Who Are the Taliban? | 5 Minute History Episode 7 

Hi everyone, thank you very much for tuning in for this episode of 5 Minute History looking at the Taliban. If I sound a little strange in this one I can only apologise as I've been beset by illness this week but didn't want to deprive anyone of content!

So this video aged like a two-day-old fine wine..

"How long will this modern state of Afghanistan exist?" Till a few hours ago

As you can see with current events, this phrase reigns true: _"those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it "_

Kunduz is not the second-largest city, that would be Kandahar, which has fallen though. And Herat the third-largest has also fallen. Kunduz is one of the bigger cities in Northern Afghanistan.

Imagine if instead of talking about the history of the taliban hilbert just began his video with "Who are the taliban?" And then proceeded to name every member their date of birth and current place of residence in alphabetical order

When Kabul falls it’s going to make the fall of Saigon look like an organised event

Can you even really say the US was fighting a war the last decade in Afghanistan? There were a number of periods where the US lost more men to accidents than any sort of terrorist attack from the Taliban. Real fighting ended in Afghanistan a long time ago. The Taliban has basically been hiding in the mountains and Pakistan waiting for the US to leave.

"How long this modern state of afghanistan will last" Apparently 2 days

US: Evacuating staff from its Kabul embassy on a Chinook Everyone: *Just like f'ing Saigon, eh, Slick?*

Correction: Afghanistan became the communist Democratic Republic a year before in 1978 when they overthrew the Republic during the Saur Revolution. Which happened because a prominent left-wing intellectual (Mir Akbar Khyber) was assassinated. Not because of the Soviet invasion.

1. The Soviets didn't install the communist government. It was formed in 1978 when Daoud Khan's Republic rule was deposed and assassinated as well as his family during the Saur Revolution started by Hafizullah Amin. 2. The pic at 3:13 isn't Al-Qaeda but rather the Northern Alliance, the rebel group who fought alongside the US during the invasion. 3. Kandahar was the city that fell the day before this was posted, not Kunduz. Kandahar's the second largest city.

“We are the most powerful military force in the history of man” - General Shepherd

20 years of American (and allied) lives and billions of taxpayer money and what kind of state has been built? a house of cards in a tornado. What an absolute waste.

One thing I don't see being mentioned enough, is that a good chunk of North-Eastern Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban already, which is significant because they never really controlled that region before 2001 - that's where the Northern Alliance (America's allies during the invasion) came from. This means, that when the dust settles from this most recent fighting, the Taliban might end up with total control over all of Afghanistan, which is actually something they didn't really have before.

As I am typing this, the Taliban is now 50km away from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan

The US in 2001: goes into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban The US in 2020: cuts a deal with the Taliban The US in 2021: shocked at how quickly the Taliban resurges

This feels like a short summary of Caspian Reports video on the taleban

Thank you for making these very educational videos. Nice video. Keep up the good work.

Very informative, thank you 😊

And there goes 20 years of blood and treasure gone in an instant

Your vids are enlightening mate keep it up!

Love your videos man

Thank you for the video.

Two days after this video was released the president has fled the country, Kabul has fallen, and the Taliban have formed government.

Twenty years of war in Afghanistan for... Um... Nothing..?

I'm an Afghan war veteran "no plan survives contact with the enemy" People are being overly critical to the exiting mission. Bringing home the troops is going well considering the operational situation its a war zone. Nothing goes as planned in Afghanistan that's just the realities in a poor country. We did the best we could in everything we all did in Afghanistan I'm proud to know we caught Osama bin Laden expelled Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan the Taliban are basically the locals and they took their country back twice, nothing wrong with that. Nothing we could've done to stop that nor should we. We did our jobs MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Can you do a history video on how the maroons in Jamaica fought for freedom from the British. Also, Great videos and content.

Hey Hilbert can you do a video on Mullah Omar? He's such an enigmatic figure. The first leader of the Taliban who seems more like a myth than a person. Despite ruling the Taliban for decades nobody seems to know much about him.

But no ones asking how are the Taliban😔

Great vid.

Kabul has fallen boys

I hope I'm not too late with this comment. Could you please make a video about the hazara people in Afghanistan and also point out that this civil war is not only religious but also ethnic.

What is happening right now is a gut-wrenching thing to see. I know people who escaped the Taliban the first time. Now I fear I will get to know those escaping now.

In my anxiety to get my other points across, I fear I omitted to thank you for another concise video getting its point across with your usual clarity.

5:10 Looks like it didn't take more than 3 days for modern Afghanistan to fall

Hope some day soon the question will be who "were" the Taliban.

i trust history coming from a native english speaker as i trust a hungry lion not to eat me lmao

Weow nice video

I read news about this war every day, and to be honest, Afghanistan will be fallen within few weeks...

Sometime in the future: Kabul under siege Vietnam veterans: *flashbacks and the Fall of Saigon*

Amazing recaps for wikipedia

0:00 Who made those sounds with your mouth right after the intro?

Who would have thought invading other people's countries, could cause so much hassle.

It's like Saigon 2.0 all over again. History truly does Repeat itself

1) Pro-Soviet regime existed a few years after Soviets left Afghanistan and about half a year after USSR was no longer existed. Hilbert: "It was soon replaced by Mujahideen". (1:32) 2) Pro-American regime existed a few weeks after Americans left Afghanistan. Hilbert: "It was not very soon replaced by Taliban".

Very good analysis. Thanks 👍

Humble correction: This is the second video that I heard you mention "pashtunwali" as being "pakhtun" which is incorrect and literally sums up the whole "F" up we are seeing again and again. It's a ancient code of life which anyone can follow and applies to both individual and communal conduct: promotes self-respect independence justice hospitality love forgiveness revenge tolerance toward all (used towards defeated) Also, while mentioning ISI you forgot to meantion the role of CIA for the same while Taliban came later. It was the mujahideen who were trained, yes other students "Taliban" got the same course "dars-e-nizami" which was cut in half (please research where was the course designed, will surely be shocking to you). It's understandable that most public believing this successful narrative of "finding a scapegoat" and easily blaming ISI and Pakistan for the failure of whole of 40 plus nations never seen before military might but if we want to get to the root of the issue in a scholarly approach we need to understand the region from the ground up not from sky down. Pakistan has lost 70000 plus lives and 100s of billions directly due to being part of this invasion. Pakistan hosts 3 million afghan refugees and a border which WAS porous and since been fenced aginst the disapproval of old Afghanistan govt. And USA (Ironic). When Pakistan say we don't want these refugees as it's impossible to distinguish between normal and extremist, the UN complains but when bin laden is found in Pakistan (initial intelligence came from ISI) all blame goes to Pakistan but same blame is not given to any other country e.g. these terrorists residing and planning in USA, UK or Germany's Hamburg cell. Sorry but your "sincere" effort is just not factually correct but surely is factually acceptable to most as that's the accepted narrative.

Our efforts in Afghanistan was like spitting in the wind considering that our biggest Muslim nation ally in the Middle East Savdi Arebia was and still is providing the bulk of funding, arms and ideological support for the very enemy we were fighting in Afghanistan 🤔

Next time by chance can you add the labels and names of the graph used at 4:11. I feel like ik wat the numbers represent but I hate assuming

This is good timing with resent developments in Afghanistan

Clickbait, it's even longer, and thus better, than advertised

this just demonstrates that afghanistan is not the problem, it is pakistan, saudi arabia and co that have got to go

the boys are back in town

Any country: occupies Afghanistan Afghanistan: and I took that personally

The best ally of the Taliban is....... the country that recently left guns and armored vehicles to be snatches and didn't even tell the Afghan army they were leaving.

so many lives and money fighting them for almost 20 years and all of that gone in a few weeks

Well, damn, that was quick. The video, too.

Actually the Taliban are not on the US designated foreign terrorist organisation list so calling them a terrorist organisation is factually incorrect and partisan in it's nature.

Ah yes money

Caspian Report also has a great video to watch on the beginning of the Taliban.

Do a follow up in the future

Wish the "students" would tell the "books are bad" guys that books are not bad

Update- kabul fell on 15Aug 2021, taliban took control over AFG and prez ghani resigned and feld to tajkistan

a closer translation of مجاهدين is “strugglers” as the root of the word “جهد” literally means “effort” 0:37

I love this mans pronunciations

Afghanistan is one of the hardest places to fight due to the geography

I think you meant to say, “The Taliban are the ruling government of Afghanistan,” since that’s reality now.

At the time of me writing this comment, the United States and United Kingdom have deployed military units to safely escort US/UK nationals out of Afghanistan... Personnel at the American embassy in Kabul have been given instructions to destroy important documents. Since my country was also involved in Afghanistan under the wings of NATO, I can't help but think that all those trillions of dollars, the endless work and the thousands of lives lost were ultimately for nothing.

@History with Hilbert I suggest a review of HBO Rome.

I thought it said “How is the Taliban?” I was like idk you finna go ask?! 😟😬

If the taliban has gotten as far in a few weeks that america got dodnt even get in 2 decades then some other country must be helping them wether its Pakistan or china

I think you confused Kandahar and Kunduz because that's the city that just fell today and it's also the second largest in the country, otherwise great video!!

Here, traffic ticket dispensing camera vans were called "Talivans", in the 2000s.

Really like these “5 Minute Histories with Hilbert,” as they are very easy to watch when don’t have the time to watch a longer premium version of Hilbert that we all love. Very nice upload mate as it helps brings into context and shines light on current world events.

Can you talk about the insurgencies happening in southern Thailand?

So for the last 20 years we were fighting the "students"

Can you talk about the Durand Line agreement?

Today marks India's 75th Independence day. Can you make a video on India's freedom struggle and partition?

Ho ho boy that 60% of land owned by the taliban escalated quickly in the two days since this was made

One could argue Afghanistan appreciated communism than “democracy.”

this will make saigon look like a open city

0:48, well that's a bit suspicious lol 😆

I am really curious how Taliban manage to get so much support. What makes the people of the area support taliban? despite their terror reign. Terror alone can not control the people towards their will, as that will only create resistance. But they must have something about them that manage to rally so many locals towards their cause, and the fact they have been pounded for several decades, and still it shows no sign of their forces decreasing.

Great video. One thing through: socialism wasn't imposed on Afghanistan by the soviets. Domestic afghan communists did the Saur (april) Revolution. When the mujahedin started rising up the afghani communist government asked the soviets for help.

As of today, August 15, 9:47 Greenwich Mean Time, Kabul, *along with the Afghani Government, has fallen to the Taliban.* Fall of Afghanistan, August 15, 2021.

Concise, I appreciate your efforts to make it so. Thank you.

This aged well.

3:13 I must take issue with this image as it is not of Al Qaeda or Taliban; quite the opposite, these are Northern Alliance.

Wrong in the very first sentence. The Taliban are not considered a terrorist organisation by any major countries nor the UN.

Well done Hilbert, another perfect little video👍

Two days old, already outdated

Very timely. Unfortunately…

The 5 week speed run with the Taliban Show created by: Insert stereotypical name here

Well, now is August 16th and Kabul fell. That was quick.

It's at least nice to see that when things happen people thirst for relevant knowledge instead of recycling headlines.

Well this developed quickly. Kabul was occupied by the Taliban less than 3 days after this was posted ☹️

Some experts suggest that it would take the Taliban 6 months to capture Kabul..

How are they still so powerful after decades of fighting?

You gotta hand it to them, they are pretty resilient against the british, the American and the Russian