This might be an unpopular opinion, especially amongst Western pseudo-intellectuals who "analyze" all historical events through the same ideological prism, but Stinger rockets actually saved Afghan lives. https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/1379442601628213251

Yes, I am saying this although I am an Afghan journalist with a known writing record on US/CIA war crimes in Afghanistan. I have several problems with all these tankie critiques under the CIA's tweet.

1. As usual, many of these ppl think Mujahideen, AQ and Taliban are all the same. Spoiler: They are not. Most Mujahideen during the 80s were average Afghans who defended their country against a brutal occupation + their massive genocidal torture apparatus in Kabul.

These men (and women!) didn't care about your geopolitical Cold War analysis (which is BS anyways b/c it constantly ignores Soviet crimes). Why? B/c they were busy with surviving and running away from bombs and mass graves.

Now imagine someone shows up and gives you some rockets to shoot those helicopters which wiped out your village. Of course, you take it. But yeah, pseudo revoluzzers in Brooklyn, Berlin or wherever believe they are in a position to criticize some poor Afghan farmers.

2. Islamophobic narratives: A lot of these ppl often criticize the US-led War on Terror while they use similar arguments to justify the USSR's War on Terror in the 80s. They consider all Mujahideen as man-eating savages who attacked a progressive & socialist gov in Kabul.

Guess what. This was straight Afghan Commu regime propaganda from the 80s. I can show you their original booklets if you want. Meanwhile, 100.000s of innocent Afghans were murdered and tortured. Many mass graves are still lost.

So finally 3. Why do so many of these critics focus on some Stinger rockets but never mention the 2 million Afghans who have been killed within the 10y-long occupation? Why do they never talk about Russian soldiers who murdered and raped through countless villages?

Why do they never talk about the USSR's Afghan allies aka puppets who had massive torture dungeons where rape was used a weapon if war? Why do they still tell us that these criminals were feminists and progressives but the CIA destroyed everything?

I am tired of these narratives. They have become omnipresent, and even many young Afghans from my own generation are absorbing them now, unfortunately. Afghanistan is more than Taliban, Osama, CIA and some Stinger rockets. It's a complex country with a complicated history.

Indeed, all this is part of a bigger problem. I have written about it in the past, like here: https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en/content/herat-homs-western-left%E2%80%99s-decades-long-zeal-russian-bombs

Last but not least, there are also Afghan officials who feed such narratives: https://twitter.com/Emran_Feroz/status/1325461702478094338?s=20

Btw, it's also funny how many if these ppl ask questions like 'Your family left Afghanistan in the late 1970s or 1980s? Why' ...'Eh..There was a genocidal war.' 'Oh, I thought this was the time of freedom and liberty, mini-skirts and whiskey.'

You ask me what kind of people I mean here? Here is one of their leading propagandists. A living joke, dictator lover and a disgusting racist who loves to suppress native voices who challenge his BS (mainly Syrians, Afghans etc..I'm blocked too).