CIA Director Bill Burns revealed on Tuesday that Putin planned to capture Ukraine's capital Kyiv in two days: "after nearly two weeks they still have not been able to fully encircle the city"
56
838
3,795
Conversation
Afraid it may take 20 years like Afghanistan i guess.
4
3
32
The Americans conquered Afghanistan very quickly. The problem is that they never managed to create a stable Afghan state able to resist the Taliban. So as soon as the Americans withdrew, the Taliban took over
8
6
102
Problem is you can't create a state; because a state is made of people. The people have to have the knowledge, skill, desire, etc to form and maintain the state. They did not.
2
2
14
We actually did create a state in Iraq and it still functions. Not the world's best state, obviously, but it has elections and transitions of power, which is amazing given the environment.
1
3
We got lucky. :) The unmeasurable aspects of what's required in the people of Iraq existed to get them where they are today.
2
2
True it takes a context that works but it's not like we went to Iraq and flipped a coin. A lot of very difficult work went into it and it paid off (I hedge this again: kinda paid off lol)