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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Replying to @vgr
There’s a good “the past is not dead” joke to be made here but I’m not sure how to tie in the showbiz angle
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It's funny because we're now busy accusing China of similar narrative manipulation. Kids who watch Rambo 3 will mostly never know that the story framing has shifted 180 degrees.
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