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GirlScoutSniper t1_j54w9iz wrote

How many women died? Since they aren't counted as people.

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InadequateUsername t1_j5610m8 wrote

Apparently the Taliban believe women to be half the intelligence of men, so probably double whatever number give out.

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kemosabe-84 t1_j54wss0 wrote

If they aren't counted how do you get a count?

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GirlScoutSniper t1_j54x084 wrote

That would be 78 people, and 40 women and 12 goats.

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AuthorSAHunt t1_j55tgrf wrote

Before you come up with another joke, this area receives blizzards pretty regularly, and there are plenty of innocent people there just trying to live their lives in what is basically a mix of prehistoric ruins and a Fallout 3 dirt wasteland of Soviet warfare. Lots of women, old people, and kids who have very little to do with the Taliban and have probably never even met them. Afghanistan is the size of Texas, and the west has been kicking them around since the Victorian era. Arthur Conan Doyle's Watson was an Afghanistan veteran way back in the Sherlock books.

I spent a year there in 2010-2011, and it's not all camels and durka-durka.

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neuromancer64 t1_j565ijx wrote

I was in Mazar-e-sharif in 2012. Those baby camels are so fucking cute.

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AuthorSAHunt t1_j56g33n wrote

I was in Herat and, for the last two or so months, Kabul. I didn't see any camels, but at the bazaar, I saw a canary with what looked like Beatles hair. Cute little guy! And a wild dog down by the airfield that looked like a corgi with long coyote legs. And a camel spider on a door handle by the Lithuanians' office. Fuck that.

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swing_axle t1_j56in4u wrote

Gloster canary!

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AuthorSAHunt t1_j56mchb wrote

Aren't they adorable? He was in a cage, hanging from the eaves of one of the shops. I really want one, both because he reminds me of my time there, and because they don't sing very loud. I love cockatiels and cockatoos but I can't handle the screaming.

Sometimes I feel like I went to Narnia. I don't have much to prove I was there except a photo album, and since I'm the one that took all the photos and I'm not in any of them, I have a hard time making it feel real. I wish I had a little Narnia bird of my own that I can look at and remember that it happened.

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Anon_throwawayacc20 t1_j56smsf wrote

It's a shame Afghanistan is so plunged by conflict in all the years of my life I've known it.

Geographically it's one of the most interesting regions on earth due to its mountainous terrain. (There is a reason a lot of buddhist monks went there to meditate)

I don't know if I will see it free in my lifetime, sadly. But I hope my children and grandchildren can see Afghanistan in a different light.

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AuthorSAHunt t1_j56t6pm wrote

Yeah, oh shit, the landscape is gorgeous. I got to see the western quadrant from the open door of a helicopter and it was like flying over a country from a fantasy novel.

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petit_cochon t1_j57we67 wrote

Oh yeah, I read a memoir once about Afghanistan where the author described that almost nobody he encountered had actually heard of 9/11. They had no idea why Americans were there.

It's just sad.

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38384 OP t1_j5ecks9 wrote

Many parts of the country are extremely remote that's why

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40mm_of_freedom t1_j579yxf wrote

A buddy of mine was in a very remote region and met a sheep herder that asked if he was Russian. That was like 2013.

The rural afghans barely recognize Afghanistan as a country. They recognize their family is tribe we’ll before a country.

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Audioengineer68 t1_j54r9yi wrote

Giving Texas a run for the money.

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CaptainMobilis t1_j559qwh wrote

I voted for people that wanted to upgrade our infrastructure last year. Most everyone else voted for thieves that will pocket the money and upgrade nothing. Then I bought a generator, so I won't freeze to death.

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asdaaaaaaaa t1_j55evdh wrote

Might be wise to keep a small stockpile of gas if you can as well. It's the second thing to go during outages, the first being generators. You'll need to cycle it out as gas does go bad eventually, or stabilize it.

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Zanzibar_T_Cricket t1_j55lqgt wrote

Many small generators are easily switched to propane. You can buy a kit to do it. Propane is much more stable long term, doesn't go bad and gum up parts, and you can also use it in a BBQ or other stove. Great emergency fuel and worth the cost if a conversion kit ..I recall mine was fairly inexpensive. I have a Honda generator.

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Raalf t1_j55magm wrote

And very easy to source smaller tanks in an emergency!

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imvii t1_j56mi5m wrote

I bought a duel fuel generator and only ever run propane through it. I had stockpiled about seven 30 pound tanks just in case. Then we got hit with the Fiona hurricane and my house was without power for 12 days. My tanks lasted the entire time.

I'd go into town and see long lines of people at the gas stations waiting to fill cans with gas for their generators. Places selling propane - no lines.

If you can run a generator off propane, it's the way to go.

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CaptainMobilis t1_j55fo6c wrote

Agreed. I'll have to look into stabilizers, but it uses the same kind of gas my car does, so the current plan is to keep a bigass jug of it and periodically pour it in the car and refill it before it gets old.

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asdaaaaaaaa t1_j55fv5f wrote

Either or works, so long as you're cycling it you should be good. Just don't want to let it sit for half a year on end or something.

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wiseroldman t1_j56ukjz wrote

Texas not being a part of the national grid does not benefit Texans, only the energy company who is cutting costs by not following federal safety standards. It’s like setting up their own energy grid with blackjack and hookers only there is no blackjack or hookers, just power outages.

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RKU69 t1_j560org wrote

Almost 1000 people died in Texas during Winter Storm Uri, so....not quite

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TheNiceTroll t1_j5514bb wrote

Just pray to Allah to raise the temperature. Seems to be working for them for everything else

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[deleted] t1_j55lcbd wrote

[deleted]

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Raalf t1_j55mew7 wrote

Wow, it's like deserts don't have wild temp shifts when the sun goes down normally. Crazy, right?

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[deleted] t1_j55mp2w wrote

[deleted]

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Raalf t1_j55msin wrote

Yet here you are, talking about a frozen desert.

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[deleted] t1_j55n48l wrote

[deleted]

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Raalf t1_j55qe43 wrote

Spoken like someone who has never been in the middle east at night.

Get the fuck over yourself. I know exactly what it's like to be in the desert at night in the winter, and you obviously do not.

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[deleted] t1_j55sy8l wrote

[deleted]

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Raalf t1_j55t52w wrote

Try Wikipedia or weather.com if you need scope beyond a single article.

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eks91 t1_j5g3dgl wrote

Is it rare for cold weather? If it a regular thing then it's not news. People die in the winter time just like the Summertime

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Nakagura775 t1_j55if1f wrote

I saw this in Geosense. Look out for “gas line explosions” in Hong Kong next.

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msiekkinen t1_j57jo7w wrote

Ill bite. Why will there be gas line explosions in hong kong next and how does that relate to freezing weather in Afghanistan?

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Nakagura775 t1_j57lr9l wrote

It’s from a movie, Geostorm.

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msiekkinen t1_j57wxlo wrote

I think i was reading your original comment like "geosense" was some kind of conspiracy website

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squidking78 t1_j55x9fv wrote

Why is this even news? The people of Afghanistan chose their leaders & not to be part of a modern world, by just giving up and throwing away decades of assistance & trillions in investment in their military.

They are the new stereotype in cowardice for running away, instead of the French. They lasted 2 weeks, with all the modern weaponry the US could afford…

If you want to be a nation, you have to fight for it. They preferred this.

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RKU69 t1_j5617sn wrote

What a ridiculous statement. "The people of Afghanistan" have not had a legitimate way to chose their leaders in decades and decades. Its been constant war and intervention by global superpowers. The US-backed "government" that collapsed in 2019 was a taped-together shitshow of corrupt aristocrats, drug traffickers, and war criminals that ordinary people never had much of a say in. No surprise it collapsed almost immediately. And no fault of the Afghan people - what were they supposed to do? If they tried to reform or resist gov't corruption, they'd be labelled as Taliban and shot. No choice except to keep your head down and try to stay as far away from politics as possible.

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squidking78 t1_j5621cb wrote

They’re pretty good at deciding who they don’t want, historically.

They all ran away when the Taliban came calling, giving them the country.

People who want a country, fight for it. Afghanistan isn’t a country though, it’s a bunch of tribesmen with clan loyalties above any idea of a “nation”.

I’m sure the people of Afghanistan were being “oppressed” by evil America, with all that money spent, the womens rights they tried to instill. Foolish but can’t blame them for trying.

No one has time for a people who chose their fate after all the international community did to help them.

You see them only as victims.

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MeatsimPD t1_j567pu5 wrote

> I’m sure the people of Afghanistan were being “oppressed” by evil America, with all that money spent, the womens rights they tried to instill.

Most Afghans never saw a penny of any American money. There's no denying the US tries to do good things and accomplished a lot especially for women's rights, but the government we backed with violence wasn't legitimate to Afghans because it was corrupt and self serving. It's no surprise they didn't fight and die for it

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squidking78 t1_j56ajcv wrote

Guess why they “never saw a penny” then… tribal leadership.

You seem to want to do anything but blame the reality of the situation. There is no Afghanistan. There’s just a region, full of medieval backwater tribes unwilling to look further than those allegiances. They have no ideals to fight for. And decided by inaction and cowardice, to let the Taliban assert control.

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Kikimara99 t1_j56jnf0 wrote

I understand what you're saying. On personal level I understand every Afghan, who wanted to run away and save themselves and their families. On the other hand, when everyone runs away...there is simply no country. Ukraine is a good example. Last winter we had some construction workers from Ukraine reconstructing the building I'm working at. Then the war had broken, they all left to fight for their country. No one would have blamed them for staying in safety, but young men in their 20s and 30s chose to risk their lives for their land. We are still in touch and my employee occasionally raises money for their needs - medicine, night vision goggles etc. I have nothing, but utter respect for these people. Afghan on other hand, don't seem to see their land as an idea worth fighting for. Maybe it's, because Afghanistan is so ethnically diverse. I don't know.

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RKU69 t1_j56lbat wrote

I think the situations are totally different. Ukraine has had a stable, well-defined country and government for ~100 years now, and I think an ethnic identity going a long time before that. Even through the break-up of the USSR. And the current war is an external country invading your own sovereign country.

By contrast, Afghanistan has been in a state of civil war since 1979 - 40 years of war, chaos, shifting sides, imperial interventions, often with no real "good side" to root for or support. At a certain point people lose all hope and just try to get the hell out of the way. Unlike Ukraine, there was no highly legitimate and popular government to rally behind in Afghanistan and hasn't been for a long time. And if the Ukraine-Russia war goes on for a long time, Ukraine might well go that way too, if the government degenerates and new sides pop up, etc.

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Kikimara99 t1_j56o7zp wrote

I agree that Ukraine is different, because it was much more stable, though,I would disagree with 'popular government'; I also agree that Afghanistan had a long period of chaos; however, at some point a nation must develop this idea of responsibility and being in charge of your country's future. Afghanistan has a generation of 20 year olds who were born with relative access to education and opportunities, at least in places like Kabul and other bigger cities. They know a different life, so why aren't they fighting for it.

My country recreated itself 100 years ago, we were a part of Russian empire. Under tsar's rule my language was prohibited for 40 years and people who taught it in secret were sent to die in Siberia or hanged, but we maintained out identity and we fought. We had two brutal uprising. After brief period of independence, we were once again occupied by nazi and later on by USSR...we fought. And now we are independent again, really stable, relatively rich, part of the EU, part of NATO etc. You can go against odds if a significant number of people believe in same idea.

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