Once Upon a Time - Afghanistan

Nov 2001
As the future of Afghanistan hangs in the balance, we look back on the country's past and ask where its future lies?

The rugged terrain of Afghanistan has often found itself at the centre of some of the world's major conflicts. The pictures on our television screens show a country virtually destroyed by war. Yet it wasn't always so: film footage from the 1970s paints a very different picture, of an open and modern society. The capital Kabul buzzes with life, its streets filled with cars, bicycles and pedestrians. At this time, Kabul was famed as an exotic stop-off point on the hippy trail between Europe and India. "That was a golden period for the Afghans," reminisces Dr Ahmed Abdul Javid, former Chancellor of Kabul University. Until the Taliban enforced an Islamic year zero in 1996, Afghanistan was a relatively liberal Place. Farah Hawad, a female journalist who left Kabul for Britain in 1994, describes the country's progressive attitude towards women back then: "Afghanistan was the first Asian country that had women in parliament." But even during this so-called golden era, tensions existed between the country's different ethnic factions, which finally ignited after the Soviet defeat. The task of establishing a lasting peace between these various ethnic groups is likely to be a long and complex one. If Afghanistan is finally freed from the foreign intervention that has dogged it for so long, perhaps new kind of society will finally be able to flourish in this ruined land.

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[PoseidonHermes]

For more than 2000 years, greeks , indians, persians, chinese culture flourished in that beautiful country but it only took 30 years for the american v/s soviets war to completely destroy that country!! what a shame!

Afghans have been suffering for the rest of the world.

Bin laden is dead, he was saudi and saudis made september 11, america should have invaded saudi arabia and left afghanistan alone !!!

[Interafg]

Fuck arabssssssssssssssssssssssss,,­,

[CrisZoeyv124]

lol bin reich aber einsam

[FeignofCordor]

@jasoncardinez

There a easy target

[jasoncardinez]

@FeignofCordor I cant say I disagree. this is true. it seems nowadays ppl jumb to blaming america.

[FeignofCordor]

@jasoncardinez

Yes but America can`t be blamed for them ruins and the war. Yet some people have no problem blaming America..The Soviets were the bad guys in that war. And the truth is after the war the problem was down to a power vacuum that was left was to be fought over by different tribal leaders and also the taliban for control. The Taliban won. And Pakistan ignored this and paid for their apathy later. It`s just too easy to blame the US

[jasoncardinez]

@FeignofCordor its just like the lady in the video said it was the communist party, the soviet regime and america. I think essentially what she was trying to say was all of these things were factors that played into what happened to the country. They are trying to explain that what people see now of the country is not what it once was.

[jasoncardinez]

@FeignofCordor yes but that is exactly what the problem was. they funded them during the soviet reign and once the fighting ended they disappeared and left an entire country in ruins. and I do agree with you that its not really america's fault it was pakistan and corrupt war lords but America knew they were funding uneducated extremists and didn't give two shits as to what would happen after they stopped funding.

[jasoncardinez]

@K3yB04dG000n yes playing a game with the heads of your ENEMIES (people who attacked their villages and killed their ppl) was the glory days because it was a time when the people in the country protected each other. unlike america, men weren't controlled by other men or disillusioned with concepts of "modernity" where people in suits proclaim to be civil but are in fact the worst violators of nature and human rights.

[K3yB04dG000n]

@jasoncardinez Yeah, playing a sport with severed heads are a countries glory days... get your head out of attilas ass

[K3yB04dG000n]

@FeignofCordor Honestly, a bunch of morons on here. Fucking dumb ass islamists who will blame anything on americans as long as it keeps there mullah dancing monkeys in power. they are pathetic

[jasoncardinez]

"Like the Bushkazi horsemen who play their version of polo with a dead sheep or even the severed heads of their enemy instead of a hockey ball, the Afghans are not squeamish when it comes to battling their opponents.They have been forged as a people by defending a land that many have tried to conquer, since the time of Alexander the Great. ALL HAVE FAILED" this quote explains a lot. Afghanistan will return to its glory days FOR SURE!! and not because of U.S. and their "help" but cuz of the ppl