America's Failure in Afghanistan: 20 Years of Occupation | Animated History

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Sources:
“Afghanistan Extends Ceasefire with Taliban,” BBC News (BBC, June 16, 2018), sec. Asia. www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-4....
“Afghan Taliban Announce Successor to Mullah Mansour,” BBC News (BBC, May 25, 2016), www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-3....
“Operation Omari: Taleban Announced 2016 Spring Offensive.” 2016. Afghanistan Analysts Network - English. April 14, 2016. www.afghanistan-analysts.org/....
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “The US-Taliban Peace Deal: 10 Weeks On.” Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/resrep24697.
BBC News. 2021. “Why Is the Taliban’s Kabul Victory Being Compared to the Fall of Saigon?,” August 16, 2021, sec. Asia. www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-5....
CNN, Nicole Gaouette, Jennifer Hansler, Barbara Starr and Oren Liebermann. 2021. “The Last US Military Planes Have Left Afghanistan, Marking the End of the United States’ Longest War.” CNN. August 31, 2021. edition.cnn.com/2021/08/30/po....
International Crisis Group. “Biden Administration: Re-Evaluation or More of the Same?” Overkill: Reforming the Legal Basis for the U.S. War on Terror. International Crisis Group, 2021, 22-28. www.jstor.org/stable/resrep351....
Barry, Ben, Blood, Metal and Dust: How Victory Turned Into Defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq (United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020).
Basit, Abdul, “AFGHANISTAN.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 9, no. 1 (2017), 38-42. www.jstor.org/stable/26351482.
Berdal, Mats, “A Mission Too Far?: NATO and Afghanistan, 2001-2014.” In War, Strategy and History: Essays in Honour of Professor Robert O’Neill, edited by DANIEL MARSTON and TAMARA LEAHY. (ANU Press, 2016), 155-178. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1dgn....
Dombrowski, Peter, Reich, Simon, “Beyond the Tweets: President Trump’s Continuity in Military Operations.” Strategic Studies Quarterly 12, no. 2 (2018): 56-81. www.jstor.org/stable/26430816.
Giustozzi, Antonio, The Taliban at War: 2001-2018 (United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2019).
Hanagan, Deborah L., NATO in the Crucible: Coalition Warfare in Afghanistan, 2001-2014 (United States: Hoover Institution Press, 2019).
Herring, G. K., “THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN: A STRATEGIC ANALYSIS.” Edited by Williamson Murray. NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES FOR THE 21st CENTURY (Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 2003), 161-186. www.jstor.org/stable/resrep120....
Jacobsen, Annie, Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins (United States: Little, Brown, 2019).
Lebovic, James H., Planning to Fail: The US Wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan (United States: Oxford University Press, 2019).
Malkasian, Carter, The American War in Afghanistan: A History. United States (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Miller, Paul D., “ESCALATION AND WITHDRAWAL IN AFGHANISTAN, 2009-2016.” Withdrawal Deadlines In War: Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan (Atlantic Council, 2020), 19-25. www.jstor.org/stable/resrep246....
Rashid, Ahmed, Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (United Kingdom: Penguin Publishing Group, 2008).
Salt, Alexander, “Transformation and the War in Afghanistan.” Strategic Studies Quarterly 12, no. 1 (2018), 98-126. www.jstor.org/stable/26333879.
Strick van Linschoten, Alex, Felix, Kuehn, An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al-Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan (New York: Oxford University Press).
Schweitzer, Yoram, Eran, Oded, “The US Withdrawal from Afghanistan Portends a Vacuum and Uncertain Future.” Institute for National Security Studies, 2021. www.jstor.org/stable/resrep33820.
Valenta, Jiri, Valenta, Leni Friedman. “Trump: No More Nation-Building Abroad.” (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, 2017). www.jstor.org/stable/resrep04640.
Zucchino, David, 2021. “Collapse and Conquest: The Taliban Strategy That Seized Afghanistan.” The New York Times, August 18, 2021, sec. World. www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/wo....

[@TheArmchairHistorian]

Thanks again to World of Tanks. Click on our link, tanks.ly/3DrRNhn, register today using our activation code COMBAT, and receive a free Tier 6 tank, the Cromwell B medium tank, a 7-day World of Tanks premium account, 250K credits, as well as a free 10-battle rental of a Tiger 131 heavy tank, a T78 tank destroyer, and a Type 64 light tank. Armchair Historian Video Game: store.steampowered.com/app/1679290/Fire__Maneuver/ Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/armchairhistorian Discord: discord.gg/thearmchairhistorian Twitter: twitter.com/ArmchairHist

[@mr.hedado741]

Austro Prussian War?????

[@Ramosway2]

Tank

[@WFootyEdits]

can you do iraq fight against dash sometime

[@razvanciobotaru3089]

The amazing video and your animation became better and better . Please make a video in more parts, name Military occupations by the Soviet Union. Part 1 Soviet invasion of Poland Part 2 Occupation of the Baltic states Part 3 Karelian question Part 4 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Part 5 Eastern Bloc

[@bijoykumarjoarder5427]

Make a video on 1971 Indo pak war.This is my request

[@DR.64A9]

I was deployed to Afghanistan for most of 2011. We were in the process of drawing down and handing over responsibility to the Afghan Army. We handed a base over to them and within a week it was gone. They sold off the materials and abandoned the base. The idea that we were going to install a national democratic government was a joke.

[@sp0ckz0mbi3]

Turns out no one wants to die for an American puppet government.

[@lucvader_1]

Almost like they never really wanted to fight for your occupation...

[@chrish6014]

Bro I was out there in 2012-2013 same thing. The FOB bases were filled with opium smoking ANA forces who had no concept of duty or professionalism.

[@davisdelp8131]

@@lucvader_1almost like they were idiots and now live under a radical Islamist government and now even worse hellhole

[@MrCooper83]

Exactly. And we fought for their freedom..🤦🏼

[@EnigmaEnginseer]

It’s wild to think that the war had gone on long enough that people who weren’t even born when 9/11 happened were fighting in Afghanistan

[@inthedarkwoods2022]

Did people expect us to stay there forever?

[@ebonaparte3853]

Not really. More likely they were children when it happened. Still a long time though.

[@captainazrale4404]

I was born 8 days before 9/11.

[@MrWaterlionmonkey]

​@@inthedarkwoods2022 there have been much much longer wars in history. Like the 30 years war, the 80 years war, the 100 years war, the crusades (over 200 years), and the reconquesta (800 years)

[@EnigmaEnginseer]

@@MrWaterlionmonkeyVery true, but this hits for me at least because it’s so close to us chronologically speaking. Like, had the war gone on another year or so I could have been there and I was born almost a year after the fact. I would have been fighting to avenge a tragedy that happened before my time against people in a similar position to myself. I mean at that point what are we really fighting for?

[@timkarrell7109]

I was training ANA in 2011, and one day we went out to inspect their ammo storage and the guard had died from exposure. The ANA leader had no idea why his guard died after 5 days in 100F+ weather and only given 3 bottles if water and 2 MREs.

[@mcpuggles1234]

I get the feeling the ANA was extremely incompetent

[@joeswanson5486]

@@mcpuggles1234well they were

[@thorpeaaron1110]

Bro the Afghan National Army was fucking joke.

[@joevenespineli6389]

I've always wondered what change needed to be made for the ANA concept to have "worked" in some capacity.

[@geth7112]

The real question why did that guard stay like low key I wonder if someone killed him

[@C-Farsene_5]

“Conquering the world on a horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard” - Ghengis Khan

[@SameenCheema-un2hs]

Ögeddei Khan The Son Of Genghis Khan said that Long After the Former Kaaghaan of the Mongol Empire had Passed Away!

[@porkerpete7722]

And yet they did it.

[@C-Farsene_5]

@@SameenCheema-un2hs oh I see, quick search tells me Chingiz quoted it

[@josephsmith6777]

100% and our horse soldiers did a great job they took out the government and chased ubl into Pakistan and we should have backed to northern alliance and left and continued to hunt h.v.t. by intell and air

[@SameenCheema-un2hs]

@@C-Farsene_5 🥰

[@stevemc01]

Remember: taking something is much easier than holding it.

[@jar8808]

Oh we held Afghanistan, we just didn’t take it. You know why? Because the officers and government is fucking stupid. We could’ve killed every single person if we wanted in the entire Middle East, we are that powerful but we’d still fail because of command. Happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, hell in some situations even Korean War

[@IbnWobbler]

Taking a weak third world country without nukes is easy. Why can’t Russia take Ukraine?

[@FIVEBASKET]

True

[@joeswanson5486]

Not really. If the us was able to takeover North Korea it wouldn’t have much of an issue holding the country as there aren’t religious’s extremist fighting and other radicals trying to fight them like in Afghanistan.

[@talleywa5772]

The initial goal was to drive the Taliban out and let the locals deal with their own shithole. Then Obozo needed to keep it going so it became about "hEaRtS aNd MiNdS" which dragged it out and made them even MORE incompetent.

[@girldaddividendinvestor]

Such a fools' errand. I was in college when we invaded Afghanistan, and was a 40 y/o parent when we withdrew. Incredibly sad.

[@dachicagoan8185]

Same here. What a waste to be involved with the conflict that long and then within a few days after we pull out, the whole country goes right back to how it was.

[@akidnamedryan4758]

Before you were born,America did the same thing in Vietnam. "Politicians deciding military policy,lackluster battlefield plans,training a force that we knew would ultimately fail". Washington never learns.

[@lorddaquanofhouserastafari4177]

@@dachicagoan8185yeah a waste of thousands of middle eastern civilians murdered by drones

[@Halcon_Sierreno]

This is what happens when a country views itself as invincible.

[@dachicagoan8185]

@@lorddaquanofhouserastafari4177 Afghanistan isn't middle east

[@derkaiser420]

As an American vet this War just makes me mad. So many of my friends died, got injured, or suffer severe PTSD for a War we could never win and eventually lost. In my opinion, the Boomer Generation needed their Vietnam and that is what they got. I hope future generations of Americans can find years of peace.

[@maniac5191]

Well said brother all this wars have been pointless and i wish too we can reach some peaceful times to come and thank you for your service.

[@idk-zi3gw]

And guess what? The taliban is now making the people of Afghanistan suffer. Probably deserved ngl

[@haraldisdead]

You'll still vote republican though

[@idk-zi3gw]

​​@@haraldisdeadwhat's that?

[@haraldisdead]

​@idk-zi3gw are they? We killed more people in the evacuation of Kabul than the taliban did. Actually, they didn't kill anyone.

[@Rakkasan2013L]

I was deployed twice to Afghanistan. 12-13 and 14-15 with the 101st. I was there at the ceremony in Kabul for the ending of ISAF and the beginning of Resolute Support. I've been to the prison on Bagram airbase and watched their legal system. BTW, I was infantry. And in 2021, right before I got out, I helped with the refugees coming off those planes here in the US. In 15, we all knew how this was going to end. Exactly as it did.

[@Thatoneguy833]

Who were you with in 14-15? 3-187?

[@markchiofolo1483]

Concur. Too bad our civilian "leadership" on both sides of the political spectrum didnt listen to us at all...

[@Rakkasan2013L]

@@Thatoneguy833 yes

[@ricardo-2022]

My message to all miserable Americans....Leave these people alone As an Algerian Muslim, I am proud of them for defeating imperialist colonialism Focus on your war with Russia, which will soon resolve the war in Ukraine, and the brown continent is ready to remove you in seconds.

[@Marinealver]

@@markchiofolo1483 it was too politically convenient to let troops die and lose the war so spectacularly.

[@tupacamaruiv5804]

Rambo 3 becam much more interesting as the US floundered in Afghanistan. In the movie, Col. Trautman says to the Soviet commander, “We had our Vietnam! Now you’ll have yours”. We went into that war knowing there was no way to win.

[@wiseandstrong3386]

That's not exactly true, the US went to Afghanistan to eliminate Bin-Laden and they successfully did so, Al-Qaeda is also significantly weakened, what failed was the nation building part.

[@bustavonnutz]

@@wiseandstrong3386 The US wanted Afghan opium & minerals. If they wanted Bin Laden they could've taken a flight to Pakistan.

[@cyberpunkfalangist2899]

America is an unironic evil empire that goes around destroying every nation it sees if it refuses to embrace the American world view

[@joseaguirre744]

@@bustavonnutzHe was originally in afghanistan but again he is a saudi national. so were most people involved in 9/11

[@fsdfsdfsd4561]

@@wiseandstrong3386 Nice lies Comrade, the US wanted to get rid of Taliban. Bin-Laden didn't need the entire military did they? US failed and was defeated, stop coping as even your GENERAL and JOINT CHIEF OF STAFF admitted defeat. All colonial empires lose, US is not different.

[@pablosalazarsojo3877]

20 years, wow, once the Taliban said "you may have the watches, but we have the time" so True

[@def3ndr887]

“If they want to make war for 20 years then we’ll make war for 20 years. If they want to make peace we’ll make peace and invite them to tea afterwards.” -Ho Chi Minh

[@Thigamabob]

@@def3ndr887 Ho Chi Minh > taliban

[@pablosalazarsojo3877]

@@def3ndr887 Ho Chi Minh was a Chad, the good guy of the story

[@def3ndr887]

@@pablosalazarsojo3877 indeed

[@sartajparveen2001]

In Sun Tzu's art of war, the general has clearly mentioned that if you want to fight a war it should be quick. Prolonged war is extremely costly and will eventually bankrupt the empire. Policies influenced by the military industrial complex were actively prolonging the war. It wasn't military that made Americans lose the war but corruption with the america.

[@caseclosed9342]

Since we’re all posting our experiences with Afghanistan I’ll tell you all an interesting story. I was in Afghanistan in 2013 and among the things I noticed was how incompetent the Afghan police and military was. 8 years later I was on vacation to visit a friend of mine in Toronto, Canada and I took and Uber from the airport. The driver was originally from India (which btw the Indian government supported the U.S.-backed regime in Afghanistan) and we got talking about Afghanistan. The Indian driver was from Punjab province, a border region and he had friends who worked in the Border Police (Indian version of the U.S. Border Patrol). The Indian Border Police had actually helped train the Afghan Police (I had read that somewhere but this guy had actually had friends who had helped with this mission) and the driver’s friend had said he couldn’t belong how incompetent the Afghan recruits were! Many couldn’t read or hold guns properly, the idea they were going to be law enforcement officers was outrageous (mind you Indian police aren’t always known for their competence but compared to Afghans they were the best police in the world)! A few days later I heard Kabul had fallen and they were evacuating via the airport…

[@ordotectonicus8585]

It was a lost cause, unfortunately.

[@ricardo-2022]

My message to all miserable Americans....Leave these people alone As an Algerian Muslim, I am proud of them for defeating imperialist colonialism Focus on your war with Russia, which will soon resolve the war in Ukraine, and the brown continent is ready to remove you in seconds.

[@rewanolrwngow]

Just to clarify, Indian police force didn't train Afghan police, it's Indian border security force BSF which is a para military wing and not as incompetent as normal civilian cops. ANA troops are also trained in Indian military academy which is like Indian West point and one thing was clear with my interaction with the afghan troops that they lacked any motivation or believe in western style democracy..it was a lost cause from the start..

[@dindin8753]

Nobody in afghanistan want another war so they're just going to surrender to the taliban (the Emirate of Afghanistan) which is a good thing.

[@stronk9969]

Shouldve died there, invader. The afghan police and military didnt want to fight for your occupation, thats the whole reason why the taliban undid your work within 2 weeks.

[@ramsaybolton9741]

"We didn't lose, we merely failed to win" -90% of Americans

[@monkeycat48]

It’s funny how this video literally left out the Iraq war. Now I know the Iraq war shouldn’t be part of this, but the fact of the matter is the war played a huge distraction in Afghanistan. We spent most of our time with a Iraq so much that we forgot we were in Afghanistan. I mean I will not forget back when I was a kid and that whole situation happened. As soon as I’m like in middle school and all the way to high school no one is talking about Afghanistan at all media outlets. Nothing is being talked about. The only time you would ever hear about Afghanistan is if you heard something about Pat Tillman getting killed over there. Along with operation red wing lone Survivor the operation to go kill Ahmed Shah, the Taliban fighter that are forces were trying to hunt. Those were the only time she would ever hear about Afghanistan the rest of the time you wouldn’t even hear about it till like years later down the line. As soon as we get done in Iraq, you start hearing more about Afghanistan in 2010 to 2014 our involvement of combat forces. The job is half done in my opinion we didn’t even do enough to prevent the Taliban. We just literally neglected the situation over there for a few years. I’m not saying our forces were all completely out of there, but the fact of the matter was the numbers we had over there were pretty low unlike Iraq which had higher US involvement

[@esanahka9284]

I mean 3.5k dead from 20 years of fighting screams getting bored

[@kawaiikoto8800]

​@esanahka9284 true, america could have wiped afghans from the map but decided to give them mercy and forgive their atrocities.

[@vassiliblucher2763]

Keep coping and get mad without understanding why

[@dindin8753]

@@esanahka9284 getting bored of losing lol literally rage quitting.

[@CurlousCam]

My dad hates himself for what he did in this Country. "I defended Poppy Fields from Farmers. I didn't kill militants, I killed upset people."

[@Justin-pe9cl]

Taliban are “upset people”? Bullshit.

[@anrw886]

You have a father that lives in reality I think, and it's people who see the reality for what it is that'll help make a better future

[@Justin-pe9cl]

@@anrw886 He isn’t. Crybaby shouldn’t have enlisted.

[@anrw886]

@content_enjoyer4458 ofc there's no good side but he can see the war wasn't worth it in any way and they weren't even really an enemy, at least one worth fighting

[@xander583]

@content_enjoyer4458 True, in this case there were aggressive invaders and patient defenders.

[@casperdong]

Who else is still happy that Armchair Historian is still up and running? Love the content!

[@Truper101]

yes

[@RougeCheeseit]

Yes

[@jordanboone7159]

Yes

[@MatroX67]

why wouldn't it be ?

[@cowboymf1013]

I'm gonna' say Armchair Historian is glad Armchair Historian is still up and running...

[@lastword8783]

The video didnt really go into how the taliban went from a largely defeated and unpopular force at the end of 2001 to a very popular one at the end. It for example didnt mention how many civilians obama's drone campaign killed or how the Afghan police were hated and extremely corrupt. It didnt go into how many people the US and the Afghan government killed, kidnapped and tortured nor how coalition forces for example australians would routinely murder civilians and dismember and abuse corpses or other war crimes. All these things played a huge role in turning large parts of the rural population against the government and ISAF and straight into the arms of the taliban.

[@dangersnail5839]

The video did mention how many civilians the drone campaign killed…

[@lastword8783]

​@@dangersnail5839no it mentioned 3800 "from the kill or capture list" not civilians specifically. Youd have to add in the drone strikes in Pakistan too since the US went after the Taliban in Pakistan too.

[@skie6282]

We literally pished the taliban to be popular. The civs killed, and disregard for religous and ethnic groups, and the massive instability. Taliban were the only ones capable of filling the hole. If we left in 2001-2003, idk maybe they would be a democracy with many parties like some european countries. But we didnt.

[@prathyushareddy9404]

Christians destroying everything as usual

[@Automaton23]

It was in the illustration, it wasn't mentioned @@lastword8783

[@BaronVonMott]

Having been born in 2000, the war in Afghanistan was always a background part of my childhood (I'm British, btw). I still remember seeing the regular reports on the news about soldiers killed in action, and footage of coffins draped in Union Flags being unloaded from planes - the words "Helmand Province" and "Camp Bastion" are, I think, permanently etched into my brain. Of course, being so young, and never knowing different, I didn't truly understand the war or it's significance. Only years later, as we pulled our own people out, did I really begin the grasp the truth.

[@Bigliever]

What is the truth? You should read the UN opium survey. The truth is all about the opium. In 2000 the Taliban took down all opium fields. In 2003 Afghanistan had record of producing opium under ISAF controle.

[@dingus6317]

@@BiglieverNow that we’re using that Chyna fentanyl we pulled out of Afghanistan

[@Bigliever]

@@dingus6317 exactly! Thank you.

[@adineatha9766]

Ya'll got some weird theories. Fact is we went in to destroy radical Islam. And we lost.

[@HTS123RK]

@@adineatha9766honestly I think we need to go in again it’s inhumane what they r doing to women. Honestly I wouldn’t care if it was the US Pakistan china Russia just someone needs to go in and end the taliban aswell as the terrorists controlling Iran

[@rsookchand919]

Modern history is always a great topic to cover especially one that was so significant in a lot of our lives

[@akidnamedryan4758]

Too bad Washington never learns. South Vietnam came to my mind many times as I was watching this. Disturbing how the same mistake was made again and even worse. Just a few decades later.

[@CimarronaMotions]

​@@Riorozenhuman nature

[@ikmalkamal5830]

Huh. It's the complete opposite me. Modern history is always boring and lame to me, lacking any great characters or interesting figures or even fascinating stories to tell. Each to his own though.

[@landsknecht8654]

​@@ikmalkamal5830I completely agree. Modern history is meh. Also leaders back than were in the Battlefield too.

[@DanielKolbin]

@@akidnamedryan4758man, humans are so complicated

[@tachanka_bear]

Another thing that I kept hearing from veterans is that during the early invasion of Afghanistan the reason they had so much success was due to special forces groups establishing a long term relationship with the northern alliance and the local populace. Learning the language eating and sleeping with the troops everyday essentially becoming brothers in way. When we turned into a police force and handed over the responsibility of establishing relationships with the people to normal soldiers that get rotated every 6 months - 1 year. That would compromise a lot of the nation building and relationships between ISAF and the afghans. You would have one team/leadership willing to be patient and establish connections with the people then after troop rotations you would get someone unwilling to work with them and become aggressive destroying all trust. This should’ve been special forces war or even use American private military forces to do the same thing on a larger scale to support SF groups.

[@markchiofolo1483]

We fought the war from the beginning every 6 months with the new troops and leaders. No continuity. Didnt matter though, the Afghans only wanted the Taliban to be removed, they never wanted out Democracy from the beginning. The Hearts and Minds mentality was never going to work from the beginning.

[@balabanasireti]

No, you should've just left because no one asked for your "help"

[@JACKAL747]

​@balabanasireti many Afghans asked for our help, that's why when we threatened to leave many times before, they all begged us to stay to keep control of their shithole country.

[@painkillerwrld7446]

​​@@balabanasiretiexactly lol. all this trouble could've been avoided had they kept their noses out of Afghanistan business.

[@KSchawacker]

A hearts and minds campaign was definitly the right approach and I agree that special forces operations would've been the right folks for the job. I can't see how PMC's like Blackwater wouldn't have done anything but majorly screw the entire operation. "Mercinaries" and "peacekeepers" in the same sentence sounds oxymoronic.

[@toastnjam7384]

As a Vietnam vet I knew it would play out exactly like Nam from day one and it did. It was carbon copy.

[@Mr.DiughGames]

Like the one saying goes: "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - Winston Churchill

[@stolensweetroll4538]

This war will always stick with me. Born in 2001, saw the war progress and it ended as I finished training for the Army. Its like a weird imposter syndrome for some other soldiers and I who just joined growing up wanting to fight terror and just see everything with a lot of hindsight now.

[@ronin6100]

That’s why COD was created for Yankees like you with a fantasy plot that you as American fighting for good to save the world from evil.

[@1Orderchaos]

L dream honestly

[@nafisfuadayon6832]

Your army is the biggest terror in this world.

[@PoLongman]

You aren't fighting terror, buddy. You're fighting for oil and the interests of corrupt politicians while screwing over civilians thousands of miles away from home. The US Army *is* the terror.

[@user-ej8jc1zg6j]

كافر

[@christianokamura9419]

The PTSD scene in Rambo reminds me of Afghanistan “Nothing is over, nothing you just don’t turn it off. It wasn’t my war You asked me I didn’t ask you I did what I had to do to win but they wouldn’t let us win”

[@christianokamura9419]

@@ahmetozkan438 that’s funny I don’t remember the US committing genocide, oh wait that’s your people the Turkish that are committing genocide against the Kurdish people, and displacing them. Also the Turkish would pay the Taliban to not attack the bases while the Turks were there, you would leave and let us get attacked. And didn’t the Turkish commit genocide against the Armenian people, you are one to talk about genocide

[@rightpa]

@@ahmetozkan438 an ignorant statement if I ever heard one.

[@boxelderinitiative3897]

​@@rightpaNo it's accurate

[@bradsanders407]

"tHeY wOuLdNt lEt uS WiN"

[@bradsanders407]

​@@rightpayou are the ignorant one. Name one thing that isn't true about the statement.

[@franksmith9928]

The author forgot to mention that casualties of Afghan army and police inflicted by Taliban were more than 70 thousand KIA, + the Coalition's casualties and PMC's casualties. US and the Coalition forces would have suffered higher casualties if Talibans had not been forced to spray themselves to fight Afghan government forces.

[@cx24venezuela]

Also we don't know how many afgan troops were there... They ussually lie in their numbers

[@billisultan6224]

What's the casualty caused by hamericunt and their spawns?

[@Kapt420]

According to Wikipedia, on the USA side, Afghan security forces lost 66-69k Kia, the coalition lost 3579, the northern alliance lost 200, 3917 and contractors were killed. On the other side, the Taliban lost 52,893 KIA, Al-Q**da lost 2000 killed and the IS** lost 2400+ killed

[@sotch2271]

​@@Kapt420how much contractor ? That the most important since rich countru use this to hide death, since they were not "official military" they din't have to count it in the death from their country even if it was a national and were paid by the governement in question

[@OSTemli]

@Kapt420 Never trust american, they bloat their number like lone wolf movie.

[@gluedtothemouse]

My dad went in with the Marine Corps from the onset of the war to I believe 2004. When he came home, I ran and hid because I thought he was a burglar (I was 4). He's lost so many friends. Not only during service, but after, too. He's got tinnitus, a bad shoulder, knee, and back now, not to mention the anxiety. I remember once going out to dinner with a friend of his from the Marines, hearing them talk about things I'd never known he'd done, seeing that sort of hollow sadness in the back of his eyes. Sometimes I'd overhear him talking about it with my mom, one really stands out to me. He was a sergeant, at camp Patrick Tillman (which he helped build). One day, he and a British unit are supposed to go out on patrol, but they need the American commander or whatever to authorize it, or something, I don't really know how this works. Anyways, the American CO was late, and the Brits had already gone, so it fell to my dad to authorize his team to go out. He waited... and waited... and waited... but still no CO, and the guys were getting antsy, so he gave the go ahead. A few minutes after they'd left, the CO arrives, and my dad heads out to join the rest of them... only to find that their vehicle had hit an IED, and they had been ambushed. There were no survivors, and the militants had melted back into the countryside before my dad's vehicle even arrived. He has carried the weight of that decision for 20 years.

[@erickolb8581]

It sounds like the UK guys had better intel on that given situation and the whole, strike while the iron is hot, comes to mind.

[@fahadgarwal3289]

As an Afghan I'm sorry for your dad lost friends but we didn't invite Americans to came here the world should know this that we Afghans never fear from death for our country that why they called (AFG = THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES).

[@chuckn4851]

@@user-zs9yl9ep1d Hope Hell's extra hot for you.

[@user-hw3kc9ei4c]

I am in Denmark right now, and i asked my Danish friend about Afghanistan. He was seriously injured, and still hasn`t forgotten and accepted the withdrawal. Such a shame.

[@tommyfortress7515]

he dosent need to forget, but he needs to accept the pain.

[@brittislove]

It was time to withdraw, way past time in my opinion. The Afghanistan people were as useless as tits on cactus in the dark. They had everthing spoonfed to them and never changed

[@MJ511KW]

Good, next time tell your terrorist friend to not invade countries

[@bradsanders407]

Oh yeah such a shame the us isn't spending a trillion dollars a year to kill poor villagers in a place where no one wants them to be. Such a shame.

[@fahadgarwal3289]

we didn't invite Americans to came here the world should know this that we Afghans never fear from death for our country that why they called (AFG = THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES).

[@razeranger2393]

Great video❤ history is important and you and many other channels bless us with great information and insight into world events. Keep up the great work

[@GijsTheDog]

A good overview of the military side about what we actually have been doing for the last 20 years.

[@ricardo-2022]

My message to all miserable Americans....Leave these people alone As an Algerian Muslim, I am proud of them for defeating imperialist colonialism Focus on your war with Russia, which will soon resolve the war in Ukraine, and the brown continent is ready to remove you in seconds.

[@davidcopeland5450]

The U.S. failure in Afghanistan, along with the support of its NATO AND ISAF allies, was the culmination and failure of a century-plus old doctrine going back to the days of Woodrow Wilson; foreign intervention "to save and build democracy" and/or American interests with a complete lack of understanding and negligence of the local history, customs/norms, and culture of said nation where such an intervention or occupation took place. Certainly didn't help the amount of times the Americans either spurned local leadership, whether it'd be the ANA or tribal councils, or killed and maimed civilians caught in the crosshairs or taken out as a result of faulty intelligence. The U.S. learned nothing from the previous failures and missteps in Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union, the British Empire, the Sikh Empire, and just about every foreign nation and empire that has attempted any sort of intervention and nation-building in Afghanistan over the past centuries, and while Biden and his hasty withdrawal certainly was the final blow to the democracy and nation-building experiment there, the failures and shortcomings in Afghanistan that led to its collapse and our failure there lie with every single administration in power during the 20 years of war and turmoil; Bush 43, Obama, Trump, and lastly Biden.

[@melindacadarette3447]

To be fair, Biden had nothing to do with the policy-making over Afghanistan. Trump already signed the deal with the Taliban - Biden simply carried out the order.

[@deron2203]

Yep I agree 👍

[@WhoAmIHmmm]

And now it is some ultraconservative sh*thole that will f*ck itself even further, and perhaps the taliban may start expansion campaigns apparently, didn't they threatened to take Jerusalem?

[@logank444]

People forget how the nation felt after 911, the whole nation acted with emotion. Everyone was on board with the Afghanistan invasion

[@Mr.InbetweenFX]

You know, I know that everyone was feeling that we should go to Afghanistan after the (false flag) 9/11 attacks, but the correct way to go about it would be to send in special forces and investigative teams to find Osama Bin Laden. This invasion was a criminal action that resulted in huge numbers of civilian deaths and literally zero progress in the efforts to establish a working democracy in an Islamic tribal region. The politicians who led us into this "war" were criminally invested in entire this endeavor.

[@luigilain5692]

damn, i had no idea the war was that active. i figured it was just a few ambushes here and there, but the number of killed speaks of widespread fighting that never made it to the news

[@jukebox5600]

War fatigue was a real thing amongst the american people and didnt wanna keep seeing the horrors we were inflicting on countries half the world away

[@enriqueperezarce5485]

@@jukebox5600Yea the only way we would not stop in war fatigue is if we had a Pearl Harbor or another 9/11 until the people responsible are dead or the nation is crushed

[@zayd.g]

@@enriqueperezarce5485 people responsible for those events are your own

[@Monkey-tr7sd]

​​@@zayd.gI'll believe an American before I believe muslims lol Everything is someone else's fault for you guys. Even ISIS, even tho they were selling sex slaves and quoting the Quran while doing it. Yep, America made muslims rape all those innocent yazidis. Or wait, maybe the Jews. Who else is the enemy of Islam? Oh yeah 9/11 was CIA.

[@adrien5262]

Without American oil to the Japanese or funding of the Mujahideen war efforts against the Soviets neither horrific event would've happened, that American oil being used to fund Japanese war efforts in China was used to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor and for 9/11 the deck laid itself out as we kept funding the group that became the very ones we fought in the "war on terror" it's just bullshit to fill the pockets of some rich pricks and send poor kids to die in a field for some extra cash. Not like the people don't know this either if you look up the CIA's offical documents on their dealings in Iraq and Afghanistan so if anything those two events were caused by hands of the rich to kill for some extra cash in their pockets not untie people or inspire them. Just a way to fear monger people into going into a damn blood bath and coming back traumatized and forgotten on the streets. @@enriqueperezarce5485

[@miembrosgibran]

Great video, I still amazed by the quality of these videos.

[@23Revan84]

I lost a friend in Afghanistan, seeing we left in such a way makes his death pointless. This was our Vietnam, people need to wake up and see how our government bungled this whole mess.

[@byronmann4525]

We do see it but we’re absolutely powerless in doing anything thing about it.

[@MJ511KW]

Rest in pieces bozo, next time don’t invade countries you terrorists

[@jacobgoodstone7572]

@@byronmann4525 By recognizing and remembering our failure in Afghanistan we can prevent it from happening in the next war (and sadly, there will be a next war)

[@ymhktravel]

@@byronmann4525 Why powerless? Isn't America the greatest democracy in the world, you can literally bring down your Govt if you had wanted to. Or is America just a democracy in name?

[@MrPink-pj3ul]

​@@jacobgoodstone7572how about avoiding faliure by staying in US and not terrorising other countries with "muh freedom invasions"? A bit too much to ask of the good ol US of Assholes?

[@nedji03]

I'm from neighboring Uzbekistan. I used to live very close to the border but our side of the river was almost always peaceful. I grew up hearing wars in Afghanistan and it was always heartbreaking. Afghani culture is very complex, it's a mixture of turkic, persian, islamic, pashtun and many more cultures. The idea of another country from another side of the world with entirely different understanding of the world and mentality coming to this country and building prosperous country by killing them is absolutely disgusting and stupid. Even we don't understand their culture despite sharing centuries long common history and 9% Afghanistan people being uzbek ethnicity. I hope now there will be no more wars in there and their leaders will try to make Afghanistan better place

[@user-cg2tw8pw7j]

Wait a minute. Turkish culture. Are you talking about Hazar?

[@nedji03]

@@user-cg2tw8pw7j Turkic, not turkish, hazar, turkmen and uzbek people in Afghanistan are turkic

[@user-cg2tw8pw7j]

@@nedji03 The indigenous Turks look like the Chinese, so I think you are talking about the Hazara people in Afghanistan

[@TopGuardDawg]

My Friend and I were in College when we saw the U.S. Military were withdrawing in Afghanistan and he actually served in Afghanistan back in 2019 and one of the people that died in the explosion during the evacuation was actually a highschool classmate he knew which really hurt him and saw that all that fighting that he did there was for nothing just for the enemy to take back the country without any resistance it really questioned him on what he was fighting for

[@talleywa5772]

It would have been for nothing anyway. The incompetence of the Afghani military is second to none. But the withdrawal could have been in good order had Biden not fucked up

[@FrontsofGranada]

@@talleywa5772 It doesn't matter how you square it, the Taliban recapturing Afghanistan was pretty much inevitable. This would've happened under any president that withdrew.

[@lorddaquanofhouserastafari4177]

Now imagine how all the civilians who’s family members where murdered by drones and war crimes

[@lordraydens]

maybe if they had fought for freedom earlier it wouldn't've happened@@lorddaquanofhouserastafari4177

[@eliasziad7864]

Your friend was a terrorist and an invader, he came to murder, rape, and loot Afghan people and he got what was coming to him. Sad that your friend didnt meet the same fate that all invaders deserve.

[@GeorgiiiVaampire]

Gotta love how he says WoT has historically accurate vehicles

[@markchiofolo1483]

Griffin wants to get paid by WoT!

[@elfelix8843]

Amazing video as always mate!

[@TomasTH1]

This is your most ominous and grim episode yet man, also probably one of your best

[@ALineProductions212]

"Mission failed, we'll get em next time."

[@CosmicVoyage5]

These videos are great keep posting videos like this

[@oliversherman2414]

I love your channel keep up the great stuff

[@davidhochstetler4068]

The image of that helicopter lifting off the roof should never be forgotten. If you’re not sure which one… that’s the point

[@Taylor-mn9fv]

I think more should be said about how badly things like corruption, absurd wastes of resources (spending millions building high-tech police buildings for towns that had no electricity, etc), high personnel turnover, etc played. As somebody who served during the GWOT, I quickly got the sense that a lot of the federal bureaucracy didn't really take any of it seriously and equated dollars spent with success. Agencies didn't talk to each other, the military were used like police, DoD and State Department didn't agree on anything, it goes on and on.

[@user-cg2tw8pw7j]

America: Don't worry, the tourniquets in my country will kill these bad guys

[@maxtomlinson8134]

It’s only corrupt because America put corrupt people into the country to run it, if it was a genuine humanitarian effort they would have won.

[@binlorry8870]

Love your vids griffin and the team ❤

[@brianjohnson5272]

In short, they tried to use post ww2 rebuilding and it didnt work. Afganistan is called the graveyard of nations for a reason. The USSR tried the steel boot, they failed. The US tried shock, awe, and bribery. That didnt work. I honestly think if you want to take the area youll need to push the indigenous people to the last out of the region as the fractious tribes have complex alliances and hatreds no one outside of natives can umderstand and when you mess with or ally with one you have a dozen groups gearing up for a guerrilla war.

[@kidfox3971]

It did work, we upheld that republic for 20 years with barely any resistance. It's only once we left that there was trouble, not because they were remotely close of defeating us militarily but because we assumed that a well-equiped and well-trained republican army of 400,000 would be more than enough to hold back 80,000 poorly trained and equipped Taliban. Our only mistake was assuming that the Afghans were courageous and had guts to fight, we shouldn't have assumed that they were even a quarter of the man as our average soldier is.

[@frankhill4358]

Afghanistan is the graveyard for the west, the mongols conquered it

[@vojtechdrabek1159]

​@@kidfox3971 Sure, because the Afghans were so eager to help their occupiers.

[@brianjohnson5272]

@frankhill4358 how did they dobit? Oh thats right, either called them daddy when they rolled up or your population was dead or enslaved. America went just like they did Germany in WW2, and instead of "de-germinzing" the nation by putting warlords down, they spent billions buying them off while they also took the Talibans money too!

[@muhammadhilyaas9108]

Exactly , you nailed it.

[@ironriderslsm]

Nice vid! Keep up the work!

[@colbygordon6936]

Master Corporal Jody Mitic (Ret.) Of the Canadian Armed Forces has a truly wonderful autobiography that covers his time in Afghanistan during the mid to late 2000s as part of a sniper unit with the Royal Canadian Rifles. He goes into the operational breakdown of Canadian momentum during Medusa, with the offensive stalling out at several points whenever a single casualty was taken. This mostly stemmed from the CAF's lack of operational experience, having not conducted large scale operations since Korea, and manpower and recruitment difficulties making replenishment a hard pressed thing. The book is titled "Unflinching: The Making of a Canadian Sniper" and details his time in the Army from Kosovo in the 90s to Afghanistan in 2007, as well as his challenges with the Canadian VA and healthcare system.

[@larrymunn5279]

I'll have to check that out sounds good. Thanks for the tip.

[@annoyedbrox4851]

quality content as always, good job team griffy

[@chillfill4866]

"the military recognized a need to consolidate gains through building local support" That's funny. I thought the only way to consolidate gains was a 14th century-style scorched earth conquest.

[@tianhaoju4634]

Arguably why the US failed is also why the USSR failed: Afghanistan has little to no national or ethical recognitions, so whatever the coalition is trying to do is hardly going to affect the of rural areas - without big commitments that will probably hurt the budget, and hence hard to gain support for kabul, which some afghan people mightve never been to as well, that is why the Soviet occupation has failed, but instead of the cost it was because of the casualties that forced them to withdraw. On the other hand the Talibans has a good religious base to operate, to recuit and to consolidate control from

[@JDDC-tq7qm]

You right about that funny thing is Soviet won war against the Afghans in 1920s and 1930s so USSR still hold the advantage against Afghanistan in that respect

[@thomasgrabkowski8283]

Afghanistan is not called the graveyard of empires for nothing

[@kalajari1749]

The Soviets did better than the US all things considered

[@pharasite3011]

@@kalajari1749 no they did not lmao, the soviets lost more men than america did.

[@erickolb8581]

@@pharasite3011 he means from a command standpoint. The soviets actually did better, but as Americans, it's also not wise to wait for commanders to make decisions most days. [Insert plethora of examples from WW2 here]. The Japanese thought that knocking out officers would leave American troops disorganized and vulnerable. They couldn't have been more wrong. As you can imagine, I'm in the camp of people who believes the older Americans(boomers) have sabotaged the younger Americans from the beginning. We didn't social engineer ourselves, they did. Millennials(myself) followed along exactly what we were told and now we live in this disaster of a world... Hopefully you get where I'm going here.

[@ElliotShayle]

I find the history of modern times almost the most interesting of all! If I had one critique for this video, I would've liked to see greater detail given to the strategic decisions which ultimately led to this turning into a forever war, and then the abrupt withdrawal

[@maxtomlinson8134]

Well the simple answer to why they lost, is America half-arsed this conflict.

[@iamjohnfarlow]

Hoping KZbin doesn’t find some BS reason to censor this. Keep up the good work Griffin.

[@Epsilon-18]

They won't take down IShowSpeed for accidentally displaying nudity but they'll take down this guy for genuinely giving us educational content.

[@Thigamabob]

@@Epsilon-18 That's ishowspeed's fault.

[@Epsilon-18]

@@Thigamabob this reply was sent two months ago. Why am I getting a notification for it only now?

[@The_Colt_God_]

It took them 20 years to transfer the power from the Taliban back to the Taliban lol

[@mariano98ify]

Well that is a bad sign for the Talibans too but let not forget they are a different one from the 20 years ago.

[@def3ndr887]

@@mariano98ify it may have just helped in getting rid of political rivals in the Taliban

[@maxtomlinson8134]

All of that could of been avoided if America tried harder.

[@Koric135]

​@@mariano98ifya bad sign like what? It's not like they spent 20 trillion dollars.

[@mostafaeldeh1064]

​@@maxtomlinson8134😂😂

[@alexofgaming]

Can’t wait until the next video!

[@Fallen_Arrow]

Great video man!

[@_resource-guy1878]

Can you next make a video about the Great Northern War, an event which started the dominant rise of Russia and eventually leading to the same continuous mistakes in history and in real life. Love the details in the video.

[@PumaFau]

Imagine what we could do with the money spent on the War in Afghanistan.

[@animeXcaso]

Don't cry next time you hear women denied their base rights

[@Justin-pe9cl]

@@animeXcasoAfghanistan is not our responsibility.

[@Bearjew2995]

Imagine what we could to with all the money going to Ukraine and illegal immigrants. The government is the problem

[@joeswanson5486]

@@Justin-pe9clthen why spend trillions over there and not do anything about it

[@talleywa5772]

Make conflict with another country 😂

[@nickduff9753]

Keep on keepin on 👊

[@dimmadome7609]

You guys are the best history channel on KZbin.

[@AzureRath97]

Animation quality has just jumped again. Your artists should be very proud.

[@shadowslayer9988]

You can not build local support if the locals do not want you in their country.

[@maxtomlinson8134]

That’s not why they lost, they just didn’t nationbuild it, people don’t rebel if they’re happy, and America was completely capable of doing that.

[@shadowslayer9988]

​​@@maxtomlinson8134Maybe go check how the Afghan people celebrate victory day every year now since the foreign forces particularly the United States retreated and stopped illegally occupying threir land so no the United States was not cable of doing that because they were never wanted.

[@maxtomlinson8134]

no, they are, capable of doing it very much so, they did it with many countries in the past@@shadowslayer9988

[@RealLifeZatoichi]

2:39 I love how you graphically designed the gun to have all the different flags

[@litsmark2366]

Amazing video as always

[@oliversherman2414]

I'm surprised this video hasn't been struck down by KZbin yet. Keep up the great work 👍

[@18hornet]

Why would KZbin strike it down

[@oliversherman2414]

@@18hornet I suppose because it's a bit of a controversial topic. Also, KZbin doesn't take kindly to videos about modern warfare

[@Parallel_HD]

​@@18hornetKZbin tends to auto flag most videos on modern conflicts. This also usually extends to historical videos(especially WW2 ones), hence why Griffin's videos get struck down so often, which really sucks in my opinion.

[@Thigamabob]

There's this channel called GDF that makes even more controvercial topics.

[@EllielPerez_131.]

Here beforre youtube takes this masterpiece down.

[@luiscariola-zl9yv]

armchair historian, your videos are great, keep going

[@ckie-nk3de]

Great EDUCATIONAL video about a uncomfortable topic

[@brianzimmerman4837]

I know I probably shouldn't watch this since I'm still in the "thousands of lives, 20 years of war, and 9 months of my life for a couple dead HVTs" phase of withdrawal, but here I go pressing play to see what happens...

[@alistairvan4059]

I've once met a veteran who was a bit common coming to my family's store, when I questioned how he lost his leg, he said he hit a landmine in Afghanistan. Feels sad to see that the problem with landmines are still there to this day.

[@stanschoon5459]

Your cinemathografy getting Real good

[@BlueSaladid]

I'm just glad that Afghanistan is finally in competent hands

[@HistoryHustle]

Great overview of this 20 years of Afghan history.

[@xycomm5604]

Hustling history FOR YOU!!!

[@basara3444]

That's why I always say, democracy is something cultural, if it wasn't compatible with the local culture. People will not believe and will not want to understand democracy, even more die for one

[@halloweenaddict4034]

Or its because the U.S was never interested in establishing democracy. The "democracies" the U.S propped up during all 73 of the coups and dictatorships its sponsored, always failed because the U.S always propped up corrupt autocrats who would protect their interests, and then people would get tired of that and overthrow the leader.

[@masterblack4064]

​@@halloweenaddict4034Apologies are for losers

[@kittycatwithinternetaccess2356]

@@halloweenaddict4034 soviet russia did the same sh*t any nobody looks at them

[@halloweenaddict4034]

@@kittycatwithinternetaccess2356 no they didn't lmao, they have a record of 3 lol, thats it. Not 73.

[@Denever]

The US didn't invade and occupy Afghanistan to bring democracy, The US has none of its own to begin with.

[@tomaslopez2940]

Nice video! I hope we get a similar video about the Soviet Invasion and Occupation of Afghanistan!!

[@testiclegaming1250]

Id say the ISAF had higher casualties, mainly because of all the veterans killing themselves

[@esanahka9284]

That is just tarded af

[@eliasziad7864]

Didn't mention the more than 4000 killed US contractors and 70k killed Afghan forces. But Taliban deaths were numbered at 53k killed. The US was doing less than 10% of the fighting in Afghanistan. The Taliban inflicted more losses on the allies than they suffered themselves. Even in Vietnam and that propaganda ratio, the US was doing less 30% of the fight. Had the US done 100% of the fighting in Vietnam, their losses would have easily exceeded 300k killed. And the only reason why losses of the Communist forces in Vietnam reached between 900k-1 million killed was because the Terrorist States (US) was bombing hospitals that were saving the lives of wounded Vietnamese troops in brutal and pure evil cowardly war crimes committed by American terrorists. Thus, wounded North Vietnamese troops were unable to get care when wounded in battle which contributed to high death rates among their ranks. Yet in battle, the ratio was around 1.5 to 2 Communist KIA for every 1 American terrorist, which was due to the significant firepower superiority of Terrorist forces. But keep crying about Putin and evil Russia.

[@idk-zi3gw]

​@@eliasziad7864USA and russia is evil. And china of course

[@idk-zi3gw]

There all secretly empires except some of them aren't that bad

[@johnhenry4844]

@@eliasziad7864 Bruh stop coping about the NVA losing every battle

[@antoniomoreira5921]

If anyone's interested in American warfare I hotly recommend the series that Schwerpunkt started about the US Army. He should make an update today

[@Memovox]

Most people are interested in America laying off their constant warfare.

[@MJ511KW]

US army ❌ Terrorist army ✅

[@Forbiddenn]

Man I have such massive respect for this channel - you're one of the extremely few actually unbiased western sources that don't mindlessly glorify its propaganda. That takes balls. Please never change.

[@marchfabmeirchiawn_OGISM]

Raged

[@maniac5191]

May peaceful times be among us for these years to come and cheers my fellow historians!

[@gordonchard6243]

Friend of mine was a medic in Afghanistan and I've not asked him many questions about it ( I didn't know him until last few years) but he still suffers from ptsd now.

[@soul0360]

If they trust you, and feels like you are interested in hearing their experiences, without passing judgement. They will probably share with you, in time. Don't be disappointed if they don't. As someone suffering from PTSD from the same war, who knows a bunch of others in the same situation. One thing is clear. Most of us want to talk, even though it might not seem like it. But we are afraid of the response and stigma. Because no 'normal' person will understand our story, unless extremely empathetic, and trying really hard, e.g. by doing research into the topics of 'catastrophy/war' and or 'mental health' in general. No two soldiers stories are alike. What might have seemed like a totally 'normal' experience for me, might have been what put your buddy over the edge. Just like, they might have experienced a thing 100 times with no problems, and then no 101, their world shatters. The human mind is fragile. Especially for someone like a soldier, who is trained to be tough. Meeting your breaking point can be extremely hard to accept. I wish you and your friend the very best. Trust me. Just having someone who cares for you, and accepts you, even though you are not "normal", means the world. And might lead to them getting better.

[@tetraxis3011]

@@Damian_1989The West has intefeered in elections across the world and installed dictators. So much for “peace and democracy”. You can’t pick one situation and judge everything related to it based on that one situation.

[@mirzahamzabaig5667]

​​@@Damian_1989 Invades people's homelands.. Complains about their religion. "Home of the brave"

[@thebattlefieldnick1]

@@Damian_1989 Religion of defending their own land from degenerate americans ahah.

[@GRAVEYARDOFEMPIRES539]

​@@Damian_1989 Lindu?

[@BeefyEmpanada]

Epic video which I have yet to se

[@mzk4193]

How much i love that we have left the ww2 vehind and went to the present, i would love if there was also a Victorian era video But present is perfect

[@Avaricumstudios]

The Taliban's strategy was a strategy used by George Washington , Alexander I and countless other commanders ...They realized one crucial thing ,The only asset they had was the army and this was the only asset they couldn't lose and so they retreated and hid giving a dangerous illusion of outright victory to NATO. NATO officials were so confident of their victory that they never even bothered to come to an understanding, however one sided it may be with the taliban ie a disarmament exercise or general amnesty towards rank and file and maybe even trials for top commanders. They acted as if they had finished every single taliban fighter and boy were they wrong. In as much as we can judge them , I think we ought to remember they are still human and have flaws, Its easy to look at your fancy equipment and better training and compare it with your opponent's and conclude that your opponent stands no chance and the rather quick victory being as a result of said equipment and training especially when facing an army fueled by religious dogma, indeed when facing an army that uses su*c*de bombers ,the last thing you would think is that they would retreat just to preserve their ranks, and that is exactly what they did.

[@maxtomlinson8134]

The only reason the Taliban won is because America didn’t try hard enough to win it.

[@LTC366]

Also add in that Afghans knew they didn't need to field a massive army. Once they withdrew to the mountains all they had to do was block off certain access points, attack enemy supply lines, lure them in to ambush situations, and maintaining high ground. Very effective.

[@maxtomlinson8134]

Well it wasn't, the Taliban lost every single engagement up until America pulled out@@LTC366

[@BroBomba]

It's very refreshing to see someone take an accurate and nuanced approach to discussing this conflict, and getting into the actual reasons behind the failure. Thank you for making this video.

[@gavinwhite8506]

You know it’s a good day when the armchair historian uploads a video

[@MROJPC]

The most troubling though is that our military and political leadership has not drawn any meaningful lessons from this episode of history. 2 years back we had a retired Sergeant Major that worked for over 10 years at the Pentagon address a class of PDC graduates. He claimed Afghanistan was, in his words, “a war lost at the 5 yard line” - he took no responsibility even though he was at the very top of the decision making elite and claimed the war was absolutely won prior to the evacuation… I sat very uncomfortably in the audience knowing full well that journalist, analysts, and professionals had been leveling enormous amounts of criticism and warning signs for more than a decade. I could only conclude he was trying to shape perceptions to divest himself of culpability. The bad thing about that is when we cannot make an honest assessment of failure, we cannot learn from it. Politics and personal interests supplant patriotism and service before self. A disappointment hearing this from one of our top enlisted “leaders.”

[@pewpewgamesinc]

I disagree, respectfully

[@iplayfoofee3547]

sure he was one of the highest enlisted rank in the military, but you forgot. NO ONE CARES because he is an enlisted. You think some civilian in high places who was voted in by the people would care for some random E-9 suggestions when it doesnt help them stay in office? and btw i highly doubt that E-9 was making some top level making elite decision. He was prob a E-9 in some logistics unit having to deal with keeping that unit afloat while he is their E-9.

[@sakuyaizayoi1746]

I agree, we are told perception is reality until reality kicks you to your knees after you cannot run anymore from it for brownie points.

[@erickolb8581]

@@pewpewgamesinc That's all fun and games until you're me, a commercial delivery liquor driver who also deliver to "we heart veterans" establishments. Would you care to guess how many young veterans are in these places? Hint: think of a shocking answer... Ain't no fucking respect!

[@pewpewgamesinc]

@@erickolb8581 Bruh I should have explained myself I don’t think we lost the war at the 5 yard line. I think we lost it when we just ditched the country. Btw just because a vet doesn’t visit said establishment doesn’t mean they are not respected

[@AUGUSTOOCTAVIO1]

Amazing video!!😮😮

[@Kayzplayzvr]

With the passage of time the public understand and no-one listened to the nerds I do think this it is absolutely a historical event unfolding in our current world situation

[@MeMe-mb6pm]

Bruh this add giving u a Cromwell b is one of the best premium tanks tier for tier in the game. Wish this was a promotion a few years ago before I bought it

[@ghost0nlive67]

i was at fort knox on some training and a 2 star came up to us and told us what was going on at the end

[@noahpokeemon6503]

Apparently this was the nail in the coffin for youtubes patience(check the recent community post). Gonna miss this channel after 2023 😭

[@videorighteousgames9276]

A video going over the syrian civil war would be really cool.

[@KittRembo]

If y’all want to learn more in depth on this, the Blowback Podcast just came out with a new series on Afghanistan!

[@zorintoto1167]

Didn't realize it's been 20 years

[@keeperoftruth5951]

Deployed to Afghanistan in 2018. Field artillery unit. The writing was on the wall. ANA was facing over 1000 deserations a month and the taliban continued rocket and ied attacks no matter how hard they got hit

[@Doel7]

One comment about Operation Medusa: yes there were significant Taliban losses but they learned from their mistake of building up forces too quickly and reverted to their guerilla tactics and ISAF casualties skyrocketed from 2007 to 2011 when they began the draw down. Their offensives were "blunted" like you said but to win a guerilla war all you need to do is survive and show you are still around and they did that very well right up until they overthrew the kleptocrats that we set up there.

[@digitalhistory8526]

To be honest, the film War Machine starring Brad Pitt (which i believe is on Netflix) in my opinion is an interesting take on how the war in Afghanistan was handled

[@simoncarrillo7378]

Yeah, personally I didn’t like the reporter I found him obnoxious. But the film itself is really good

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

What made the evacuation worse was the lack of sea. It was easier to evacuate with boats than planes.

[@knightbandit1021]

I kinda hope u guys do some more AUS stuff, like evolution of aus army or Vietnam war or stuff like that

[@joshosborne683]

That ad bar is very classy

[@Slippydippy1734]

Can you do a video about the great northern war. I think it’s really interesting history.

[@thomasdaywalt7735]

20 years of war and for what?

[@History_Teller1250]

Nothing...

[@babogu]

Great in-depth video! Would you guys consider doing videos on the Vietnamese invasion of the Khmer Rouge and the Sino-Vietnamese War in the near future?