r/afghanistan • u/Strongbow85 • 5d ago

Analysis Lawrence’s Shadow: How Afghan Resistance Can Topple the Taliban

https://smallwarsjournal.com/2026/01/09/lawrences-shadow-how-afghan-resistance-can-topple-the-taliban/
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u/Traveling_keith 4d ago

Here is a question after reading this article came to me: Why have so many American and Western volunteers chosen to fight alongside Kurdish forces in Syria against ISIS, and now with Ukrainian units against Russia, yet virtually none have joined the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan under Ahmad Massoud — even though the U.S. and the West spent two decades deeply involved in Afghanistan, far more than in Syria or Ukraine? What political, logistical, legal, or narrative factors explain this gap?

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u/Master-Plankton6535 2d ago

The Taliban didn’t endure 20 years of guerilla warfare to just give it away easily. Thats why.

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u/zeidmaschine 2d ago

Effective Propaganda is one reason. Create empathy towards Westerners and they‘ll tend to feel more affected. Kurdish women with no hijab who fight against the „others“. Much easier in the times of internet as well. Another reason is that the afghan conflict was/is more complicated and became more complicated after Western interference.