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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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      Shit, just realized why the turn in the Syrian conflict seems so uncannily familiar. It rhymes very strongly with the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the 80s (which led, among other things, to the Kashmir insurgency). This is not a good rhyme.

      5 replies 14 retweets 74 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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      Roughly, the 1980s/now mapping would be (purely structural balance of power, with no value judgments of politics/ideologies in play) US = USSR Russia = US Kurds = Mujahideen Syria = Afghanistan Turkey = India Pakistan = Iraq+ISIS

      2 replies 2 retweets 16 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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      Americans of course have a very... interesting memory of what happened. Basically, Rambo 3 (1988). Noble US supplies noble Mujahideen to force evil empire to withdraw. Led by Rambo. The withdrawal was 1988-1989. Kashmiri insurgency began like 5 minutes later.

      2 replies 1 retweet 13 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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      The one difference here is that ISIS and Kurds are enemies, whereas in the 1980s, Pakistan was the supply chain to the Mujahideen, and later the "handler" as it metastasized into Taliban, Kashmir foreign terror outfits and eventually Al Qaeda. It was a godawful mess. Still is.

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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      It is really grimly hilarious how much narratives can influence how you think. I remember watching Rambo 3 and of course rooting for the "good guys" and hey, 3 years later, the people the movie portrayed had turned into the real-life bad guys in Indian newspaper headlines.

      5:33 PM - 14 Oct 2019
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      2 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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          I think the Kurds are basically screwed btw. They do not have the deep bench ideological and civilizational capability of Wahabbism to back them for decades. They appear to be a genuine cultural island. Everybody around them appears to have their knives out for them.

          3 replies 0 retweets 16 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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          I hope this localized analogy does not indicate a US collapse similar to USSR collapse. I think not. That withdrawal was caused by a desperate attempt to contain an unraveling of empire gracefully (and failing). This is an own-goal by one moron from a position of strength.

          5 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 14 Oct 2019
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          I’m so a product of the 80s it’s not even funny. Age 6-16 is like the only dentist anchor zone.

          1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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        5. End of conversation
        1. Griffin Ichiba Hotchkiss‏ @gichiba 14 Oct 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          it's like the opposite of rambo2, where he helps Kayin rebels murder Burmese soldiers, and then later in 2015 Burma gets to be a shining example of transition to democracy.... Except the Burmese military are still absolutely the bad guys

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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