Oh damn dawg, I guess you haven’t heard of the PDP before. All good, I gotchu

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/12/02/afghanistan-another-untold-story

Since feudal times the landholding system in Afghanistan had remained unchanged, with more than 75 percent of the land owned by big landlords who comprised only 3 percent of the rural population. In the mid-1960s, democratic revolutionary elements coalesced to form the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In 1973, the king was deposed, but the government that replaced him proved to be autocratic, corrupt, and unpopular. It in turn was forced out in 1978 after a massive demonstration in front of the presidential palace, and after the army intervened on the side of the demonstrators.

The military officers who took charge invited the PDP to form a new government under the leadership of Noor Mohammed Taraki, a poet and novelist. This is how a Marxist-led coalition of national democratic forces came into office. “It was a totally indigenous happening. Not even the CIA blamed the USSR for it,” writes John Ryan, a retired professor at the University of Winnipeg, who was conducting an agricultural research project in Afghanistan at about that time.

The Taraki government proceeded to legalize labor unions, and set up a minimum wage, a progressive income tax, a literacy campaign, and programs that gave ordinary people greater access to health care, housing, and public sanitation. Fledgling peasant cooperatives were started and price reductions on some key foods were imposed…

Because of its egalitarian and collectivist economic policies the Taraki government also incurred the opposition of the US national security state. Almost immediately after the PDP coalition came to power, the CIA, assisted by Saudi and Pakistani military, launched a large scale intervention into Afghanistan on the side of the ousted feudal lords, reactionary tribal chieftains, mullahs, and opium traffickers.

A top official within the Taraki government was Hafizulla Amin, believed by many to have been recruited by the CIA during the several years he spent in the United States as a student. In September 1979, Amin seized state power in an armed coup. He executed Taraki, halted the reforms, and murdered, jailed, or exiled thousands of Taraki supporters as he moved toward establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state. But within two months, he was overthrown by PDP remnants including elements within the military.

It should be noted that all this happened before the Soviet military intervention. National security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski publicly admitted–months before Soviet troops entered the country–that the Carter administration was providing huge sums to Muslim extremists to subvert the reformist government. Part of that effort involved brutal attacks by the CIA-backed mujahideen against schools and teachers in rural areas.

In late 1979, the seriously besieged PDP government asked Moscow to send a contingent of troops to help ward off the mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla fighters) and foreign mercenaries, all recruited, financed, and well-armed by the CIA. The Soviets already had been sending aid for projects in mining, education, agriculture, and public health. Deploying troops represented a commitment of a more serious and politically dangerous sort. It took repeated requests from Kabul before Moscow agreed to intervene militarily.

TL;DR: An organic, popular left-wing government deposed the king and made some serious reforms that challenged capital. Then – and stop me if you’ve heard this one before – capital interests and social reactionaries allied with the U.S. and its client states to attack said popular left-wing government. This pushed the left-wing government into the USSR’s camp (again, stop me if this sounds familiar) and it asked the Soviet Union for more and more help, up to and including military assistance.

Now please log off, read theory, then come back and join the adults

I’d guess they’d get a lot more help if they held free and fair elections

Yes because THAT’S what the US cares about. Like supporting ‘free and fair elections’ by overthrowing democratically elected governments in Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Bolivia, Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Nicaragua…

In each case they installed (or tried to install) a puppet dictator they could control. But no, please go on about how Cuba are actually THE BADDIES here.

It already has been a war between Russia and Nato. Where do you think Ukraine is getting all of their military equipment?

glad to see we have the history understander here!

“hmm blockaded country that can’t import food/crops can’t feed their people. maybe they should simply grow crops and feed their people”

No. As nations we’ve decided what weapons are inhumane and cannot be used. For instance they cannot use chlorine gas, no matter how effective that might be at clearing trenches

The US says that the new cluster bombs are much more reliable

The US says a lot of things that are not true. They also said agent orange used in Vietnam didn’t have lasting health effects but that is a horrifying lie. Children are still being born with birth defects to this day in Vietnam because of agent orange. In no way should the US be trusted with what’s “safe/reliable”. Especially in wartime, when the US and its weapons manufacturers stand to benefit from the sale of these weapons.

Ukraine should be allowed to decide how best to defend themselves.

No. As nations we’ve decided what weapons are inhumane and cannot be used. For instance they cannot use chlorine gas, no matter how effective that might be at clearing trenches

there isn’t really any ‘nobility’ in ‘taking the high road’ while marginalized communities continue to get owned and killed. Trans kids are being targeted, women are being targeted, BIPOC are being targeted.

what good is civility? authoritarian leftism is the only way to get results

and how did those tanks perform this weekend? and how many of those tanks are ACTUALLY IN UKRAINE right now? without air support those tanks are sitting ducks and will continue to be destroyed.

ISW was founded by an historian. please tell me you’re joking when saying anything they say should be taken seriously. this shit is so easy dude, how do you all get dooped by these people every time.

you’re going to see a lot more of these stories as the collective west tries to find a way to back out of supporting Ukraine.

they’ve never cared about Ukraine they were (dumbly) hoping russia would topple over internally but that was never going to happen. now they have to do a turnabout saying “wow the heckin russians are more powerful than we thought”

i am once again urging you to understand that the war began in 2014.

the LPR and DPR regions are ethnically russian. they were living peacefully until 2014 when their political parties were disbanded and they’ve been systematically shelled by ukranians every day since 2014. minsk 2 would have reintegrated Donbas with Ukraine with some protections for its minority population, but Ukraine didn’t even implement the first step. zelensky was elected on a platform of ending the war, but when he tried Azov told him they would rather coup his government than stand down. at some point when negotiations are broken down the only thing any organization has left to do is resort to violence, which the Russian state did when it felt threatened enough by NATO (which if you’ll recall spent months warmongering prior to the invasion start) to justify the risk.

oh cool, i’ve found the military understander. so what is Ukraine’s strategy here? What does victory look like for them?

In weapons, ammunition, and soldiers Russia outnumbers the AFU, as assessed by any reasonable expert. Russia sees this as a special military operation, not a war. They are comfortable being conservative with their resources and not committing too many at once (which is what they’ve done so far). Even with this restraint, they are killing Ukrainian soldiers at a higher rate than Russian soldiers are dying. Russia has an army, including reserves, of around 2million soldiers.

Look I hate seeing young men sent into a meat thresher because they are serving the interests of NATO and capitalist interests. I wish the AFU had the courage to not waste the lives of their soldiers and come to the negotiating table so that no more lives are senselessly wasted

so if i understand correctly, you’re saying it’s ok to do this salute today as long as I’m saying I’m doing the Roman one, not the Nazi one?

Nah dude sorry, context does not matter if the phrase/symbol has been used for fascist terror. That salute (and the phrase above) has been used for fascist ends. It’s done and can no longer be used

never the original aggression…

Ah the Maidan Coup, ya the Ukrainians shouldn’t have done that, you’re right

you know it’s possible to ‘dislike’ Russia and at the same time know that they will completely overpower Ukraine, right? you’re letting your hatred for Russia blind your understanding of military power and strategy