I haven't read the entire thread so I'm not sure to what extend this has been covered yet... this is just from the top of the head so forgive me if I botch a few dates or w/e
In the late sixties, when Afghanistan was still a monarchy, Kabul was a relatively modern place. Mostly because women were fed up and wanted equal rights. They followed the example of the West but it was an organic development, not something installed by the west (like in Iran). Kabul 1969, damn those pants are hot.
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The king wasn't the best leader ever but he did introduce a new constitution turning Afghanistan into a democracy with civil and women rights. Unfortunately this applied mostly to the richer folks in the city and not to the lower class in the rural areas. At that time there was already a division, between islamists and socialists.
After a coup in the early 70s the communists established an autocratic republic. One where women rights and education was a given, and burka's and shit were banned from the public and for many atheism was the new norm. Young men and women suddenly wanted proof for existence of this God entity. This pissed off the rural muslims, of which some wanted to establish a "pure" Islamic state and lock up their women.
As in many communist nations, evil leaders float to the top. In this case Nur Muhammad Taraki, referred to as 'the Great Leader". In the late 70s the Communist Party killed him. This triggered the Soviet Union to invade in an attempt to establish a government they could partly control. Many soviet soldiers initially thought they were there to help the people, to build a nation. The afghan tribes became united as the Mujahideen ('people involved in Jihad') above all because they had the same "godless" enemy (the Soviets /communists) whose ideas conflicted with the islam.
In 1980 the US, under Carter, together with Saudi Arabia, decided to finance the Mujahideen, to fuck with the Russian and oppose communism. The tribes competed with each other over the financial support, making up tons of stories about how many Soviets they killed. The most crazy fundamentalist islamists got most of the money and thus weapons.
As it became clear to the Soviets and the rest of the world the Soviets would lose, the US under Reagan decided it would be a good idea to give Russia its own Vietnam, bumped up their financial support and gave Stinger missiles to the Mujahideen, ending the rule of the Soviets in the air and eventually entirely.
With no decent government in place, no law and order, a few years later the Mujahideen tribes started fighting among themselves, leading to a civil war in 1992. Two years later the Taliban was formed, mostly young muslims whose entire 'education' consisted of being brainwashed with the koran just across the border in Pakistan. Nothing but a muslim cult who was pissed off Afghanistan wasn't ruled under Sharia law.
In the 90s Taliban took control, ended all women rights, and provided support to Bin Laden, who had been supported them financially for years. Afghanistan was already destroyed when that happened. The rest is more recent history that is all still a result of Afghanistan being a pawn in the cold war between the US and Russia.
The point is, yes there is one, it's a quite ridiculous to suggest 'those people' are 'savages' who are not ready for a modern society yet. They already had that over 50 years ago and the US and Saudi Arabia are partly responsible for messing that up by supporting the actually savages, the enemy of what should have been and became their enemy. Least they can do is clean that shit up, whatever it takes, even if that includes 30 other nations sending troops. It was the right thing to do. I even see people suggest to bomb Afghans into submission while it's less than 100k fanatics who oppress the millions of people. wtaf...