had such high demand for opium resin.  It might have been an idea to discourage the demand over here but the West is increasingly busy facilitating it.

 

I think the U.S.A. spent about 2 trillion dollars over there. This book is a great reminder of how useless government spending can be.

A fiasco from start to finish just like Iraq and Libya.

 

And only resulted in more economic migration to the West.

Edited by ChelseaBoy
my bad
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 20/09/2021 at 06:45, ian1964 said:

 

Afghans are probably used to squatting toilets.

 

This was also covered in The Afghanistan Papers. Lots of Afghan soldiers picked up injuries from slipping off while standing on top of the toilet seat and then squatting.

 

The Americans built loads of Western style toilets without considering whether or not it was appropriate. Similar to the way that idiots are demanding that Afghans are brought to the West just now.

 

Big waste of money. How will it all end?

Edited by ranger_syntax
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