Two years after its takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban is overseeing its first major infrastructure project, the 115-mile Qosh Tepa canal, designed to divert 20 percent of the water from the Amu Darya river across the parched plains of northern Afghanistan.
As an aside, I thought it was a bit funny that even the Taliban acknowledge climate change:
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan retains experienced water management experts and remains committed to water rights of neighbors in line with existing treaties,” [spokesman at the Afghan Foreign Ministry] Balkhi said. “As climate change has disproportionately harmed Afghanistan and the region due to consecutive drought years and depletion of water reserves, it is therefore vital that major carbon emitting countries take lead in tackling this crisis.”
I remember hitting this milestone on Civilization, the Aqueduct. There's always hope that an evil regime such as the Taliban will evolve. Maybe with some development and time they will join the...
I remember hitting this milestone on Civilization, the Aqueduct.
There's always hope that an evil regime such as the Taliban will evolve. Maybe with some development and time they will join the rest of the world.
I think there may be some hope. I'm inclined to think that the Taliban is not that corrupt, just backwards and uneducated. So, in theory they may be willing to sincerely listen to what...
I think there may be some hope. I'm inclined to think that the Taliban is not that corrupt, just backwards and uneducated. So, in theory they may be willing to sincerely listen to what reasonably-minded non-Western parties have to say (ex. well-respected Islamic scholars) and gradually make progress. Though I wouldn't expect to see a typical, liberal representative democracy.
We've only come on leaps and bounds in the last century. It wasn't that long ago that you could own slaves and women were seen as lesser than men. Equality and inclusion is doing well in today's...
We've only come on leaps and bounds in the last century. It wasn't that long ago that you could own slaves and women were seen as lesser than men. Equality and inclusion is doing well in today's modern and Western societies but there is still so far to go.
I'm looking forward to the human race evolving to that shown in the likes of Star Trek. Don't things for the sake of moving forward and not because of GDP and capitalism.
I think these conversations can get highly theoretical and separated from "ground realities" if you're coming from a US perspective (US specifically, not necessarily Western). I personally believe...
I think these conversations can get highly theoretical and separated from "ground realities" if you're coming from a US perspective (US specifically, not necessarily Western). I personally believe there's plenty of room for Iran to improve if there's high-level engagement and exchange
I think it's silly to call anywhere hopeless. Think of how backwards Western countries are, were 100 years ago, were 200 years ago, etc. There's not any real chance Afghanistan turns into a...
I think it's silly to call anywhere hopeless. Think of how backwards Western countries are, were 100 years ago, were 200 years ago, etc. There's not any real chance Afghanistan turns into a liberal paradise within the decade but countries don't exist exclusively on short timescales.
The Taliban will probably be referred to as the government of Afghanistan when enough countries recognize them as the legitimate government. Currently, I believe the number of countries which do...
The Taliban will probably be referred to as the government of Afghanistan when enough countries recognize them as the legitimate government. Currently, I believe the number of countries which do so is 0.
Unless anyone has a plan to do something about it any time in the near future it's all just seems kind of affected honestly. There's a crop of articles where it's always like "SURPRISE! Acting...
Unless anyone has a plan to do something about it any time in the near future it's all just seems kind of affected honestly. There's a crop of articles where it's always like "SURPRISE! Acting government of Afghanistan attempts to govern" with an incredulous tone and it's like, obviously.
People seem incapable of thinking of villains as anything but fanatical and insane. The idea of adversaries being motivated by similar objectives and drives as us doesn't seem to enter. We just imagine them as Tolkien Orcs with no purpose but to be subhuman mooks for our heroes to mow down.
Sure, its mostly just diplomatic pageantry at this point, given that the Taliban is the de facto government of pretty much of all of Afghanistan, but a. who really wants to be the first government...
Unless anyone has a plan to do something about it any time in the near future it's all just seems kind of affected honestly.
Sure, its mostly just diplomatic pageantry at this point, given that the Taliban is the de facto government of pretty much of all of Afghanistan, but a. who really wants to be the first government to recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban of all organizations and b. the longer the Taliban go unrecognized, the more interested they'll be in international recognition, which opens the door for demanding concessions, conditions, etc on recognition.
There's a crop of articles where it's always like "SURPRISE! Acting government of Afghanistan attempts to govern" with an incredulous tone and it's like, obviously.
No disagreement from me here; pikachu surprise that governing organization governs is a fairly obnoxious article subject to read repeatedly, but perhaps its just a byproduct of the Taliban government being relatively new to power.
There is one thing (unrelated to the rest of this comment) that I didn't talk about in my original comment that I'll briefly touch on here. In US media, its not uncommon for news publications to refer to actions by a country's government as '[ruling party] did X' or '[leader] implemented Y', especially when discussing authoritarian countries. E.g. Putin, the CCP, or Kim. The title of this article might be based on that trend of news reporting.
Gift article here.
As an aside, I thought it was a bit funny that even the Taliban acknowledge climate change:
even most staunch conservatives agree the climate is changing, they just don't think it's caused by humans or that we can/should do anything about it.
"Ha! after massive deaths, we are going to pick up this piece of trash on the sidewalk!. SEE!!! We are are good!"
I remember hitting this milestone on Civilization, the Aqueduct.
There's always hope that an evil regime such as the Taliban will evolve. Maybe with some development and time they will join the rest of the world.
I think there may be some hope. I'm inclined to think that the Taliban is not that corrupt, just backwards and uneducated. So, in theory they may be willing to sincerely listen to what reasonably-minded non-Western parties have to say (ex. well-respected Islamic scholars) and gradually make progress. Though I wouldn't expect to see a typical, liberal representative democracy.
We've only come on leaps and bounds in the last century. It wasn't that long ago that you could own slaves and women were seen as lesser than men. Equality and inclusion is doing well in today's modern and Western societies but there is still so far to go.
I'm looking forward to the human race evolving to that shown in the likes of Star Trek. Don't things for the sake of moving forward and not because of GDP and capitalism.
I think these conversations can get highly theoretical and separated from "ground realities" if you're coming from a US perspective (US specifically, not necessarily Western). I personally believe there's plenty of room for Iran to improve if there's high-level engagement and exchange
I think it's silly to call anywhere hopeless. Think of how backwards Western countries are, were 100 years ago, were 200 years ago, etc. There's not any real chance Afghanistan turns into a liberal paradise within the decade but countries don't exist exclusively on short timescales.
Evolve as in being completely overthrown and removed until nothing is left, maybe.
Otherwise, nah no way.
At what point do we stop calling them “The Taliban,” like they’re an external entity and just accept that they’re the Government of Afghanistan?
The Taliban will probably be referred to as the government of Afghanistan when enough countries recognize them as the legitimate government. Currently, I believe the number of countries which do so is 0.
Unless anyone has a plan to do something about it any time in the near future it's all just seems kind of affected honestly. There's a crop of articles where it's always like "SURPRISE! Acting government of Afghanistan attempts to govern" with an incredulous tone and it's like, obviously.
People seem incapable of thinking of villains as anything but fanatical and insane. The idea of adversaries being motivated by similar objectives and drives as us doesn't seem to enter. We just imagine them as Tolkien Orcs with no purpose but to be subhuman mooks for our heroes to mow down.
Sure, its mostly just diplomatic pageantry at this point, given that the Taliban is the de facto government of pretty much of all of Afghanistan, but a. who really wants to be the first government to recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban of all organizations and b. the longer the Taliban go unrecognized, the more interested they'll be in international recognition, which opens the door for demanding concessions, conditions, etc on recognition.
No disagreement from me here; pikachu surprise that governing organization governs is a fairly obnoxious article subject to read repeatedly, but perhaps its just a byproduct of the Taliban government being relatively new to power.
There is one thing (unrelated to the rest of this comment) that I didn't talk about in my original comment that I'll briefly touch on here. In US media, its not uncommon for news publications to refer to actions by a country's government as '[ruling party] did X' or '[leader] implemented Y', especially when discussing authoritarian countries. E.g. Putin, the CCP, or Kim. The title of this article might be based on that trend of news reporting.
It makes sense to hold out in order to place conditions on recognizing them as the official government