Q: What's the difference between a Taliban and a Mujahideen? A) A Taliban is an Afghan fighter that would fight in opposition to "US interests" B) A Mujahideen is an Afghan fighter that fights with those who might oppose "US interests"
Pretty much. But also, the Mujahideen became warlords and fought each other for control of Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew. This sparked over 20 yerlars of Civil War. The Taliban came to power by promising war-weary Afghans an end to the chaos and violence. They defeated the Mujahideen warlords,, united the country,, and ended the civil war. Both groups follow extreme, puritanical versions of Islam. Initially the Taliban enjoyed broad popular support.
Mujahadeen(the Fighters)was supplied by the US to fight godless Communists. Taliban(scholars) were the victorious fighters who acted as police and judges. Then they used the weapons and training they recieved from the US to fight godless Capitalists.
@@brianlevine1479 I feel like your opinion is based in knowledge. I am concerned that others are using feelings to inform their ideas. I am Communist at heart but some times you need to be socialist or capitalist. Communism works in my neighborhood but socialism works in a larger way. Capitalists are also required to make sure funding exists. The one thing I don't see us needing is authoritarianism telling us how to live.
The mujahideen (or some of them) were "taliban" aka "students" who studied in madrassas in Pakistan and other countries and then split into warring factions of mujahideen after the Soviets withdrew, with the winning faction seizing power in A'stan and becoming known as the Taliban.
Just fyi that movie paints a VERY positive picture of who he was Don't get me wrong he accomplished some impressive things but he was human and like many of us had some failings of character.
@@KS-PNW exactly. The movie kind of teased that in the beginning, and made clear how he objectivized women. Would be cool to see more of who he actually was
Carter didn't restart the draft. That is, no one was being drafted into the military. The US military remained all-volunteer. Instead, all males in their late teens/early20s had to registrar with Selective Service. So the draft could be restarted fast if needed. I know. I was one of those in that first group who had to register.
That was actually a requirement since WWI. Ford wiped it out when it came out his son hadn't registered. Carter just brought the requirement back. It wasn't new
I think you need to add the cost of two very tall towers in Manhatten, a hole in the Pentagon, 4 airliners and 3000 lives to the cost of operation cyclone.
Someone else mentioned it but yeah, Carter didn't reinstate the Draft, he reinstated the requirement that American men REGISTERED for the draft again. Substantial difference
Suggestion for one of your channels: we know about Operation Paperclip, when the US brought in German rocket scientists. Was there a similar program in Russia? If so, who and what developed from it?
brits had the same program but they got the propulsion scientist who were already behind the times. The Dr. Trials at Nuremberg would make a great episode also. Everyone knows about the Nazi leadership trials but the Dr trials afterwards get little mention because of programs like Paperclip.
'Operation Osoaviakhim' was this with the "relocation" of German specialists and their families to the USSR (see NKVD agents storming your house). Both the USSR's and US's rockets were both in reality German tech from these specialists. Aircraft experts, cruise missile experts, rocket specialists, radar and radio experts, specialists in solid rocket propulsion, gyroscope experts and navigation system experts - ~2200 in total (+ family members) - everything you need for rockets to go zoom zoom.
@@Sideprojects Carter didn't "restart the draft", he simply reinstated the registering for Selective Service so incase the draft was started it would expedite the process, there's a big difference between the two Simon.
Mohammed Daoud Khan thought he could go on playing the US against the USSR forever and never pay a price for it. Under the monarchy of his brother, Zaheir Shah, he had enlisted soldiers trained in the US and officers trained in the USSR. He once said, “I love lighting my American cigarettes with Russian matches.” He thought he could go on forever like that, but reality caught up with him.
Yep, sadly. While I don't know much about his brother, he really had the interest for Afghanistan's future in good heart. But an eye surgery in Italy made his brother led a bloodless coup. Daoud Khan had it coming for setting the stage for ruining everything.
My friend was from St. Petersburg in northwest Russia. He asked in the Army would build a recreation center to take advantage of the great skiing and fishing conditions. They were NOT there to have fun. He and I talked about Viet Nam vs Afghanistan. Different geography Same result.
When I left the army in 78 there was advertised in certain magazine's from America for mercenary being recruited for Afghanistan, thankfully I didn't decide to join, even I understood it wasn't going to be good, sadly in 2001 I was even more disturbed about Afghanistan and we know how that turned out, 😠.
The amount of mercenaries/pmc's in A'stan eventually eventually outgrew those of Nato and US forces and mote more of them were being casualties, just didn't make news
@@curtisthomas2670 exactly Curtis one of these lives in my town whom was in a humvee hit by a road side bomb, he lost one of his legs in the bombing, both the American and Russian seem to use mercenary contractor's,
@@warrenjohnknight.9831 around the end of 2020 there were an estimated 30,000 US govt engaged pmc's in lraq, Syria and Afghanistan compared with around 6,000 Armed Forces personnel, that figure excludes the several thousands hired by private players such as US oil and other companies and by other state entities such as the governments themselves and by Nato governments. Russia has used them heavily in Ukraine, Libya coup and civil war, Syria and Africa. The main players are Academi (formerly Blackwater) for the US and Wagner Group for the Russies. Some pmc companies have even started calling their services vague terms like "risk management" or "mitigation" to hide their true nature.
Simon bottled it at the end there and just vaguely implied the consequences, instead of going into detail. This topic is something that could get him in a spot of bother. Western funding of jihad did not begin here though. It began in earnest decades earlier with the Wahhabi uprisings in Egypt and Arab revolts in the Levant etc. Remember that fine chap Lawrence Of Arabia? He was an organizer of it. Remember how the Ottoman Empire with its capital in what is now Turkey ruled most of the Middle East? They chose to fight on the side of the Germans in WWI. The Brits stirred up religious radicalism and zealotry among the Arabs against Ottoman rule. Wahhabism, which is a very radical and fundamentalist form of Islam was heavily promoted and became the main ideology of the Arab revolt, when before that it was an obscure radical sect with few followers. Now this radical form is preached all over the world with the backing of billions from within the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia et cetera where it dominates as the de facto state backed religious current. The British Empire did the most to create this state of affairs, raise fundamentalism as common practice, and give it the support of regional state power. During the Arab Revolt the Ottomans were accused of being apostates etc. Not devout enough in other words. The Arabs radicalized in their religious beliefs and rose up against them. They were funded and supplied by the Brits mostly, plus the French etc. This is partly why the UK and France ended up controlling so much of that land after the war, while Wahhabi followers like the Saud family were raised to rule soon to be rich from oil Saudi Arabia. Then the Americans did similar in Afghanistan decades later. As mentioned in this video they asked the Saudis to also fund the jihad, plus get Wahhabi clerics and leaders to motivate fighters for holy war. This is how Bin Laden became involved. What could go wrong huh? BTW. The USA previously did a deal with the Saudis to only sell oil in USD. The so called Petrodollar. A major factor both in regional politics and the global economy, e.g., the USD became the global reserve currency. Western governments like the USA via their allies in the region have been funding jihad to achieve their strategic aims. It became a go to tactic, because the topic of this video was seen as a success at the time. Saddam was then removed in Iraq, after initially being a US ally against Iran, e.g., he went to war against Iran with US backing, which cost over a million lives. He was a Sunni Muslim ruling over a majority Shia Muslim population who are in many ways allied to Shia Iran. The Shia gained ascendency in Iraq quite early in the US occupation. The Sunni revolted. Both sides attacked each other and the occupying western forces. Radical Sunni militia groups began appearing and were allegedly being funded by wealthy individuals and states in the Persian Gulf etc. This was the proto-ISIS and when the head chopping videos began appearing. This is where control of the 'Frankenstein' was lost the most, because it resulted in huge formations of well armed jihadist fighters supported by regional powers, but who were as keen to attack Americans as they were the original targets of jihad. Control was often regained and lost from then on. The next big conflict to use this tactic was Libya. Tens of thousands of jihadists were shipped in for that regime change war, i.e., control over these groups was largely restored. Gaddafi's crimes aside, Libya went from having the best mean standard of living in Africa to being a failed state still gripped by civil war. In other words, was it really a success like it was portrayed in media at the time? It definitely was not a simple rebellion of locals as portrayed, because so many of the jihadist fighters came from outside the country. Then the same tactic was used in Syria where billions worth of weapons were funnelled to over a dozen different radical Sunni jihad factions, with jihadists arriving from as far away as the Muslim parts of China, or Europe etc (many thousands of Uygurs from China, Turkmen from Central Asia, Chechens from Russia, plus many from Europe radicalized by various means). Syria is a secular state, i.e., one of the most westernized majority Muslim countries. There are records showing the USA and its allies were okay with it becoming a Sunni emirate, i.e., an Islamic State. Tens of thousands of anti Assad fighters would be trained and armed on Syria's borders as 'moderate rebels' by the USA costing many billions, but then immediately defect to one of these radical formations, including ISIS. Control was often lost, which is partly why they have largely abandoned full scale regime change efforts in Syria (Russia entered the fray too). In a congressional inquiry the US armed forces admitted to having trained and armed many thousands, but less than ten rebels were still on their books, i.e., almost all had defected to become jihadists fighting Assad. It looks accidentality on purpose to be honest. There are many mass graves in Syria created by these jihad groups, because they do not follow the rules of war, e.g., they routinely execute entire companies of Syrian Army prisoners etc. It can all be traced back to the major western governments and their regional allies (BTW. White Helmets are closely allied to these groups, have offices in the same buildings and are financed by similar sources, so they are sometimes called Al Qaeda's medics etc). These groups have now been making their way to Afghanistan now too (they fight the Taliban at times). Time will tell what their aim is. These jihad groups cost billions to create and maintain. They are not raising those funds with Go Fund Me. They have big money backers. Every now and then the jihad blows back and spills over into attacks in Europe etc. This caused the money from wealthy backers to go to other groups, instead of ISIS. In Syria there are still dozens of these jihad armies still receiving material and political support, but the current strongest is the Al Qaeda in Syria faction that has had several names, e.g., Al Nusra and HTS etc. Supporting jihad seems like one of the stupidest things we ever did as westerners. The only stupider thing I can think of is all the US corporate support that helped bring Hitler to power (so much money that the US ambassador to Germany wrote complaining about it -- several US tycoons liked fascism and saw it as a bulwark to communism, while they even plotted a fascist coup against FDR using the Bonus Army as muscle). P.S. The owners of Manchester City Football Club have allegedly been heavily involved in funding these things. Therefore the term sports washing was coined. I have supported MUFC since the 1970s in England, so have a bias there. But it is very easy to find the info about this. Tarnished league titles is what I call it, even though I admit they play good football.
There needs to be a super-long SideProjects or Biographics of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' with each chapter consisting each event or a few events named.
Many don't realize that in the US, while the draft is inactive, males at age 18 DO still have to sign up for the draft at the Selective Service Gov site. If you don't, you can't get student financial aid. Needless to say, I'm a bit afraid of them reactivating the draft. Not that I wouldn't serve or don't want to, I just would rather not die in some foreign country, thousands of miles from home.
Confused, Pakistan 🇵🇰 took billions of dollars $ to do various services in Afghanistan 🇦🇫, but later the Pakistan 🇵🇰 prime minister told the US 🇺🇸 president, 'We have to be careful, because we might be creating a frankenstein.' How does that work???
Heavy machine guns were much more efective against helicopters and atack aircraft than Stinger missiles. Soviet forces were dealing with manpads since early 1980, mainly Blowpipes, Sa-7 and its chinese copies. They changed tatics to deal against the new threat. I remember an interview with a correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor telling about his experiences in Afghanistan regarding the stinger missiles. "I witnessed 7 stingers launches. None of them hit their targets. Most of my colleagues had the same experience with the stinger." Even when an aircraft or helicopter was hit, the crew managed to return to base. Stinger role in Afghanistan is overrated. Mostly propaganda.
But it's a lot harder to haul heavy machine guns (and the drums of ammo, necessary replacement parts etc) around and assemble them quickly. These were skirmishers and guirilla fighters not a traditional army.
I don't know where you get this information from but it's hogwash. I was in air defense in the 80's, I was a Vulcan gunner that was cross trained on the Stinger missile, we were some of the few people in the free world outside of intelligence agencies that were shown imagery of the Mujahideen shooting down Hind helicopter gunships in the field with Stingers, first off the Soviet Hind helicopter gunship is basically a flying titanium nightmare, we were told to never even shoot at one with our 20mm Vulcan cannons because all we'd do is piss one off, so no, a heavy machine gun is not going to be more successful against a Hind than Stinger missile's, and just so you know the Stingers had a 70% success rate against the Hind gunship in Afghanistan, a good bit of the 30% failure rate can be attributed to hastily trained Afghan freedom fighter's who quite frankly got "buck fever" the first time they got to shoot one and made a misstep in the process, the Stinger is a fairly simple weapon to use but it's not as easy as something in a video game, there's several steps that if you miss one it won't work, plus once you uncage the seeker head and power up the missile you've got 9 seconds to shoot it, if you don't you've just turned it into a very expensive paper weight, if you think you're about to have an opportunity to shoot down a Hind it's very possible that something in the parameters could change and 9 seconds later you've wasted a missile, in the hands of US troops in the same situation the success rate would have been around 95%, the 25% less success rate that the Mujahideen experienced was just from being excited and being hastily trained. Really the only Soviet battlefield helicopter that a heavy machine gun would be effective against that saw use in Afghanistan was the MI-8 Hip helicopter, they were troop transports that generally wouldn't enter an area below 5,000 ft unless it was secured, naturally the Mujahideen being clever managed on occasion to lure one into an area that the Russian's thought was secured and would light one up with a captured DSHK (Russian heavy machine gun), but that didn't happen that often and they saved all their Stinger type missile's for the Hind gunships, those Hind gunships were the Mujahideen's biggest problem.
Backdoor leverage between Saudi Arabia and the USA has been an ongoing process. I was in Saudi Arabis's KKMC army base in 1985 To my suprise MY US Army training was frontline support to a huge Military purchase of US equipment. But what was inhumanly shocking is that There were only two sucessful radio Stations broadcasting across the Arabian desert one from Moscow radio and the other from Radio USA. Humanitarian Aid to the Ethiopia Famine was rolling into KKMC but why? A famine stricken nations has simmilar needs to a multi-national force in the desert 1,000 KM away. Old army equipment left as food and medicine were in high supply. This helped support an Ethiopian civil war.
Great video Simon. US Army soldier & former Egyptian soldier Ali Muhammad took his leave and joined the Mujahideen. He has a relatively unknown but incredible story only told by Peter Lance…I believe. I would love for you to do a story on him.
Its not about the “wake” of destruction left by Operation Cyclone. People see a link between this covert and the eventual Taliban rule because of the weapons and training provided to mercenaries, which of course still circulate in Afghanistan and largely contributed to the success of the Taliban. Without American intervention this would never be possible
I feel like everyone always ignore Pakistan's role in this historical period. You really think that the Taliban's ideology just sprung up out of nowhere?
Yes but you've got it backwards, Pakistan was key in Operation Cyclone wherein all money and arms were funneled through them, they decided who got what in Afghanistan, despite Simon here making it appear that the US called the shots, and the fact is Pakistan did an excellent job of it, one policy they had was that foreign fighter's that came to Afghanistan to fight with the Mujahideen weren't eligible to receive any money or arms from Operation Cyclone, they had to bring their own arms and money which is exactly why Bin Laden was such a big shot, he came from a very wealthy family and had millions of dollars to throw around to make a name for himself, that's exactly why days before 9/11 he had the leader of the Northern Alliance killed, he was the pro US leader of the Mujahideen during the 80's who'd led the fight against the Soviets and he never would have approved of 9/11, had he still been alive when it happened he would have hunted down and killed Bin Laden for doing it, but since Bin Laden had him killed it fractured the Northern Alliance back into it's separate tribes and then Bin Laden played that to his advantage. Had he remained alive 9/11 never would have happened and even if it did he would have welcomed the US's invasion of Afghanistan and he'd probably have assumed control of the country and even if he didn't he would have backed the US installed government and stabilized the country by hunting down and killing every Taliban member, killing him was key to Bin Ladens plan. Simon leaves a lot of important points out of his narrative about what happened in Afghanistan and how Operation Cyclone was run, his video here is a prime example of why people should learn history from credible sources instead of RU-vid videos.
The element almost no one ever mentions is KSA. They were and are the ideological home and a chief financer and supplier of arms for almost all worldwide "mujahideen" groups, the Taliban and " jihadist" and so called " lslamic terror" groups worldwide
"this is America, we don't stop doing something because it turns out wrong. We just keep doing it until it turns out ok again.. or everyone's dead.. either way.."
You forgot to mention that when a Russian soldier with at least a b+ rating disappeared a scream and then a low flying prop driven engine sound was heard. Occasionally a balloon was also seen rapidly inflating and rising quickly into the air at the same time as the noises.
You think that movie/story is on the up and up? Honest? I don’t. Pretty much any film about US politics, especially the one’s based on a true story, are particularly shitty. Convenient omission of anything that may be objectionable, while making the protagonist seem kind and interesting. Hogwash! Like that Truman movie where they portray him as being horrified with the decision to drop the bomb? Pffffff.
Not really. Simon did a look into a certain cocaine smuggler and completely omitted his time smuggling drugs using a CIA owned airplane into Mena air field and shipping weapons to Contras back in 1980s Arkansas when former CIA directors family friend was Governor.
The program to funnel funds and arms to the Afghan rebels was well-intentioned (or as well-intentioned as American foreign policy ever gets, I suppose). It was just short-sighted, as it always is. We left a country devastated by war with no means to drag itself back into the modern age, and allowed a fanatical regime to take root and flourish, giving haven to terrorist groups who had no love for America.
Simon, I love the way you use different parts of your studio for different channels but for this channel please please shut the door behind you, it’s creeping me out 🧟♀️🧟♀️
Others have pointed out the discrepancy, but, Carter reinstated the part of policy that required (read that as forced) American men between the ages of 18-26 to sign up to be drafted into an all VOLUNTEER force, under penalty of prison time (5 years) AND/OR a $250,000 fine, along with other life long penalties.
If we had only invested in the country and helped the Afghan people build there country after the Reds pulled out. These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world...and then we fucked up the end game. Rep. Charlie Wilson
Every good action will always see some bad reaction. It's how the world works. The goal is never to be purely good, but to make decisions that create a net positive despite their drawbacks.
That’s absolutely correct. The problem is politicians and simpletons (and simpleton politicians) want 100% good. It’s the single biggest vulnerability of the US. Curtis LeMay once said something along the lines of “all war is amoral, if you can’t accept that then send diplomats, not soldiers”. They ran him out of the Pentagon for fighting a conflict with no intention of winning.
Argh, 3 global superpowers and Afghanistan was never made to heel let alone submit to stabilisation and basic human rights! 🙄😕 This was loosely shown in the 1980's bond film - The living daylights - Kara : We're free! 007 : Kara, we're in the middle of a russian base in the middle of Afghanistan
You know that Simpson's GIF of Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes, smacking himself in the face? That's the visual representation of American foreign policy since WW 2.
Y'all think maybe we should start leaving shit alone yet? I mean, I've been watching this movie for 48 years now, an the running theme seems to be, the more we ×××k with shit the more ×××ked up it gets. Soooo stop. Maybe, if we leave it alone, and start minding our own business, humanity can survive. But then, species go extinct everyday. Either way, at least it's interesting.
Everytime I meet someone that supports these military interventions I ask them to name just 1 case where things were improved by it, and everytime I'm met with silence.
It's a dice roll. Not rolling the dice means you are at the mercy of the rest of the world with no allies to help us when we need it. Look at our failures in the past. In how many instances did we the American people stand behind it. If we don't then our government will have to move on at some point. Or face losing the next election.
@@erueru2014 for the US military interventions. well off the top of my head: Europe (wwI & WWII) Japan (WWII) south Korea (Korean war) , Bosnia, and Kuwait. Maybe the people you asked this question aren't very knowledgeable about history.
Someone else will do it. Even before our ancestors came from trees it was a way of impressing females and making area of existence for your descendants. We are 99% animals yet. And our alpha males and females in governments are 100%.
I wish I understood why anyone gives a damn about that pile of sand and rock? With the money we spent there we could be living like kings! The amount is so large that it becomes like astronomy impossible for the average person to imagine.
As someone who spent six years in Afghanistan after a military career, I can state with complete confidence that country is generally a lost cause. This is primarily due to cultural issues, with religious and political problems only playing a small part...most Afghans would simply prefer to stay in the stone age.
I wonder if the United States will ever learn the lessons of history and will stop interfering in the political affairs of sovereign nations? Historically they have always ended up creating more problems than they have solved.
No they won't. The moment they do, they lose control and power. Add the fact that to justify spending so much on the military there needs to be an enemy.
#FunFact wich is actualy not funny ... the US did leave most of their weapons and vehicles in afgahnistan instead of bringing it back to the US because it whas cheaper to produce new weapons than it would have been to bring them back most whas secured by the afgahn army but alot of it whas secured by various groups ...
Do a 'Geopolitics of 1979' video. That was a massive chokepoint in the world and so many events exploded in that year that rumbled on years after..... The Chinese had their last war, with Vietnam, and have minded their own business since, and that is the US fears China. All that money ploughed in to everything else, and not war, has seen the Chinese and other Asian nations rise from the ashes of colonialism, and set to surpass those who think they can't be surpassed!
In 2007 she was "extricated from the sphere of influence" or "tactically removed from the theater of operations" by a combination of or by Al Q, Talibs, lSl, KSA and SeeEyeA
If he really said "You are creating a Frankenstein." he has the monster and the doctor confused again. OTOH that mistake is so common that the meaning is still understood.
The US has been its own best enemy since they ran the British off the first time. At the heart of the continuing problem is that 18th Century politicians and 21st Century politicians are absolutely identical. It’s like Groundhog Day with more explosions.
Like many US engagements, this is a tale full of tactical victories and strategic failures. A bit like the British Empire, sadly - winning most of the battles while accidentally setting the stage for the next war.
Wouldn't mind if he goes into more details of the darker side in Into the Shadows. He did it to Haiti, needs to redo Libya. But I can tell it will be something he should do for that channel.
The fact that even 20 years of the US military in Afghanistan couldn't remove the Mujahadeen's stranglehold on Afghan society means their rise to power could have no been so tenuous that it wouldn't have happened without foreign funding. If America had caused this problem so easily, we would have been able to fix it easily. But I think Afghanistan was headed this way no matter what.
