cool documentaries

[bgbg]

I just finished watching Adam Curtis' excellent Bitter Lake from 2015. Definitely worth taking a look at, if only to get a sense of why the West has effectively lost in Afghanistan, what the Taliban really are, and why the Taliban have never been (or will ever be) defeated.

But the most interesting part was the stark similarity in the propaganda espoused by both the Soviets and the West during their invasions, i.e. that they were imposing a modern political-economic system (their own) to help uplift these oppressed, pitiable people. His conclusion is that the vision we offered Afghanistan of an ideal future was as vacuous and as overly-simplistic as the Soviet Union's, the not-so-subtle implication being that what we attempted to create was a reflection of our own nihilistic and increasingly dysfunctional society.

It's also worth noting, since few media outlets bother pointing it out, that this fourth Anglo-Afghan war has also been the fourth British defeat in that unforgiving country -- the deservedly nicknamed "graveyard of empires."

jesus, that last quarter of it when he explained the clusterfuck that the brittish got into by assuming anyone who shot at them was taliban . also, i cringed for western society when that woman is teaching the afgan women about the urinal art piece.

I've read woodwords books about the american administrations (bush and obamas) inner workings of the post 9/11 wars, this video was a good filling in of some of the historical background and what was happening on the ground there.

[xerx]

jesus, that last quarter of it when he explained the clusterfuck that the brittish got into by assuming anyone who shot at them was taliban . also, i cringed for western society over that woman teaching the afgan women about the urinal art piece.

I've read woodwords books about the american administrations (bush and obamas) inner workings of the post 9/11 wars, this video was a good filling in of some of the historical background and what was happening on the ground there.

cool... I haven't read it; will probably check it out. and yes, "clusterfuck" is the right word for the past sixteen years of foreign policy total skullfuckery.

[bgbg]

cool... I haven't read it; will probably check it out. and yes, "clusterfuck" is the right word for the past sixteen years of foreign policy total skullfuckery.

they aren't very exciting. both i've read are basically step by step recallings (sometimes laboriously) of the meetings, political moves, and mindsets from interviews of the primaries of both administrations, but i did come out of them with a better sense of what was happening at the top level behind the scenes through those eras.

[xerx]

they aren't very exciting. both i've read are basically step by step recallings (sometimes laboriously) of the meetings, political moves, and mindsets from interviews of the primaries of both administrations, but i did come out of them with a better sense of what was happening at the top level behind the scenes through those eras.

Sounds like every academic history book, ever.

[xerx]

[xerx]

Enhanced footage of everyday Germans following Germany's surrender (part of this documentary).

I don't want this to turn into a German-bashing thing; it's just interesting watching ordinary people get on with their lives after apocalyptic levels of destruction (people often forget that Germany suffered a great deal during the war as well).







I imagine you could draw up many similarities with the mood in ISIS-liberated towns and cities; from what I gather, northern Iraq likewise feels like a defeated nation owing to the fact that many people supported ISIS for sectarian reasons.