Seems like they still don’t feel like they are the owner of Afghanistan
Mostly because the leaders of the Taliban aren’t typically afghan nationals. Most of them are Saudi Arabs who came to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and never left. The cultural differences between different ethnicities in Afghanistan are pretty stark, but the cultural difference between Pashtuns and Arabs is much greater.
I’d imagine, securing these sites, even if they wanted to, isn’t the top priority of Talibs.
It’s mainly because they are trying to erase the cultural history of the Afghan people. Afghanistan throughout history has been a huge historical cultural melting pot, with influence ranging from ancient Greece, Iranian, Indian, and Mongolian culture. This fact is represented by the vast array of tribal people still living there.
The Taliban are Arab, and they have a penchant for Arab nationalism/supremacy. And are participating in the same ethnic violence and cultural erasure that any white supremacist would love to mimic.
They don’t like these historic sites because it’s not their history. It stands as evidence that Afghanistan is not a monoculture.
I’d abstain from linking it to Muslims exclusively because we all know where things in museums of previously colonial empires came from.
Also, the west kinda propagated the extremes we see in Islamic extremism we see today. During the Soviet afghan war we had a deal with Saudi Arabia where the Saudi would match every dollar the CIA invested in the conflict.
We weren’t only sending stinger missiles and arming and training the mujahideen, we were also building Wahhabi based Madrasa run by the Saudi. The Madrasa were shipped extremist educational materials for children, textbooks such as “The Alphabet of Jihad Literacy". Which was put together by the CIA and printed in Texas and Nebraska, some of which are still being utilized today.
I feel really bad for the people of Afghanistan. They’ve gotten the rough end of the stick throughout all of written history, and yet they remain such a kind and generous people. Their culture puts such an importance on hospitality and being overly gracious, it’s to the point where it’s almost overwhelming.
I am lucky enough to live in a state where a lot of the people who were evacuated during the last days of the war were relocated. I work in orthopedics and rehabilitation and was able to get my hospital to do approve some probono care with the help of an NGO I volunteer with.
I’ve gotten to care for a couple of the translators that worked with the US military and were injured by IED. They came here with nothing, not even their health. But oh boy, they do not take to favours lightly. At one point one of them saw me leaving a grocery door a couple months after his operation, the dude followed my car home and demanded that me and my wife come to his house immediately for dinner. Like, the guy didn’t even want me to finish putting our groceries away.
It shames me to know how my country helped perpetuate the destruction of their country, their people, and their culture. I think we all have a duty to confront it any way we can.
With a grocery thing - yeah, I encounter it in some of people I meet, and it made me a little sad many of my random communications comes off so automated and heartless. We have something to learn or even remember from them. Nowadays I’m surprised if someone call me to say that I forgot something on the cashier’s table or dropped something on the floor. This alienation isn’t healthy at all.
Mostly because the leaders of the Taliban aren’t typically afghan nationals. Most of them are Saudi Arabs who came to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and never left. The cultural differences between different ethnicities in Afghanistan are pretty stark, but the cultural difference between Pashtuns and Arabs is much greater.
It’s mainly because they are trying to erase the cultural history of the Afghan people. Afghanistan throughout history has been a huge historical cultural melting pot, with influence ranging from ancient Greece, Iranian, Indian, and Mongolian culture. This fact is represented by the vast array of tribal people still living there.
The Taliban are Arab, and they have a penchant for Arab nationalism/supremacy. And are participating in the same ethnic violence and cultural erasure that any white supremacist would love to mimic.
They don’t like these historic sites because it’s not their history. It stands as evidence that Afghanistan is not a monoculture.
Also, the west kinda propagated the extremes we see in Islamic extremism we see today. During the Soviet afghan war we had a deal with Saudi Arabia where the Saudi would match every dollar the CIA invested in the conflict.
We weren’t only sending stinger missiles and arming and training the mujahideen, we were also building Wahhabi based Madrasa run by the Saudi. The Madrasa were shipped extremist educational materials for children, textbooks such as “The Alphabet of Jihad Literacy". Which was put together by the CIA and printed in Texas and Nebraska, some of which are still being utilized today.
I feel really bad for the people of Afghanistan. They’ve gotten the rough end of the stick throughout all of written history, and yet they remain such a kind and generous people. Their culture puts such an importance on hospitality and being overly gracious, it’s to the point where it’s almost overwhelming.
I am lucky enough to live in a state where a lot of the people who were evacuated during the last days of the war were relocated. I work in orthopedics and rehabilitation and was able to get my hospital to do approve some probono care with the help of an NGO I volunteer with.
I’ve gotten to care for a couple of the translators that worked with the US military and were injured by IED. They came here with nothing, not even their health. But oh boy, they do not take to favours lightly. At one point one of them saw me leaving a grocery door a couple months after his operation, the dude followed my car home and demanded that me and my wife come to his house immediately for dinner. Like, the guy didn’t even want me to finish putting our groceries away.
It shames me to know how my country helped perpetuate the destruction of their country, their people, and their culture. I think we all have a duty to confront it any way we can.
Wow, thank you for that insight.
With a grocery thing - yeah, I encounter it in some of people I meet, and it made me a little sad many of my random communications comes off so automated and heartless. We have something to learn or even remember from them. Nowadays I’m surprised if someone call me to say that I forgot something on the cashier’s table or dropped something on the floor. This alienation isn’t healthy at all.