The real history of the Taliban - They were NOT the Mujahadin, for one thing.

THis is a twitter thread that talsk about the real history of Afghanistan and where the various factions came from from. I think people might enjoy some real history from an exert in the area.



Thread Reader

Tomi T Ahonen
13h, 33 tweets, 13 min read
Taliban Thread 1/

Now as Taliban are taking over Afghanistan (again) we need to look at Taliban. Some are saying the Taliban kicked out the Soviet Union from Afghanistan (totally untrue). So let's do this properly. Who are the Taliban vs Mujahideen vs Pashtu vs Afghan.. yeah :-)

Today on Twitter we see noise from people new to Twitter trying to argue their viewpoints. I've FREQUENTLY discussed problems of Afghanistan like this in ... YEAR 2011 ten YEARS ago
3/

I have visited 117 countries in my life so far. I have not yet been to Afghanistan. But I've been to its neighbor, Pakistan & Pashtu region, which borders Afghanistan. I've met many Afghans. I received this Pashtu traditional kurta as a gift (photo in Malaysia)
4/

There are Maganutters, War-mongering Repulsicans and Saudi bots on the rampage now, attempting to extinguish the Saudi connection to the Taliban. So this Thread is necessary. We need to understand. But we go to the beginning. That is the only way to understand

5/

The most valuable road for human economic history, for over 3,000 years was the Silk Road, or more accurately Jade Road. It connected the largest landmass, Eurasia, where most of the planet's population live, allowed Europe to trade with China, & all in middle
Taliban Thread 6/

Silk Road is not one road, it is a series of roads. One side-road leads to India. That road goes through the mountains, through the ONLY pass, called Khyber Pass. This was the most valuable choke point until the modern shipping. Was the 'Suez Canal' of its age
Taliban Thread 7/

As Khyber Pass was the only mountain pass to India, you can imagine it was a rich opportunity for bandits. Those enterprising land pirates became known as the Pashtu. Draw a circle 100 miles around this pass, you have region the size of the state of Virginia
Taliban Thread 8/

So for CENTURIES, the Pashtu people were known to collect their fees from travellers on the Silk Road. And nobody was able to take this region from them. Literally, none of the great empires ever succeeded from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan.
Taliban Thread 9/

That gives a firm foundation to build a warrior nation. The Pashtu. They are Muslim, but not like neighboring Iran, who are Shia, the Pashtu are Sunni Muslim, so they align with Saudi Arabia and against Iran. Bear this in mind, with the propaganda parrots
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In the last 200 years, the main Empires that faced off, on both sides of the Khyber Pass were the British Empire (in India, South) and the Russian Empire (North). Afghanistan emerged as the buffer nation between these two. It is 5 miles West of the Khyber pass
11/

Afghanistan is far larger than the Pashtu region, about the same size as Texas in area. But HALF of Aghan population are Pashtu. There is no other dominant ethnic group, so Pashtu people get to rule Afghanistan. Afghanistan population is about 32 million
12/

From the early 1800s, the rulers of Afghanistan have played The Great Game, pitting Russian & British rulers against each other & temporarily siding with whoever was the weaker

Pashtu are EXPERTS at pretending to be on your side, while being on their OWN side