Afghanistan: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

[@TS-xn1mc]

“Things are going worse than you may know” should be the official slogan of this show.

[@lptomtom]

Why do you post 10 different comments under the same video?

[@TS-xn1mc]

@Iptomtom because I can? I’m allowed to express multiple thoughts just like you’re allowed to scroll past them if you don’t like what I’m saying.

[@jimr9499]

That should also be the official slogan of my life. Lol

[@TS-xn1mc]

@Jim R hard same.

[@ktsargent9231]

For real

[@LayBan]

I work in refugee resettlement in the US and for the past year, I have worked exclusively with Afghans. What a year it has been. I was talking with one of my clients today, an 18--year old girl and she said "it was one year ago the taliban took over Kabul. It was a normal school day for us. I had a math test. I still don't know how I did on the test." I couldn't help but laugh because her humor was dark but she coped with it and her, along with the hundreds other I've been working with this year, are wonderful people. Thank you for highlighting Afghanistan.

[@AFGHANIDEAL]

That's just the tip of the iceberg, we Afghans who managed to come to US are the lucky ones, compared to those still stuck there with an uncertain future. I do want to thank the assistance and help of Americans like you, we really really appreciate it. Thank you !!

[@BigSnipp]

Did they mention how the male Afghans deserted their post and left you to die?

[@michaelcobb8398]

That’s an incredible story. I hope something swings in good fortune for them soon, far fetched as it may be.

[@stonecoldsteez]

Comedian in the making

[@jsmith3798]

I’m not going to pretend I have any idea what life is like for them now, but it is just heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time to think about what women and girls are going through. The thought that girls who have grown up in the last decade or so were able to go to school and grow up in a world where deciding their future and making something of their lives according to the freedom to make their own choices was a possibility for them, that they could look at their future and decide what they wanted it to be, and achieving it was a possibility, and then basically overnight having that taken from them and seeing them oppressed once again.. It’s just too much. And none of us, anywhere, who are fortunate enough to have been born in a land where we are free to determine our own lives should be ok with it. I am grateful you exist, and for what you do. I think it’s incredible. It’s important and it matters. But I will never stop hoping and waiting for the day that the rest still suffering there, having watched all future possibilities dissolve for them, to be helped and have those future possibilities rightfully returned to every one of them.

[@maxmaxy8989]

As an Afghanistan citizen, I really appreciate your show and showing what is going on in my country. Thank you so much

[@eerfdafsdafasdfasdfa65]

You can suppress the taliban, but as soon as you stop, they are back. Biden is right for once. Arabs love to talk about islam and it´s laws all day, so you can´t force western ideas of women´s rights or blabla upon them. They did that to the native americans and ended badly. Leave the afghani people alone. They love islamic extremist, so that´s what they get. John is soros puppet anyway.

[@erichancock6815]

if only the army we spent two decades building there didn't crumble in days. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink..or fight to sustain it's freedoms.

[@adinitum4168]

@@erichancock6815 If only your government didn't sell out the Afghan people to the Taliban during the Doha Agreements (2020), the people there might've had a chance to build a proper country!

[@alumpyhorse]

💙

[@makshay]

R u still in Afghanistan?? Or you living somewhere else now.

[@whitneymacdonald4396]

I can't express enough my appreciation for John Oliver's and his staff's work.

[@fwfulton]

Is it not wonderful that in this day and times a show that actually tries it educate and inform us about what is really going on in the World; is not only entertaining and enjoyable to watch, but a big hit.

[@starkindustries26]

“Yell what hurts into this bag, then leave” sounds a lot like the American healthcare system tbh… except you then get charged over $1000

[@googiegress]

$2000 if the Yell Bag was in the same building as an MRI machine.

[@jamessanders145]

Nah, you'd get charged 300 dollars for the right to scream into the bag.

[@scottLEEthatsME]

Facts

[@Woad25]

Oh look at Mr. Fancypants over here who has a bag that's in his network..

[@HisameArtwork]

@@Woad25 ikr. I'm in Romania and we lived 5 years in USA. Took us about a moth for doctors tell my husband he ripped a knee tendon, meanwhile he walked around with a ripped ligament heavily sedated to get all the approval papers from romanian insurers. but it did not cost us thousands of $ like it would have in US. also he had to have some tooth implants and they are 1/3 or 1/5 o US prices. salaries are lower here as well, but as an immigrant in US we made less than 1/2 of citizens so our quality of life in US was not much better.

[@andrewdonnelly4597]

My company was subcontracted last year to give aid to Afghan refugees. Let me tell you that this was human suffering unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime. I'm a grown ass man and i still tear up when I think about the absolute horror stories that were shared with us. On a brighter note, i showed the afghans respect and they gave it back ten fold. Absolutely amazing people. And if you're not acquainted with Afghanistan's history and culture i highly recommend the reading. Absolutely fascinating.

[@onkelpappkov2666]

I know it's not the right place for jokes but I love reading this as "I'm a grown ass-man."

[@andrewdonnelly4597]

@@onkelpappkov2666 😂😂

[@artemisqueen2]

Thank you for you wonderful words about the people of Afghanistan. I live in North America and it has been gut wrenching for me to see what has happened in the last few years not to mention the past 40 years to my country and people. I was born in Afghanistan when Russians invaded, things have been tough for a long time but things are extremely dire right now. People are starving, they can’t get care, it’s horrible.

[@andrewdonnelly4597]

@@artemisqueen2 i feel so bad for those still trapped under Taliban rule. I have a friend who's whole family is still there.

[@artemisqueen2]

Yeah, i hear you. I have family there. Aside from the concern about the future of girls and women, i am very worried about people and kids starving. Its been very hard for me to watch.

[@BipolarGreg]

No salaries for critical workers is definitely a really bad sign - you'll lose a whole generation of skilled workers as they turn to whatever jobs are available with no guarantee of the old infrastructure coming back. Even worse is the disillusionment that comes from that - basically a guarantee for more radicalization.

[@MartiniPinball]

At the same time is the US not supposed to cut of the taliban from those funds, this show sometimes makes valid points but overlooks the reality

[@perteadsf4914]

@@MartiniPinball I believe that anything that harms many innocent people should never be done without a well calculated plan in mind, which the US clearly does not have.

[@OWENROTHLERNER]

They were unwilling to defend their own country. Fuck em. They develop their own Taliban against their Taliban fat cats or they die.

[@aluisious]

How could it get more radicalized?

[@aluisious]

@@perteadsf4914 There is a plan. "The Taliban won't do what our corporations tell them, so we are going to cut Afghans off and let them whither because they just don't matter anymore."

[@khaterasultani]

Thank you so much for being the voice of the Afghan people. Things are going worse than you may know please DO NOT forget us!🙏🙏

[@batmansavage9121]

We should help

[@khaterasultani]

@@batmansavage9121 Exactly, thank you.

[@fuzzyapplebong328]

Are we the world police or the world plunderers

[@Heathcoatman]

@@batmansavage9121 Every time we do help we are vilified more. At some point this can only be solved by Afghans. You cant not want us there but also want our money. As long as thugs are in power, it's no win for everyone

[@Soloman_Gumball]

If only Afghani's didn't immediately give up on their country 🤷‍♂ "We want the Taliban, and free money"

[@randomilol14]

As an Afghan, I really appreciate John and his team for bringing up this topic yet again! Thank you ❤

[@camelopardalis84]

How do you feel about his US soldier wife?

[@mattroyal363]

LMAO you deserve the Taliban

[@ivanmunoz4484]

I don't I think it's nice gesture but if they won't stand up to the talibán were just feeding the new generation of talibán fighters

[@politehammer9714]

W🤯W! Afghanistan people who played both sides of To destabilizing their own country are able to cash 💸 💰 out here in americaKKK on the backs of u.s. taxpayers!

[@ochomunna270]

I think the solution to Afghanistan's problem should come from within. The U.S poured hundreds of Billions into the country and made no significant difference. Can't be asking countries in recession for further Billions now. If ya'll don't handle it yourselves, then no one can. Heaven helps those who help themselves!

[@michaeldriggers7681]

I never miss "depressing story hour" with Giles the limey toucan.

[@samuela-aegisdottir]

I never miss "I just wanted to see a comedy show and now I am sad with Johny Joy-killer"

[@Glasstable2011]

I never miss “I came here for a giggle and left crushed by the horrors of humanity” with Dr Xenon Bloom

[@evanmcmaster3900]

I just wanna say that man who sold his kidney to feed his daughter's is an incredible father. im honestly speechless...

[@DK-zu6tt]

It's appalling they pay for bodily organs. This is how an industry of "organ harvesting" against people's will or knowledge begins. That's why you can donate a kidney in the US, but you cannot legally sell one.

[@SykotikShadow]

Watch her need a kidney transplant and her father was an exact match. Bum bum buuuuummmmmm

[@vectoralphaSec]

Same to the mom who had to sell her daughter to feed her other children. Props to her. It must have been hard. Her kid is probably a sex slave as I type this comment but it had to be done to feed the other kids. Mad respect to her.

[@heartofShinRa]

As a father it's not even a question of doing it or not. You just do it, whatever your child needs. I'm heartbroken over the pain and suffering so many children and their parents are faced with on a daily basis. Fuck.

[@Mike-zf4xg]

I'd stab myself 50 times for my daughter to come back.

[@a_8850]

I always, always learn something important, at least a few strategic facts if not a game-changer, when I watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Thanks for what you folks do! It's important.

[@mikiqex]

My "favorite" thing was they interviewed a Taliban member about education of girls. He contradicted that girls are allowed to continue their studies, only they're required to attend a designated schools. Then he was asked, how many of those schools there are. His answer probably won't surprise anyone: They didn't designate them yet.

[@KitC916]

could you really expect anything different from a deeply misogynistic culture? they don't want to change and instead of spending billions of dollars over there we should fix our own culture and society and infrastructure

[@chillphil967]

Where was this in the video? I must've missed it.

[@JustinPogue]

It's not a sibling of, but is definitely a first-cousin to, the statement "Overturning Roe doesn't mean your state will outlaw ALL abortions! What nonsense! It just rightly returns that decision to your state!*" (*Which if this conversation is being had near you, you can bet your state is definitely going to try and ban all abortion) Their deeply misogynist culture wears it like clothes. Our deeply misogynist culture wears it like a tattoo and covers it with a cheap suit.

[@interstellarradio]

@@KitC916 Look, I don't want to start an argument but... Are the taliban then only ones with "culture" over there? I'm pretty sure the women who have been forced out of jobs, education and any freedom they had, do not want to be a part of this misogynistic culture, and I'd be willing to bet a good amount of men would agree with them. I understand the instinct of washing ones hands and walking away from problems "over there", but many of the problems over there stem from actions of US. And even if they didn't, we are talking about people here. Everyone gets one life, and dooming thousands of lives as "not your problem" is just heartless.

[@mikiqex]

@@chillphil967 It wasn't in this video, it was some interview I saw god knows where and when. My bet would be CNN in the first week of Taliban's new reign.

[@akalpates2035]

"This is a grim topic, but it's also an important one" - John Oliver, every week

[@bzuidgeest]

And anyways true

[@TySama0]

It's the state of the world.

[@CaptianTwug]

I think the fact that he actually had to say it out loud this time is very telling.

[@rohitkhanna]

Are you being sarcastic ? That's what John does.... bring up important yet troubling topics. So what's your point ?

[@barath4545]

I know Last Week Tonight won't read it, but for us Europeans, this video coming out JUST in time for Monday morning 9 AM starters, this serves as a GREAT start to the week, while sifiting emails and enjoying that cuppa of coffee and prepping meetings. I have it running on a 2nd screen and just pause it when I need to focus hard or talk. Thanks again for this wonderful release time here in European time zones.

[@tessiepinkman]

I agree, sitting here in Norway drinking my morning cup of tea. It's a perfect start!

[@JerjerB]

This comment! Perfect! My Mondays start with this show!

[@nanucit]

Yepp, the depressed toucan is the best way to start my Spanish work week.

[@michaelschmidt432]

You want a cookie you dreamer - greetings from Switzerland

[@angryvoices177]

trully , greatings from greece

[@iRushil]

This is too heartbreaking for us to actually comprehend what's happening to this people.

[@carterfrvr]

I'm glad that the show is doing follow-ups of the crisis in Afghanistan, to remind people that the problems do not end just because we turn away from it. Also, I am glad I am not the only one upset about the Baby-Sitters Club being cancelled. I loved that adaptation and the heart that went into making the show.

[@veramae4098]

From the minute President Trump announced our withdrawal, I thought this was going to be a disaster ... for the Taliban. The world will see who they really are, how cruel, senseless, unreliable, unrealistic, incapable of running a country.

[@carterfrvr]

@@veramae4098 But at what cost?

[@theextraordinarypants4909]

The way Netflix pays for the production of exclusive shows leads to high cancellation or cessation rates of even popular and good shows after one or 2 seasons. They pay a small amount for the first season, slightly larger for season 2, then it balloons for a season 3 and beyond. Since they produce an entire season at once, and keep such strict metrics of viewership, they know when a show does well, but cancel it anyway to fund a lot of cheaper garbage or seasons 1/2 of other shows (filler for the platform). It's a pretty indefensible position by their leadership considering their revenue and profits. Netflix may have been the original leader in the streaming industry, but they threw it away. I'm well aware what the greedy corporate monopolies that own a lot of classics did by denying intellectual property to Netflix and also disapprove: everyone was making money with streaming services as distributors and customers were happy. Now it's nickel and diming unhappy customers and a real creativity drain with the endless churn of 98% bingable garbage. I would never pitch a show to Netflix. Or Fox. Surprised Spielberg signed on to do ten movies.

[@cottoncandy7122]

It would be great if the US government would work on their own government, homelessness and poverty in their own country vs meddling with other countries problems and leaving it in a mess they cannot culturally or religiously understand. Stop the financial criminals who sit behind a laptop at home first.

[@n8zog584]

I am glad that they are looking back at afghanistan, but I wish they had covered it when it happened. Also, I really wish they would cover the crisis in Ukraine

[@njaum]

So glad you brought up what the US is doing in Eastern Congo. Y'all really should do a segment on that sometime soon

[@richardspillers6282]

a few years from now we'll find out we found a reason to train and arm a new enemy.

[@brendonaldson8056]

Americans refuse to talk about how fucking evil we have become. But we love pointing fingers as we drone strike everyone and anyone

[@JaysSavvy]

How about what the US is doing to the US? 500k jobs. 1.5 million new people. It's not sustainable.

[@brendonaldson8056]

@@JaysSavvy what new people? I see No masses of people moving in. Turn off Fox News

[@johnydmarsh9435]

@@JaysSavvy it's the dam republicans

[@EricLinstone]

I've known the lady that sells ice cream around my neighborhood for years. She's from Afghanistan and still has family there. My mom and I always try to give her extra money to send to her family there. At first she refused, but when we told her that it was specifically for her family she took it and broke down into tears. She said it's really bad there and if it wasn't for her, her family would probably starve. It's really sad. But I'm glad to help and at least I know where the money is going and not to some organization that uses the money to send you a bunch of crap in the mail to get you to send more.

[@patternrecon5271]

Wikipedia: Finland: Sexual violence: Perpetrators: wow. BBC Sweden 58% foreigner. Ukrainian 18 year old Germany. Taharrush gamea. Marocchinate. New years eve Colonge Germany. Rotherham scandal. Manchester scandal. Rochdale scandal. West Yorkshire scandal. Newcastle scandal. Oxford scandal. Bradford scandal. Telford scandal. Aylesbury scandal. Huddersfield scandal. Zabihullah Mohmand Montana. Fort McCoy Afghans. Somali sweden 9 years old. Skaf gang australia. Simon Mol. Oulu scandal. Tapanila somali. Glasgow grooming gang. Ross Parker. Kriss Donald. Lara Logan Egypt. Temar Bishop. Morocco beheading. Greece Ahmed Waqas. France: Ndiaga Dieye police attack Rambouillet police attack Orthodox priest wounded Lyon 2020 Nice stabbing Samuel Paty attack 2020 Paris stabbing attack Colombes police attack 2020 Romans-sur-isère knife attack Metz police stabbing 2020 Villejuif stabbing Paris police headquartes stabbing 2019 Lyon bombing 2018 Strasburg attack Asadollah Asadi 2018 Paris knife attack. ,. Carcassonne and Trèbes attack 2017 Marseille stabbing 2017 Levallois-Perret attack 2017 Notre Dame attack 2017 Orly airport attack 2017 Paris machete attack 2016 Normandy church attack Nice truck attack 2016 Magnanville stabbing 2016 Paris police station attack Valence car attack November 2015 Paris attacks 2015 Thalys train attack Charlie Hebdo attack..,

[@EricLinstone]

@@Venom-uw4nv Thanks. I wrote it late at night and I was going to say "The ice cream lady I've known for years" But decided to change it at the last minute.

[@Monie71793]

👏🏽👏🏽🥰

[@MarcillaSmith]

Sounds as if you're doing more good than Mr. Oliver, who, I must point out, essentially said the root problem is that Afghanistan can't print its own currency, didn't bother to explain how that is, convinced us that we have to invest in persistent infrastructure rather than short term bandaids, and didn't include currency infrastructure. I mean, I'm not saying the State Department just dropped off a script...

[@nfrl-hs2ly]

@@MarcillaSmith The response of the International Community to the Afghan situation reminds me of the response of the epidemiological community to First covid-19 and now monkey pox. Self-inflicted wounds everywhere.

[@marxman6896]

"I look like a Pokemon whose final evolution is a graphing calculator" this is now one of my all-time favorite LWT jokes. Absolutely brilliant.

[@rustyshackleford6035]

I just want to say I know that there's a lot of shake up's going on at HBO MAX and there canceling alot of shows 📺 right now but I hope this show keeps going on for many years because nobody else is talking about the things he's talking about God Bless him

[@drunkpaulocosta]

And as an Air-Bud fan i also appreciate the hard work John and his team did exposing the horrible treatment of Norman Snively at the hands of the Fernfield Police Department. #FreeNormSnively

[@lunchtreyy]

He brings in many many MANY viewers, I think he's fine

[@Theelby33]

I feel this show has lost its form for a while now and I think it's on its last season or 2

[@kalen1702]

@@Theelby33 Seems about as funny, informative, and interesting as all the previous seasons. That's just me, I'm not sure of the viewership. Sure, the quality suffered due to covid, but I feel that it's in full form now.

[@rustyshackleford6035]

@@kalen1702 Me too but I'm still in shock 😲 over Trevor Noah leaving Comedy Central I didn't know that his ratings were bad 😞 maybe 🤔 he can do show on Hulu or Netflix seems like more fellow Democrats are doing streaming now

[@adamjames2855]

"Doing nothing" isn't "A swing and a miss." It's "Watching a strike go by."

[@cam4636]

This was more like swinging, hitting a bunch of innocent bystanders in the skull, and still missing the ball

[@TheHylianBatman]

The laughter in the background did a good job of keeping me from slipping into complete despair, so thanks for that.

[@bradleysmith292]

It was infectious lol

[@thewildcardperson]

you know it's fake

[@TheHylianBatman]

@@thewildcardperson Eh, sure, whatever. It's still part of the video.

[@StrangeFredyKing]

13:49 you can hear the sound of tears accumulating in John’s eyes.

[@sovereign6291]

John's team should have dug a little further into the amusement park bit. The Taliban burned it down after they were done using it for their own enjoyment. There were several video clips on it. It would have been a great metaphor for them being happy they took over the country only to watch it collapse under their rule.

[@maudbrewster9413]

I’m speechless. That is what I meant with egoistical children of the war, they don’t look or behave like adult men in my eyes. I was watching so many interviews with them but the impression remained.

[@commenter4898]

It's sort of expected from rural illiterates who's spent most of their life fighting an insurgency. Their brain have been tuned to survival mode for so long that they no longer comprehend fairness, compassion, long term planning, etc.

[@huytranvan2754]

I'm Vietnamese and to be honest, not even surprised that U.S-backed Afghan government fell so it quickly when it happened. It's like watching the Fall of Saigon all over again...

[@bitstreamintercept7272]

america fails to learn from its mistakes and we all pay the price, and i say that as an american.

[@aurynvrvilo6683]

Anyone paying attention even a little wasn't surprised at what happened. We were there incompetently for 20 years. Getting out was never going to go smoothly, and could have gone much worse. Sadly, this is another Astro-Turf segment.

[@richardm5448]

@@bitstreamintercept7272 "learn from" is way too much credit, that should really just be changed to "makes" cause we don't learn shit (we being the government and the people that vote these idiots and incompetent assholes in)

[@freetolook3727]

History: More people should read it.

[@IvanSN]

Only difference is that the communist Vietnamese were good while the Taliban suck almost more than the US.

[@paulmakinson1965]

I have friends who were training the Afghan army. They were already talking of extreme corruption, entire nonexistent units whose salaries were pocketed by high ranking officials, equipment theft, infiltration by Taliban, being fired at by the soldiers they were training. And NATO high ranking officers refusing to hear the truth.

[@mikemorenilla7444]

Yeah, it's a shitty place full of awful people.

[@Seth9809]

A lot of that sounds like the same problems that are in Russia. Iraq is certainly in a better place than Afghanistan.

[@galenibble]

@@Seth9809 «A lot of that sounds like the same problems that are in Russia» This.

[@benbattiste1041]

I did a year over there training the Afghan army, and that was the exact problem. The only thing that seemed to help was our very presence. It seemed as though there was no hope of training a military and standing up a legitimate government.

[@codacreator6162]

Can’t teach morality in a few weeks. Corruption, get all I can as fast as possible, then bail, is the American way. Why would a regime we created be any different?

[@Pashazeco]

I love the way Jhon began mentioning Afghan poetry. Instead of stereotyped

[@lpchambers3681]

This is not how I thought I would find out the babysitters club was canceled and I am devastated atop the clusterfuck that is the US actions with Afghanistan

[@charlottewheeler8393]

Its been my favorite show since I found it. Ive watched it so many time and showed so many other full grown adults and they all loved it. Wanting to see the babysitters club is why I kept a Netflix subscription

[@duicic8541]

From a purely military viewpoint, the result in Afghanistan was kind of as bad as it gets. Too much achieved to leave, too much screwed up to stay. It's a refrain you can hear from many who served there - that they felt like going back there, do something, save what was built, and at the same time, knowing that it was senseless at this point.

[@cosmojenkins3020]

2.4 million Iraqi people were killed in the illegal Iraq invasion, and millions more combining Afghanistan with all the others and the sanctions and destruction of hospitals and cities, etc. It was genocidal. Especially when the government got support after making it about killing “Muslims” because Muslims are “evil terrorists and a threat to white western Christianity and morality” and whatever they meant by “democracy.” The USA shouldnt have ever been there. It ruined those nations for decades and decades to come because all America knows is destruction, and it has no idea how to build and mend.

[@Dranzerk8908]

Then they are just brainwashed into going in the first place. The idea that you think firstly as "purely a military viewpoint" shows the wrong kind of thinking in the first place. lol

[@RaveYoda]

"Too much achieved to leave, too much screwed up to stay." Just so true. But, the Afghans gave up in 15 days to the Taliban. The Russian's vichy government held out longer than ours did by 3 years.

[@mightymystery9204]

@@RaveYoda But the schemer in chief at the time, who had four years to produce a gradual withdrawal, got terrorists released, negotiated only with the Taliban and not the central government, and pretty much guaranteed a disaster, just to sabotage the incoming President, one of the last poison pills of an ousted mogul who has lost what he got through hostile takeover. This is straight out of the late-nineties profiteering playbook.

[@LordElfa]

We were unwilling to do what we needed to do to defeat the Taliban because we aren't cartoon villian evil and that's what it would have taken.

[@KarasMP]

"The math doesn't work" line described the situation perfectly. Also the woman saying "your sanctions will kill us faster than the Taliban restrictions"

[@maudbrewster9413]

I still side with the decision of giving as little funding as possible and only under certain conditions like girls education and that it goes into healthcare too. But there is no coherent government in Afghanistan so how to even do that? It’s cruel to withhold funding but if everything would stay kind of the same apart from women’s rights being cut off more men will believe that the Taliban is actually not that bad after all. There were no real fights against them and that means that in heart people are somewhat comfortable with the idea of their ruling if it means peace. Very understandable but it comes with a very high price for all future generations and more suffering overall. The Taliban men are not real adults there are the egoistical children of war and will remain in that state because in their eyes they have fulfilled their deeds and expect now the reward. They are not educated people either. A retreat by the US was maybe necessary but the speed at which it was done was utterly irresponsible and the terrorism will not stop regardless. The Taliban needs a common enemy to justify their existence. I hope I’m wrong though.

[@bobbyboy1797]

When Russia invaded Ukraine we shouldn't have put sanctions on them?

[@miroslavhoudek7085]

This is the obviously the point of those conservative politicians, not some kind of mistake that you can correct by a proper analogy or clever quip. If Afghans are dead, they can't be a threat, or continue to be Muslims (which is the same thing in republican/democrat right-wing heads). Especially a child that is dead will not grow into a terrorist or into a Muslim. Can't argue with that. If you think about it, American, Russian, Chinese, Israeli or other conservative politicians always chose this approach and it's working. So why are people expecting any change?

[@gho5trun3r68]

And yet people always want to go with embargoes, sanctions, or blockades over a lot of other measures. This is somehow seen as a compromise to be tough, but not as aggressive as something like war. It's a tough balance to make and I don't envy anyone whose job it is to weigh these decisions between an evil government or the fate of millions of lives.

[@kushastea3961]

@@miroslavhoudek7085 lmfao look at Americans trying to slander other countries. own your own genocides and global military f*ck ups ok? china hasn't been in war for decades and the prc isn't even a century old.

[@matt_cummins28]

Great, great piece, John. Brilliant summing up of this horrifying, heartbreaking and heinous situation. Thank you.

[@Riccardo_can]

When even John Oliver goes "and I will admit, this is a grim topic" maybe this shouldn't be in my morning routine

[@alcapone672]

I was not expecting to be up at 2:30 in the morning and see John Oliver talking about Afghanistan

[@phillipreed1325]

5

[@lunamax1214]

Same, Al. Same.

[@FreshGarbage0]

Same, but its 3:30 and I'm eating graham crackers.

[@yurmomsaccount]

Bro it's 3:42 am. I'm here doing dabs and eating cereal. 🤣😂💙

[@bushka087]

I also have the Cheerios munchies, but you're all wrong, it's only 1:38 am

[@TommyWoodyard]

Was a student in a diplomacy Masters for three months last year and became so disheartened about the apathy surrounding me when it came to see U.S. positions on various human atrocities around the globe and how diplomacy didn't seem to solve anything that I left (there were other logistical reasons to but that was a factor as well); I'd watched the mental health and monkeypox videos posted from two weeks and last week but wasn't so sure if I liked this show enough to keep watching. To see the fervor that John has in resolving issues - as incremental as it may be to fully solving them - has made me a fan for life of his show. So long as you keep posting, I'll keep watching! Take care until next week, John and the HBO staff

[@smtv6295]

FY! Friendly regards! I just wanted to design a nice and secure letter that I would have loved to have finished in the procedure for the reply to your comment that is an invitation for me to join the communication group with you on KZbin. But I I will testify and probably not lie, that that notification that got me wasting my time on occasion. I hate that I have no Ketamine left and will be be medicated with some wild synthetic stimulant, I can barely enjoy

[@sean5534]

Go back and watch some of the older stuff too. Some are more time specific like corona virus or certain elections. Many are important information that is worth being talked about like lethal injection, prison systems, and such.

[@TheLastInferno]

God bless you, John Oliver, for covering this. My heart breaks for them while I uselessly sit in my NYC apartment and fill my belly. May God guide us all to be just in our actions, including in our spending.

[@izrailas]

I just want to thank the whole Last Week Tonight Team for keeping an eye on the whole afghanistan situation, because everyone is currently talking about ukraine. Sadly there are multiple conflicts worldwide and we should not forget every other conflict while focusing on one. Love your work. Keep it up!

[@firstmkb]

ADOS - Attention Deficit… Ooh, Shiny!

[@spacemanx9595]

Because Russia pushing in Ukraine causes more global instability and food shortages via grain than Afghanistan which is just suffering under their own Taliban rule. Apples and grapes my dude

[@ivancorey7389]

Is Afghanistan really a conflict anymore? I would say not.. People are willing to forget about Afghanistan because we spent 20 years and far too many lives in the hopes that their people would embrace a functioning democracy. They didn’t. It’s much easier to have sympathy for Ukraine, as it’s population has the will to fight.

[@asksalottle220]

@@ivancorey7389 hard to do when we also set up shit leader and then train the locals to overthrow it rinse and repeat for 30+ years

[@dontbanmebrodontbanme5403]

@@asksalottle220 At the end of the day, the Afghan fighters were 5 times the size of the Taliban and had the best US weaponry in the world, but they literally laid down their arms and didn't fire a single shot against Afghanistan in defense of their country. In fact, we learned afterward that they were always secretly loyal to the Taliban, so no matter how long we stayed, when we left they were just going to let the Taliban in.

[@TS-xn1mc]

I love how he’s always funny while still being informative, sensitive, and fair. It never feels like he’s making light of a serious issue or mocking those in need.

[@fenseti3793]

I barely laugh watching john oliver, i found trevor noah is way more witty

[@skechij5856]

More often than not it feels like he’s helping the audience come up for air before the next dive into the shit. I love that it lands pretty much every time but fuck me, things look grim.

[@TS-xn1mc]

@Fen Seti ok? It’s so weird to me when people comment under other people’s comments just to say they don’t agree with them lmao.

[@bongoblast9831]

@@TS-xn1mc you think it's weird when people express their opinion that's related to your opinion?

[@TS-xn1mc]

@Bongo Blast if you said “I love hamburgers” and a random stranger came up to you just to tell you they don’t like hamburgers and they prefer hot dogs you would think it’s weird too because You weren’t talking to them to begin with and you weren’t looking to engage in a conversation.

[@esscott24]

I'd recommend everyone go watch the documentary "This is What Winning Looks Like". Released in 2013, it manages to spell out exactly why the US was always doomed to fail in Afghanistan.

[@232pk]

Everyone knew. We were keeping a corps on life support.

[@dannydandaniel8040]

On the nose with this recommendation

[@sailaab]

Hmmm

[@hatinacat4328]

Lololol. Just watched it today somehow. Funny timing

[@1995abv]

The general saying they had the wrong info is a joke and after watching that documentary

[@ardalanshojaei]

Wow that was so powerful. John you are giving voice to the... I was going to say voiceless / unrepresented but it's even worst than that... The misrepresented. Amazing, you and team should be proud of yourselves to cover so much of these important topics

[@HokiePitcher22]

I cant help but wonder what happened to some of the afghans that I served beside back in 2010 and 2012. Not just the ANA guys we trained and who fought alongside of us, but the terps who risked their lives (and their family's lives) to help us. The visa program was/is an absolute mess, a bureaucratic nightmare of a process. I'm sure they didn't all get out beforehand. One of our biggest fuck ups, in my opinion, was the fact that we left a bunch of our HIDE (biometric scanners) devices behind, giving Taliban access to the private info of pretty much EVERY single Afghan citizen who assisted ISAF and American forces in the last 2 decades. There is a 100% chance the Taliban have used that information to punish these people, if not kill them. It breaks my heart.

[@MarceloRamos-uk8cd]

Why do they let the scanners?

[@HokiePitcher22]

@@MarceloRamos-uk8cd well we left those scanners for the ANA to continue using bc it had useful intelligence on not just the Taliban and AL Qaeda database but also those who worked alongside us...from terps...to informants...to the people that simply worked on base in clerical duties. But when the ANA fled the Taliban they left behind hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worth American gear that we gave them...that's just one of the crucial things the left for the taliban...they encrypted but I imagine it wouldn't take the Taliban long to decrypt...possibly with the help of other nations hostile to the US.

[@testaccount5159]

Oh, my god. That is AWFUL. Wow….

[@highandangry4265]

As someone still trying to get people out.... this always hits hard.

[@Eli07K]

I found it extremely insulting to compare Trump intelligence to the intelligence of a Crow. It is well known that Crows exhibit extraordinary intelligence. The Crow community deserve an apology from John Oliver.

[@vice.nor.virtue]

Hear! Hear!

[@shasmi93]

I think if we put trump and crows through similar obstacles and tests you would see how correct this statement really is…. Crows BLOW my mind with what they are capable of…. The latter. Not so much.

[@crazykhespar8487]

On the contrary, Trumps decisions also blow my mind. With his amazing, bigly stupidity.

[@colmbrady6614]

How come Biden isn’t made fun of in the same way?, he’s literally brain dead

[@karanaher5030]

Incorrect. It would take crows millions of years to evolve to the level where their intelligence could match Trump's. This is sarcasm. I thought y'all would get it.

[@tosca8571]

Thank you, John, for pointing out the difference between "bad" and "badly"! 🥰

[@trailerparkwisdomchannel7199]

Thank you John for finding such a brilliant way to wake us up. You are and always will be a TRUE Humanitarian Hero for me.

[@SpeedyBozar]

"And the world's richest man is a ventriloquist dummy from hell." - I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

[@LoveAvalanche]

absolutely a highlight

[@retroquest3579]

Hmm. Thought Bezos was the richest man on earth? Did Musk pass him?

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@@retroquest3579 Even if he didn't, that statement rings true.

[@thatjillgirl]

@@retroquest3579 Yes, Musk passed him, but their net worth is very much tied up in how much their companies are currently valued at. Many think Tesla is overvalued.

[@4brigger]

I had to pause this video while I caught up on the history of Dave Coulier. It's about what you'd expect. Carry on Mr. Oliver.

[@ichijofestival2576]

Well, having not looked anything up yet, I'm not exactly sure what to expect from the star of a 90's sitcom who has since faded into obscurity. Probably just an IMDb page full of obscure appearances in B- and C-level entertainment. Maybe a drug problem. (That expectation is likely influenced by the fact that news tabloids wouldn't consider anything less 'news-worthy' and we'd just hear nothing. "No news is good news.") [Edit: Turns out ol' Dave's career has been surprisingly prolific, particularly in children's entertainment. Good on him. Also, apparently he dated Alanis Morissette and there was some drama there, which was the basis for the reference. Couldn't bring myself to care enough to actually read any of it in-depth.]

[@MsAMP1981]

That baby. 😭 Just the whole scene. The whole situation. We still need to work to get people who helped Aotearoa New Zealand out. We have let them down so hugely. And it's heart breaking.

[@sdm1568]

Way to go, new Zealand! You guys suck!

[@iAMBatman384]

as someone who works with Afghan refugees, this brought me to tears. thank you for bringing this to people’s attention.

[@sierrawagoner4448]

I spoke with a man from Afghanistan who told me he was part of one of the work crews that tried to establish internet and utilities to more rural areas, but when they got there the people refused, saying the internet would cause their sons to rebel and daughters to become whores. Their work crews would be shot at while they tried to work. He said he worked with the US military also as a translator and saw how help was offered to a people who didn’t want it, and how disheartened he became. A school he and his father established teaching English was burned down. He said the US tried to unite the afghan people, but its almost an impossible task, and he pretty much said he didn’t blame the US for leaving because all their help was shit on and all their money was stolen. Idk that was just a really interesting conversation that sticks with me, what a fascinating person. (He was able to flee with his wife and children, given his work with the US military putting him in danger now, and wants all of his daughters to be successful doctors)

[@theBear89451]

The belief that we should appropriate American culture into Afghanistan is nothing more than hubris.

[@lordbertox4056]

Shouldn't be there in the first place...

[@Lilohilo97]

What a pointless comment

[@LetsbeHonestOfficial]

@@Lilohilo97 Why?

[@KillenEMsoftly]

US "help" is refused for a reason lol

[@DominusNox106]

As a veteran of the Afghanistan conflict I can assure you that aid doesn't reach the poor you are trying to help. $$ always goes to those who control the area. Also, I built a hospital and trained the staff. The morning we left, the Taliban bombed everyone there.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

Well shit...

[@hawkeye5955]

I remember reading a report stating the money mostly went to Afghan government officials instead. It wasn't surprising that government fell when US forces left because they were heavily reliant on those forces and were unable sustain their own security. What was shocking was how fast the government collapsed.

[@tori2dles]

*doesn’t ALWAYS reach Often it does. You just have to have oversight and effective partnerships with trustworthy people. Not always easy, but it is do-able. I worked there, too, with a few NGOs. Were you at Bagram & when?

[@gemelwalters2942]

It's almost impossible for the Taliban to not benefit when they are the ruling government. There is no easy solution and I don't know what the answer is but I understand the hesitation because you don't want them using that money to commit more terror and then we'll be here talking about how we funded all these bad things that are happening.

[@chessenthusiast]

Oh, I guess that absolves the US of moral culpability then?

[@kevinmcjames4626]

Oh man this was a particularly tuff one to watch! I love how John is still up there cracking jokes, I need to take a page from his book on keeping it light!

[@reallyWyrd]

"A mind-blowing fck up that will take years to fully comprehend." -- describes so many events these days.

[@murlocmaster6192]

not for me, i know exactly where we go wrong every time. Honestly its not hard to make good choices.

[@phillyphilly1076]

@@murlocmaster6192 right? It’s almost like it’s on purpose?

[@tori2dles]

I can’t watch this yet. One year ago and every day since has been so devastating. Been trying to get six families out that I worked with via an American NGO years ago. Nearly the entire world has closed their doors. A few families made it out, though - one to Russia, one to Pakistan (though they face deportation) and two to Iran. They qualify for US immigrant visas, but they had to get out while USCIS drags along at a snail’s pace. How embarrassing that Russia & Iran were their only options.

[@Praisethesunson]

Service for the Murican empire no longer guarantees citizenship.

[@hblaub]

Best wishes for your work! It is a total disgrace how the world left them on their own.

[@d.h.4778]

The fact Russia… Russia is one of the only two options is absolutely sickening. The US caused this problem and red pills are gunna throw a fit that they NEED somewhere to go and don’t want it to be here is just sooo gross. Thank you for what you are doing.

[@chadachwilliam5515]

We don’t even take care of our veterans, taking care of the fodder from the wake of the quake is even more of a reach. If it doesn’t make a profit, no one with power to make changes actually cares. When I served over there, it was ridiculously obvious that corruption was rampant everywhere. Which made no one trust anyone.

[@thehabit635]

@@d.h.4778 Hey Russia isn’t that bad, a little cold. but it’s not like, third world. They probably love it

[@Jose04537]

Did you really think that the aid is just not going to the pockets of Talibán? Just like it did with the Militar Junta during the Ethiopia Famine of the 80s? If there's no way to deliver it directly, then that's just exactly what is going to happen, again.

[@bearshark5941]

They're the uncontested government of the country. Even if you 100% prevented them from just pocketing the money that would have gone to a power plant or an irrigation system, you can't stop them from taxing the sale of that power or those crops, that's how a government works. So what? Ask the Afghan people to fight another war? Who's going to fight when *half* the population of the country is malnourished children?

[@BigSnipp]

Who is you?

[@puppypi9668]

I agree but wasn't the International Rescue person one of the people who _can_ deliver it directly? Don't send money; just buy the stuff next door and send that! What will the Taliban do? Steal peoples' food and sell it? (I mean I wouldn't be surprised but surely that would spark an uprising if they did)

[@Jose04537]

@@puppypi9668 That's actually what usually happens, unless the blue helmet of UN are involved. I suggest the video of "The problem with Foreign Aid" by Polymatter.

[@classicjonesy]

97% that just blows my mind, and breaks my heart

[@einsteinboricua]

Afghanistan is, unfortunately, the only country in the area that cannot be unified. This is what happens when arbitrary lines are drawn without regards to whether the people have a shared identity. Hamid Karzai tried to be a uniting figure by wearing clothing from each of the main groups of the country; the problem is that Afghans (especially those in the rural parts) just never saw themselves as Afghan. The central government could only operate efficiently in Kabul and some of the major cities; beyond that, there was no effort to improve lives, which is why the Taliban still retained support. To be clear, Afghans definitely don’t see the Taliban as legitimate leaders either so what’s the solution here? Should it be split into independent ethnic states? Should Pakistan incorporate some of the Pashtun provinces? It’s not clear and the bottom line here is that until a sense of identity is established, Afghans won’t rise up against the Taliban, because for those in the rural parts, life is no different than when the previous government held power.

[@skierpage]

From my recollection of a great New Yorker piece on Afghanistan, something like: "The Taliban offer is simple: obey us and we won't kill you. Most rural people prefer that to local gangster warlords calling in US drone strikes against their enemies." Rural Afghanistan has never enjoyed good governance; it's a completely foreign concept to the long-suffering people.

[@longforgotten4823]

Similar to how both north and south Vietnamese viewed their nation. And why propping up the South Vietnamese government was never going to work. The people themselves never saw themselves as an independent Vietnamese state. The cruelty that they suffered was simply icing on the nope cake.

[@claymadness]

Assimilating parts of Pashtun Afghanistan into Pakistan isn’t a solution when the problem you’ve highlighted is as if not more acute in the latter. The Balochis, Pashtuns and even parts of Sindh see themselves as different from the Punjabi-speaking majority in Pakistan which is why the country is wracked by multiple separatist movements. South and Southeast Asia and Africa are complex tapestries of ethnicities and fragmentation on ethno-linguistic lines to resemble Europe isn’t a solution, in my opinion. Unless there’s trust built through strong nation-building efforts and institutions that respect and abide by the rule of law, it’s always going to be a tricky situation to navigate. Whether Afghanistan or Nigeria, The Philippines or even a strong centralised democracy like India where there’s an increasing turn towards majoritarianism, if decision-makers and institutions are unable to resist the temptations that unchecked power brings, there’ll be an eventual slide into fragmentation which is unlikely to benefit anyone.

[@longforgotten4823]

@@claymadness exactly, European nationalism is not going to show up the same in south and south eastern Asia. It’s not where nationalism took route and it’s not how ethnic groups are going to get along in the future. Gandhi said it best, “the only reason India can act as a nation is because Great Britain showed them how to do it.“ and even that form of nationalism is starting to fracture in favor of majority rule. Pakistan has a lot of ethnic and sectarian violence that is currently going on right now but most people are not aware of it.

[@Draven84]

@asahi toki But not "all" ethnicities. If that was true Northern Alliance would not have enjoyed the support it did. Certain groups suffered immensely worse under former taliban rule.

[@itscalledlogic7]

It's too bad John didn't mention that right after the Taliban rode those bumper cars, they burned the entire thing to the ground.

[@Austine1452]

Stay away from radical Islam

[@RobinaB530]

@clyde_1 I didn't.

[@annarae2396]

Did they really?

[@mkvenner2]

I’m not surprised

[@JuMiKu]

@@annarae2396 They did. Disgusting.

[@igby2616]

thank you for your clear and nuanced delivery! i learn from you every week. you’re great at contextualizing extremely complex issues, especially in such a limited time frame. kudos to you and your team for keeping such a close eye on everything that happens all the time. there’s a LOT of shit and you touch on so much of it every week. THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME STAY INFORMED

[@afrodemon8629]

You'll need a lot more than John Oliver to stay informed. Timcast is one of the best sources.

[@karankapoor2701]

He's a good propoganda peddler

[@Austine1452]

Stay away from radical Islam

[@igby2616]

@@afrodemon8629 john oliver is just one source but he’s a good one!

[@afrodemon8629]

@@igby2616 He's not too bad. I question some of his takes. More so I question whether it's a genuine take or a script given to him. He's hilarious though.

[@fry6344]

Thank you John and all those who have a heart to care for humanity ❤

[@chaotic4267]

The most shocking thing is that our officials found it so shocking. Everybody with common sense knew that whenever we finally left it was gonna be a clusterfuck. Just proves there was no reason to stay as long as we did.

[@davidanspach1624]

They weren't shocked. They feigned that shit to try absolving themselves of direct responsibility.

[@fatbgmanbg975]

@@davidanspach1624 Hurray! Another one with common sense!!✊✊

[@andreasottohansen7338]

And it is still not as unsurprising as the Irish response to a hard border coming with Brexit

[@couragekarnga8735]

That's what happens when you go to war on false pretenses.

[@arcturionblade1077]

Kicking the can down the road for twenty years.

[@bleankdallas2924]

I like how these geniuses think. "No man shall treat women in hospitals" Okay... "Also, no girl shall go to school anymore" Umm, wait, doesn't that mean there won't be female doctors anymore? Stellar reasoning there, Captain Tally! What we should be arguing about is how the taliban is forcing all it's women to become doctors and nurses and midwives. There aren't a lot of movie villain plots worse than this

[@Rikku147]

This is how female and maternal mortality rates skyrocket and the country goes into fucking crisis because half their population is dying at catastrophic rates. Idiots.

[@bagallah]

Neat way to divert the subject. They'd starve before we begin to argue about that. You watched the entire video and learned nothing. "Education is meaningless when you're dying of hunger". Cutting aids would kill them faster than the taliban will.

[@jamesmcintyre9119]

The nurses and midwifes were installed before the taliban take over. Women aren’t allowed to go to school anymore meaning there won’t be anyone to replace them once they’re gone/retire. How was that not obvious to you? The point they’re making is that the Taliban will soon realize that their radical thinking isn’t a viable long term solution. Exceptions or complete reversals of restrictions on women will need to be made.

[@Armendicus]

That’s religion for you. If we let the Christian Taliban over here take over that’s exactly the type of shit that’ll go down.

[@joshDammmit]

Literally what the GOP is trying to do to America

[@Tinil0]

I'm in a lot of pain right now and this was NOT the depressing show to watch when emotionally overwhelmed.

[@luminair11]

Thank you John Oliver for having the courage and intelligence to say it as it is.........I pray the world is listening!

[@itsROMPERS...]

Finally someone corrects "feeling BADLY"! This drives me nutly!

[@zuldo8577]

The US spent trillions in help and infrastructure in Afghanistan for 20 years and it didn't change anything in the end. A large part was lost to corruption. As long as the Afghans aren't willing to stand up to the Taliban there really isn't any way to help them.

[@IntenseHistory]

Agreed. Let’s not waste our money

[@neo-babylon7872]

Yeah I think if Taliban had never been disposed of, Afghanistan wouldn’t be in a much better situation. Their control is too much for any kind of societal advances to happen. But still ordinary ppl don’t deserve to go through this horrible situation.

[@melammutumultus4654]

True story

[@a.3032]

Yeah, then maybe the Americans that funded and helped the Talibans decades ago shouldn't have done just that. It's not the Afghan people's fault and they have tried. You saying that they're not willing to stand up against the Talibans is gross. Let me see what you would do if a foreign country secretly supported a terrorist group in your homeland and then you're were told to pick yourself up by the bootstraps.

[@laker09champ72]

@@IntenseHistory too late

[@TS-xn1mc]

I’m so glad they’re doing a follow up on this. It’s easy to just think about something for 20 minutes and then move on, so I’m glad that he’s coming back to remind us that Afghanistan still needs our help.

[@Richard_the_V]

They need to help themselves. According to trump we left the lights on. They just needed to fight to defend it.

[@Tcrror]

@@Richard_the_V "according to Trump" Listening to anything Trump has to say and believing him was your first mistake.

[@FULANODETAL]

afgans voted for talibans ,,so ENjoy the vote

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

No they don't. They made this bed, they must sleep on it. If they think it's bad, they should get out...

[@gummybearchewy5444]

@@Richard_the_V does that Statement really seem credible to you? This is the man who also claimed that drinking bleach could cure Covid and Nuking hurricanes is a possible solution to them. Considering we have frozen the countries money a more accurate analogy would be that we stole the lights and will not give them back until the government “changes their ways”

[@briheartsgames7651]

Rewatching this I forgot about the rat Hitler joke and I choked on my drink lol

[@HOTD108_]

It's so nice to see Rat Hitler bringing so mu much joy to the world.

[@عليياسر-ذ5ب]

@@HOTD108_ Sind nicht Amerika und die westlichen Barbaren, laut den Römern, die Bösen?

[@phm6834]

Using a Zoo to portray how everyone can live free in the own country is so absurd

[@Praisethesunson]

It can be absurd because you can't do shit about whatever nonsense he is using to justify Murican imperialism

[@amberkat8147]

Especially when it's only a bunch of men who are allowed to go.

[@fumarc4501]

The irony was not lost on me.

[@theBear89451]

From the perspective that freedom is morally good, we can see the irony, but from the perspective that freedom is evil, there is no hypocrisy.

[@cat_city2009]

"freely" Haha are you serious?

[@jazwhoaskedforthis]

It breaks my heart to think about. I can't even imagine the absolute hell they live in. Even the service people who believed they were sent there to help people have to see it was all for power and greed now, not for anyone's safety or democracy. It's a staggering failure if you think we went for those reasons, but if you think about who profited- they got what they wanted out of the conflict. They always do. And everyone else paid the price for it. I'm dreading another class because I'm burnt out, but other girls and women can no longer dream of going to school. I can't even imagine how hopeless that feels, and not enough men over there see it as a problem

[@عليياسر-ذ5ب]

@awnx ruyv The Romans were enslaved by Jesus because of water

[@MrDbacks10]

That guy sold his kidney to meet his kid’s needs what a legend

[@Pfpfpfpfpf2020]

Especially when he could have just sold the kids :/

[@utezahn3174]

Nobody should have to.

[@Squidwardsangryface]

It’s unfortunate he had to sale kidney, but all I could think is he could have gotten way more money for that kidney. 🤦🏿‍♀️

[@vectoralphaSec]

Even more legend is the mom who sold her daughter to feed the other kids.

[@chenzen1578]

@@Pfpfpfpfpf2020 You're - sadly -abolutely correct.

[@buster5661]

I love how John says “we” even though he grew up in Britain. Glad he feels welcome

[@Lord_Foxy13]

He's a UK-US Dual citizen,

[@UserInterface00]

One of the most expensive wars that didn’t do much to help the cause. Lots of lost taxpayer money down the drain.

[@limelyte5390]

War is a business. While you may think taxpayer's money has gone down the drain, a lot of it ended in certain people's pockets.

[@God_Is_An_Atheist]

@Tin Watchman Offically: war against terror in reality: war for resources and advancement of american imperialism

[@Uainebmd]

Seems like that has been most wars since 1960

[@kirathekillernote2173]

Tell that to thousands of Afghan girls who were able to read and write because West knocked over taliban, and now have to go back to 4th century roles and serve their husbands. I want to see you say to thousands of Afghan students stuck in India while their govt. collapsed that U.S. intervention was fruitless. Some of these people have never spent a single day under Talibani regime, and always had access to healthcare and education, courtesy of several international NGO's providing aid. Hey, but I guess the lives of these people are subservient to the interest of American taxpayers. What right does an 11 year old Afghan girl have against a dotard Donald Trump who wants to pull out of the country because " It's a bad deal". What is even more infuriating is the American left saying how western presence was bad for Afghan well-being. Sadly, it was the failure of Afghans to realise their securers don't live in reality anymore

[@HoneyBadger80886]

And into the pocket$ of BlackRock. Raytheon...fill in the blank !

[@rebbyberard8150]

"They don't like dogs" is actually a really good way to dehumanize a group of people

[@robgriffin4801]

Dogs don't like dogs either

[@Hermititis]

Yeah, that felt intentional.

[@mkucstars1]

I'd say they dehumanized themselves.

[@firstlast8258]

Trump is not a dog owner either

[@LennyNero2019]

They stone cats too. I've lived in those 'stan' countries. I truly don't care if the whole 38 million die.

[@TS-xn1mc]

I wish he had gone into the parents who’ve sold their children more. That’s a situation not many people here know about and it’s much more horrific than you can even imagine.

[@RobinaB530]

It's a huge problem. And very common.

[@IndubitablyIndeedi]

I think the grim nature of such human trafficking is even too much for The Cheery Pelican Shouts Unhappy Facts Fun Time Show I mean. An audience who is warmed up with jokes then going into a piece about that sort of thing would be super awkward. However, we can hope that perhaps any research their staff did was shared with others who may do it justice

[@sailaab]

He brushed it off in 2 lines here and two lines there

[@BabzAmusan]

Who exactly is buying the children?

[@fatbgmanbg975]

@@BabzAmusan yo mama!!

[@gnarzikans]

“Feel badly” is acceptable in spoken English, and arguably in formal written English as well. You can “feel bad” and “feel badly,” just like you can “feel good” and “feel well.” Now, granted, “feel badly” (much like “feel poorly”) mostly has connotations of _physical_ discomfort rather than emotional, but its use in English is acceptable-even in the context of emotional feelings

[@ricardoperez1034]

I served as a sniper in the first stryker brigade to Afghanistan in 2009 and before we left we all knew it was going to be a shit show. We lost a lot of men and became one of the hardest hit Army battalions since the Vietnam War. While deployed I wrote a lot about my experiences as I couldn't believe the insanity going on. RIP to those we lost that year and after. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten by those willing to make to take the same trip for one another!

[@HowToChangeName]

It must be depressing knowing your service means nothing after all these years

[@lettucesalad3560]

@@HowToChangeName It must be depressing to know that your comments are so ignorant.

[@anmolt3840051]

You signed up to kill poor brown people halfway across the world. You should be ashamed

[@theplasmawolf]

My granddad was stationed in Indonesia during their fight for independence of Dutch colonial rule, worked at a weapons depot, not involved in combat, but he knew more than enough about the circumstances of the fighting. When the US went into Afghanistan, he said it would end in the same way as it did for the Dutch forces in Indonesia just after WWII, and how it ended for the US army in Vietnam. The parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan are striking, down to the footage of the evacuation in the last days.

[@Marijuanifornia]

@@theplasmawolf The CIA planned Afghanistan to be like Vietnam. It was called Operation Cyclone, from 1979 to 1989. The CIA funded, armed and trained the Mujaheddin in guerrilla warfare tactics that were used by the Viet Cong against US soldiers. The plan was to draw the Soviets into an unwinnable war that would drain them of lives and resources. The Soviets occupied Afghanistan for 10 years and the US occupied Afghanistan for 20 years, both without even a description of what "victory" was supposed to be.

[@chrisgullo3893]

"Yell what hurts into this paper bag and leave" STOP! Don't give US Healthcare companies any more ideas

[@glass.hammer]

You clearly have never seen the inside of a psychiatric hospital.

[@hangcai]

not funny at all, as if these plights are jokes to you

[@nikhilna5095]

Wild how people think the Taliban would be progressive enough to actually give women rights… like they are the Taliban

[@kylezo]

They're nearly as bad as the GOP now

[@pugachevskobra5636]

No one actually thought that; Jesus Christ.

[@FlyingDwarfman]

@@pugachevskobra5636 They certainly convinced some people who chose to follow them. That's evidenced at 7:26 when John's mentions how Taliban members were among the widespread criticism against banning young women from secondary ed.

[@mekullag]

@@pugachevskobra5636 there was a chance that they feared waning public support if they rolled back too many popular policies. Hindsight is 20/20, but anyone who says they knew exactly what the Taliban were going to do after taking the country is lying, I highly doubt even the Taliban had decided what to do at that point.

[@NotAPacifist825]

If we care, maybe release the $9 billion we stole from their central bank. 95 percent of afghan people are going hungry many families single mother led.

[@saoirsecameron]

“Food, but no money to buy it with” So the Irish famine then. Or the Bengali famine. Or basically every other famine of colonial occupation.

[@Samson16436]

And then you have Venezuela, "money" but no food

[@jamesjackovich5886]

The country produces over 75 percent of the world's heroin maybe they should grow food instead of poppies

[@arrowslinger2460]

what do you mean colonial occupation? there was no wealth being extracted from the country - resources were being brought in by the Americans and westerners. On the contrary the American occupation was part of a state building mission intended to bring stability to the region. The Afghan people themselves displayed a lack of interest in being democratic or a partner to the west and their government fell apart in mere days after the Americans left. They were happy to take our money and were dishonest in their intentions with it. Popular support was clearly with the talibs... I believe aid should be provided because fundamentally 'haves' should always help 'aggression

[@bobsmith6489]

@@arrowslinger2460 you are so stupid it's actually unbelievable. Did you actually listen to the facts mentioned in this video? The united states did not attack afghanistan and take over the country by force in order to help the people. that is a laughable joke.

[@stoodmuffinpersonal3144]

Sounds like we have learned nothing

[@FatAlbert1020]

It needs to be made clearer that there aren’t any right answers to this problem. Any form of aid to Afghanistan assists Taliban rule. There is no universe where enough American aid changes Taliban policy. America is still unpopular amongst the Afghan people, and for good reason. American intelligence believes the Taliban has strong ties with Russia and China. The Right will try to say the Afghan people should fight for their rights, but us funding that fight is what lead to the Taliban in the first place. The brutally honest and most likely reason the US may consider aiding this enemy government is to deter Russia or China from doing it first

[@TheZachary86]

Dude the US have worked with taliban even when Western backed government was in charge. Turning the tap off now is just being petty. Rather than work with taliban, the US prefers genocide because they lost face.

[@infonut]

If 38 MILLION Afghans can't kill a few thousand terrorists then Russia/China can have them.

[@vannavanity1195]

Just like they did before. It was telling to me that Brzezinski justified arming the Mujahideen on grounds that Eastern Europe got freed from communism, even if 9/11 came from that. Guess you have to break some eggs to make an omelet... Notwithstanding the role FDR played in actively facilitating the expansion of the USSR. You know, America's war-time POTUS

[@wishcop9187]

There is a right answer, lift the sanctions. In no country have sanctions ever done anything but kill innocent people or make the people justifiably angry at the US. This is the case with North Korea, Cuba, and many others. Of course the Taliban aren’t gonna use all the money to help the people, they’re an authoritarian government. But continuing the sanctions doesn’t even allow the Taliban to attempt to ease the situation, it makes things worse for the people there. (also never forget that we are the reason the Taliban government is around. We had zero moral issues funding them in the 1980s so don’t act like it’s a moral issue keeping the US from unfreezing assets.)

[@mustbtrouble]

You’re wiser than half the people in the state dept.

[@DCMarvelMultiverse]

Taliban: Are you copying my test answers? Evangelicals: What? Me? Nawh!

[@firstlast8258]

Speak for yourself

[@Olivershoesoff]

I love John for bringing detail to things that need attention!

[@patricklavia1625]

How much are you paid? Or a bot

[@Chrisko1492]

Right. Because the US is soooo important that it needs to have an opinion on countrys thousands of kilometers away. /s

[@nastradumbass]

Other than Biden 😂

[@TheLibermania]

You know that their is an Afghanistan episode from last year saying mostly the same?

[@TheLibermania]

@@AndorranStairway Why do you need to mention Biden when you criticize the whole government (where Biden is a part right now). Trump isn't a part of it, that's why he gets mentioned as an extra. Also he does mention Biden. So i guess your comment is Fake News.

[@Canada1994]

You know I see the Afghan withdrawal to that of the Bay of Pigs. The President (Biden and Kennedy) had to finish what the previous administration (Eisenhower and Trump) started, and they had to take the blame for how badly it went.

[@bikkiikun]

Anyone who has ever been to Afghanistan would have known, what would happen when the funding of the Afghan forces was transferred to the Afghan government (and not directly paid for controlled by the foreign governments).

[@RichardDemsick]

It’s almost like we are actually hurting these countries with our foreign affairs policies

[@sandramohammed2173]

Yes you are. Western countries should really stop meddling in other countries business

[@FriedrichHerschel]

@@sandramohammed2173 The thing is: if we do, millions of Afghans will die. You just watched it.

[@MangoBS]

@@sandramohammed2173 it was sarcasm. Everyone knows America is a terrible empire. I’m American, and I’m sure most American people don’t want this but we really have no control. Just think, if we do these things to other countries just imaging what we do to our own

[@mikemurphy80]

What was the foreign policy that brought us over there… that’s right they were harboring the 9/11 crew. They weren’t our colony they were being punished for being in bed with Terrorist. If we are going to help let’s do it right and take out the Taliban permanently

[@karabomafa5609]

@@FriedrichHerschel that is a dumb take. If you actually read you would know that Afghanistan was a pretty liberal and good place to live before the US started funding AL Qaeda and all these random rebels in the 80s.. That's where your friend's the Taliban emerged from.

[@YTEdy]

The one thing that is never mentioned, that's very important, is that withdrawal of a defense force the size of the US defense force is hard. Let me correct that. It's basically impossible to not leave a lot behind and in a war that's still going on, the US withdrawal leaves a vacuum. That's inevitable. I've heard people shout "but we left equipment there", well, some of that equipment was in place for safety, you can't just remove all the equipment and the other side says "oh, that's fine, we'll wait till you've left" - no, they would take advantage of that, so it's not possible to remove all the equipment, and the US couldn't even get all our Afghan allies out, how could we get the equipment out? The other thing that's often missed, is that the US had been in Afghanistan for 20 years. A majority of US citizens wanted the US to withdraw. The US is prone to war fatigue, and that was the choice. Stay in or withdraw badly. Anyone who says "well, we should have withdrawn better" is out of touch with reality because that was never an option. The options were only, withdraw ugly or stay. Those were the choices. I would have said stay, if given the choice. It would have been an unpopular choice and I'd have been in the minority, but that's what I would have said a 18 months ago. Finally, a word on Trump and Biden. Trump told the Taliban that the US was going to withdraw ahead of time. He tried to negotiate certain promises from them in exchange for a withdrawal - which would happen the first month of Biden's term. The Taliban agreed to Trump's terms at the table, but ignored them completely when the withdrawal began. In effect, Trump gave the Taliban a heads-up and got nothing in return. He also set a date to make Biden fail. Biden delayed the withdrawal for 3 months, because he and everyone in the military knew it would be a disaster. There's no way it couldn't be, but unlike Trump, who handed the Taliban a big win, Biden tried to make the withdrawal as painless as possible. It really wasn't possible. You can have troops on the ground or you can withdraw. You can't do both at the same time. I wish, when this subject comes up, that more people would talk about the fact that there were two bad choices, stay or ugly withdrawal. There was never a 3rd option of "do it better", which seems to be what everyone wanted, but that was never possible. It was going to be ugly inevitably once we withdrew. This is always the case when the other side is better armed, and the US is the only thing holding them back.

[@Seth9809]

Actually there was an third option, which is "There was a regime change, and you told us you weren't going to stick to you timeline, so you broke the contact". Hell, we could just point at someone who died during the withdrawal and say it "broke the contract". The US has withdrawn from plenty of places and it wasn't messy.

[@twistpt6837]

Just 1 thing, the US is not prone to war fatigue at all. It's the country with the most resources in the world.

[@Seth9809]

​@@twistpt6837 That's not true. If we had the most resources in the world, we would be a terrible country like Russia or most of the places in Africa. Having resources dooms you to violence and oppression. It's called "The Resource Curse". Japan, resource strapped nation. UK, resource strapped nation. Nazi Germany literally had to steal it's steel, coal, and oil supplies. Germany is rich as hell right now.

[@TungstenArm]

@@twistpt6837 yes, yes it is. Maybe not economically, but public sentiment turns against prolonged military campaigns pretty quickly.

[@shanerulez79]

What about the fact that we trained tons of Afghan soldiers but when we left they instantly surrendered. No fight whatsoever.

[@000hasem000]

So much respect to Oliver for talking about this

[@nydydn]

"You want to make 38 million people suffer, because of a few thousands. That math doesn't work for me." I absolutely sympathize with most of the Afghan people, but she's saying that nobody supports the Talibans under no circumstance. That is obviously false. Nobody rules alone. Now I'm sure that the Talibans don't have the support of the majority. Not even close, but there are at least 5 million who absolutely support the Talibans. Then there's probably around 10 to 20 millions who are against USA because they feel that USA only brought misery to their lives and that's fair enough. I am for making very carefully crafted sanction exemptions to support Afghan people, but I don't like being taken as a fool by being told that all Afghans are against the few thousand ruling talibans. If I would have actually believed such statements, I would have been pro another short term, 3 months tops, intervention to de-talibanize Afghanistan, and then the problem is solved. But we all know, including John and the 16:45 lady, that that intervention would not turn out ok, because it would start on the FALSE premise that nobody supports the talibans.

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

Preach.

[@gemelwalters2942]

that's the reality unfortunately. Unless the people put up some resistance to the Taliban it'll be hard to convince people to send Aid. Ukraine has shown that they want to keep their Democracy....aid makes sense in that scenario but the Afghan military just surrendered which suggests the Taliban do have a lot of support.

[@mutensword602]

@@gemelwalters2942 you have to let them suffer and die in great numbers then they will see that maybe they need a change. Either way I don’t want the US having anything to do with any of those governments. US needs to focus on aid for the countries in the Americas because that will definitely impact the near future for us. How about lifting the people within the US out of poverty? Lets help everyone we can but there are people living in extreme poverty inside the US and that is beyond shameful. I may be crazy here but lets not prop up terrorist nations.

[@zard0055]

We can all assume that all your arguments are false and the lady has it right. An inaction due to few thousands that does not alleviate the suffering of millions is what she finds unacceptable. But even according to her own math , it is exactly those few thousands that are actually causing the suffering of millions to begin with. So I really don't understand the last bit where John says the math doesn't check out. It's like describing the unfortunate reality and then asking others to be delusional about it.

[@nydydn]

@@zard0055 How does she have it right? She claims that there's only a few thousands, when the absolute vast majority of the entire world agrees that we talk about millions, not thousands. She flat out lied. In her defense, it's a white lie for emphasis.

[@sonnyca]

It’s been one year? Feels like yesterday.

[@PhysicsPolice]

16:20 This incorrectly places the responsibility for "making people suffer" onto the questioner when it's actually the Taliban who are "making" them suffer. The Taliban is responsible for reduction in foreign aid due to their terrorist acts and endorsement of terrorism.

[@maxhill9254]

The Afghans were provided with sufficient military training and equipment in order to fend of the Taliban. Yet their armies were not willing to fight and gave up immediately. I think that most Afghans welcomed the Taliban or were at least indifferent to them and now they will have to live with the consequences.

[@grady7420]

So millions of people deserve to starve death because we don't like their government? Imagine saying to a man who is abusing his wife and children that he if doesn't stop beating them, you will steal and withhold all of their savings and effectively starve them to death because he is responsible for you robbing them. That is what you are supporting.

[@DK-zu6tt]

@@maxhill9254 The upper brass of the Afghan Army stole everyone's salaries. Those troops who were supposed to fight off the Taliban had not been paid in months. I would not fight if I were not paid and my family was starving either.

[@PhysicsPolice]

@@grady7420 you’re not even close to understanding my position or the subject. I’m not talking about what people deserve. Nobody deserves to starve. I’m talking about responsibility. The Taliban is responsible for the sanctions. Not the people levying them. Same for sanctions against Russia, etc. If sanctions are unjustified, then the government levying them is responsible for that problem. If they are justified, the government being sanctioned is responsible for that situation. If you mean to argue that current sanctions against Afghanistan are unjustified, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Question begging and false analogies get you nowhere.

[@far2ez539]

@@maxhill9254 I mean, the woman in John's own segment says it herself: 38 million Afghans but only "a few thousand Taliban" If the Afghan:Taliban ratio is actually on the order of ~20 thousand to 1 as she claims, I suggest that her people solve their own problem and then we can release the aid.

[@Pashazeco]

Love you "Jhon" from Afghanistan

[@seffishestopal5950]

Since we were in Afghanistan for so long, there wasn't ever a good way to leave. Also, there doesn't seem to be a good way to end the crisis in Afghanistan either.

[@SF-li9kh]

There is a good way to end the crisis. You can control the Taliban with money as bait. Need 1 million? Bring back girls to schools. Need 1 more million? Sell us your guns. And so on.

[@oakerthwin8042]

John, I have been a fan of this show for over 2 years. But I felt disappointed that you have not made an episode about Myanmar, my country. Why you should do it? You should do it because the country has suffered for the entire last century, with three military coups, the last one took place in 2021. The military regime has committed many large scale crimes, shooting down protesters of any age, genocides, and burning down villages, churches and rice farm fields. People should know that there are a lot other places like Afghanistan.

[@amandamoore7512]

There’s been at least one if not two episodes that have mentioned Myanmar if you haven’t caught them. One is titled Facebook

[@oakerthwin8042]

@@amandamoore7512 It has nothing to do with the Military coup. I want him to speak out for the people of Myanmar, to bring more awareness for us.

[@brad2751]

He did cover Myanmar a little bit back in 2018 - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZuziqB7j910ea8

[@bitcoinconstitutionalist9252]

Yes. It's the model being used for the current slow-motion coup here in the USA. I think that's a great idea!

[@brandongrill2767]

Great reporting from the team on this one, and passionate delivery by John.

[@w.murray9380]

What a joke.

[@Pyth110]

@@w.murray9380 What specifically didn't you like? How would you like them to be fixed?

[@jfxdillon]

@ aj Any money given to them will wind up in the hands of the Taliban. They like to act like it’s just a handful of ruffians but it’s not. Its far more than that with far greater influence. The only way the US can try and keep a lid on what aid money goes where is to occupy them. Nobody wants to go there and nobody wants us there. It’s beyond saving.

[@TheSundayShooter]

@@Pyth110 Current Year Man: Women's rights! Also Current Year Man: Build more mosques!

[@spacecaptain9188]

When I lived in a very small t own in the middle of nowhere, there was a cash shortage too. We had a simple solution: Barter and social credit. Items like food can be traded for other items or services. If you don't have anything right now, agree how much of a debt is owed, and pay back later. Even our utilities were firewood, and well access, so we bartered that too. It wasn't a problem (except at tax time, or when you wanted to travel to a bigger town that expected cash).

[@correctionguy7632]

There was a somewhat similar situation in Ireland in the 1970s. There were strikes leading to banks being closed for over half a year and they paid using cheques. Once they ran out of official cheques they made their own ones out of any paper or cigarette cartons and slapped on postage stamps to "legitimize" them. There was ofcourse the risk that a cheques wouldnt clear, so businesses (like bars) had to rely a lot on trust and relations with their customers.

[@Shinkajo]

We had the same thing in the Soviet Union. People had money, but often there wasn't anything to buy with it. Vodka was the best currency you could have, as every adult got an allotment, which for many wasn't enough. Not drinking had it's perks.

[@Tlahuiltezcatl]

I love how boldly John insults these criminals C:

[@hangcai]

as if this is the single most important thing you couldve commented on

[@hanneskarlbom6644]

@@hangcai well it might be, ever heard of satire?

[@walterwhite1]

We don't need to get them out of Afghanistan. In fact, we need to send the ones already here back to Afghanistan.

[@Ella.L.]

My heart breaks for the afghan people... what a horrible situation 😔💔

[@andreasottohansen7338]

16:39 that comment feels like it ignores a problem. That if the money does go to the Taliban in the way people fear, then it isn't going to help people regardless, so they are still going to suffer. Don't guilt or shame people over a legitimitet concern, show them that they don't have to be concern, otherwise you are just engendering anger with people. This isnt a hard thing to understand

[@wuhaninstituteofvirology]

US has sent $100's of millions (let's call it 200million) in aid to afghanistan since the taliban took over... (*too bad that's just a drop in the bucket compared to : " In the 20 years since September 11, 2001, the United States has spent more than $2 trillion on the war in Afghanistan" > $2 trillion = $2000 billion = 2 million-million ... so i guess we know the priorities of the US budget: aid to afghan VS. war spending in afghan = 200 VS. 2,000,000 (which # is bigger?)

[@gemelwalters2942]

@@wuhaninstituteofvirology "100's of millions (let's call it 200)"? That's not how math works. Which is it, 100's of millions or just 200? The exaggeration isn't helping your argument and yes the cost would be different. A War vs Aid. These things are not equivalent, whether you agree with the war or not it is understandable why ppl are hesitant to give money that may end up in the hands of terrorists. If the ppl resisted the Taliban and maintained the fully functioning government they were left with, then we'd be having a different conversation. The military surrendered after 2 weeks which suggests they support the Taliban

[@nobodyspecial4702]

@@wuhaninstituteofvirology Just ignoring that the majority of the funding that you call "war spending" was money being used to rebuild the Afghan infrastructure, hospitals, health care, etc. The amount spend on actual "war materials" was a tiny fraction of the whole.

[@wuhaninstituteofvirology]

​@@nobodyspecial4702 not a chance, you don't know how war machine spending works...a pittance for infrastructure, billions & billions & hundreds of billions all the way up to 2 TRILLION spent on WEAPONS WEAPONS WEAPONS over the course of 20 years in america's longest war in its history...like assange said; america's purpose in the afghan war is not to win it, which they definitely didn't, but to prolong it (for war profiteering) - who reaps those profits? weapons manufacturers & private military contractors, who fund/own/buy off every politician/official at every level in the white house/senate/pentagon/congress, as well as the corporate media to push a pro-war agenda on the public by manufacturing their consent to go along with the prevailing narrative which is complete propaganda BS, & plunder from taxpayers in a direct upwards transfer of wealth straight into the coffers of boeing/raytheon/haliburton/lockheed martin/booz allen, etc. > same thing happening in ukraine now, & next it will be taiwan (endless wars/proxy wars, to profiteer from - america needs war, feeds off war, breeds new wars, not to mention breeding new terrorist/extremist groups & funding/arming/training them, & can never stop - it's the #1 industry, by far...& so insanely unethical/destructive/& dangerous for humanity's survival on this planet, not to mention every living thing, as it could easily trigger a nuclear war at some piont, & mass extinction...all so these war mongering psychopaths can make a buck...outgoing president dwight eisenhower tried to warn us in 1961, & decorated army general smedley butler also tried to warn us in 1935 of the dangers of the growing influence/power of the military industrial complex (& they were correct) kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGTTn3mIbKmYkKM

[@pisaiah146]

Thank you for this comment

[@ferriveiro3101]

Thank you for keeping the focus on Afghanistan John Oliver. This is absolutely horrific.