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Okay, like two/thirds of this post are just fucking brain-dead. (Not an American btw.)
Afghanistan and Gulf War were the most straightforward of all conflicts US has been involved in in the 21st century.
Afghanistan - that's where the Taliban were, and the Taliban did 9/11 (kinda, Al Qaeda did, but they had ties, and bin Laden was there for a time). The only problem was that the US didn't consider the regional politics and allied with Pakistan, which was funding the Taliban, since stable Afghanistan was bad for Pakistan.
Gulf War - he, y'know, INVADED KUWAIT! What the fuck is so difficult to understand about "Invading sovereign states is bad actually"!?
Iraq War was bad though 100%
IDK man it kind of feels like you’re the one being obtuse, not engaging with the critique of imperialism.
to respond,: Afghanistan. Taliban. Did 911. US invaded over it. …Okay. And then…And uh.then., Lost. Lost, rather badly, as I heard it. Oh and they gave Lockheed Martin and Raytheon 50 trillion dollars.
My issue with Kuwait is like, the US is still there. And it has been the entire time.
Kuwait isn't really the same situation as other countries the US has/had a presence in. The relationship is fundamentally different. The US is still in Kuwait in the same sense that they are still in Germany. Kuwait wasn't invaded by the US like Iraq and Afghanistan were. Kuwait was already a US ally before the war, and remained one afterwards. They allow the US to have bases in Kuwait, but the US isn't in control of the country, again, same as in Germany. Hell, after some quick Googling, I came across a statistic that said that in 2003, public opinion regarding the US was more favourable in Kuwait than in the US's western allies (something like 64% favourable in Kuwait vs <50% in Europe).
My issue with Kuwait is like, the US is still there. And it has been the entire time.
The USA is still there to ensure reliable global delivery of petroleum as a larger geopolitical play to strengthen global trade which is in the USA's interests. I've not heard the Kuwait ask the USA to leave.
What is your concern that the USA has military bases in Kuwait?
When the west does trade and globalism with a 2nd or 3rd world nation, it's actually imperial colonialism. When Russia and China do imperial colonialism, it's actually for their national security, and the betterment of the world or something, idk.
kinda
Saudia Arabia deserved a bit of freedom more than any other country.
Yes.
Hm yeah and the Taliban just sort of materialized out of thin air with a deep vendetta against the US because they were jealous... or for their religion... or. uh. something...
Definitely not the product of any covert CIA operations that undermined democracy and autonomy in the region or anything... no no the US just forgot to consider the regional politics in which they were also funding the guerilla fighters that Pakistan was funding to prevent the people of Afghanistan from adopting socialism and being allied with the USSR.
Yeah, I definitely feel like the Afghanistan war gets a way worse rep than it deserves since Iraq happened right after.
Sure, we left the country and the Taliban regained power, but Al-Queda is basically a non-threat these days. Osama is dead, most of their leadership is dead, their training and infrastructure is mostly gone, etc. etc.
If they're a non threat, how the fuck did they steamroll the damn country before we even finished leaving?
So al Qaeda specifically as an organization is a non-threat, kinda in the same way that the Mujahadeen is a non-threat, the leadership is non existent, disrupted by the relevant forces (Soviets in the 80s vs the American funded Mujahadeen and the US in the 2000s against al Qaeda) leaving the area a broken mess, never making the locals lives better in any way letting them fester in anger, and opening up a new power vacuum for a new charismatic leader to rally people together and strike back at the giant empires that broke their country, drawing them into another protracted war, repeating the cycle.
Maybe I'm wrong! I haven't been following super close, so I'm definitely open to being corrected.
I thought that was just the Taliban that took back Afghanistan, and not Al-Queda.