Yeah, like it's neighbours Iran and Pakistan, Afghanistan has always been a country divided, between urban progressives and rural conservative (like, 1700s conservative). The country was at its most progressive under the Shahs, but the more 'democratic' it became, the more power it gave the the tribal lords. This is why I always doubted the western nation-building attempts in the region: the only governments that have every moved the region forward have been progressive authoritarian governments, like the Shahs, or even the Iranian presidents of the 1990s.
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