Proxy Wars

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Regarding http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26warlogs.html?ref=wikileaks

I’d long suspected that we were in two proxy wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) rather than a conflict with a terrorist organization and Baathists. The way I see it

Comments

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I would prefer people didn't say we funded the Taliban, since I don't think the Taliban organization even existed when we were funding various Mujahideen groups. It seems to have formed in 1994. The US Operation Cyclone ended in 1989.

Also I would disagree that it doesn't take much to fund an Afghan insurgency. It took the US "$600 million in aid per year, with a matching amount coming from the Persian Gulf states."

You might be right about North Korea. I don't know what they can do. I wouldn't think they would have hard currency to spare, but It seemed conceivable that they might donate large amounts of stuff like RPG rounds, ammunition, rifles, plastic explosive, and remote detonators.

I'm not sure why Afghanistan has served as an empire killer. I wouldn't dismiss the possibility that it's just coincidence. But if I had to forward a theory, I think I would pay attention to the historical trend that highly organized societies are hard to defeat but easy to assimilate. Less organized, tribal societies are easy to defeat but very difficult to assimilate.