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Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. These were "a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks [...] against the United States of America on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001."
Of the 2,977 people who died, 2,605 were U.S. citizens and 372 non-U.S. citizens (excluding the 19 perpetrators). More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks, including the United Kingdom (67 deaths), the Dominican Republic (47 deaths), India (41 deaths), Greece (39 deaths), South Korea (28 deaths), Canada (24 deaths), Japan (24 deaths), Colombia (18 deaths), Jamaica (16 deaths), Philippines (16 deaths), Mexico (15 deaths), Trinidad and Tobago (14 deaths), Ecuador (13 deaths), Australia (11 deaths), Germany (11 deaths), Italy (10 deaths), Bangladesh (6 deaths), Ireland (6 deaths), Pakistan (6 deaths), and Poland (6 deaths).
It was a tragedy not only for America, but for the world.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Saturday September 11 2021, @06:22PM
You can't "win" Afghanistan without accepting that a different culture has different values. You think you go to a country and they'll welcome you with open arms because your way of life is the best thing since sliced bread. It may be for you. Ok. But other people have other ideas of what's good for them.
Yes, that may even be wrong. But that doesn't mean that you can go there, replace their culture with yours because "yours is better" (and I don't even want to discuss whether it is) and expect them to like it.
In my country, universal healthcare is a thing. And we treasure it. It's one of those "from my cold, dead hands" things quite similar to the US' 2nd amendment. Anyone even pondering to think about taking it away can pretty much kiss his political career good-bye. Yes, we think it's the best thing since sliced bread. And we honestly think that you're stupid that you don't want it.
But that doesn't meant that it could or should be forced upon you. You don't want it. Ok. We don't get it, we really don't, because to us, it's pretty much a given that it IS the superior way to do it, but hey, it's your country. It's your decision.
And that's pretty much what is the case with Afghanistan. And, bluntly, a lot of other places that you try to meddle in. You can't win by trying to force your way of life onto these people. Before you can do something like that, you might want to try to understand the mentality of a people. Else you'll just be seen as some kind of invader who tries to push a doctrine that the people you try to "bless" with your superior ideology don't even understand, or understand why it is supposedly better than what they consider good.