Well

CIA funded Osama Bin Ladin and crew to make sure Afghanistan turned into as deadly a Vietnam as possible

Yeah

It was horrible foresight

Yea

Why did the Soviets even invade Afghanistan?

I think just for more clay

They had plenty holdings in central Asia

The Afghans overthrew the socialist government, so they retaliated with an invasion

Maybe they wanted Naval Ports on the Indian Ocean

They wanted more influence in the region

Afghanistan offers a port to South Asia and the Middle East

Wasn’t it because they were afraid of Islamic revolutions in their southern republics because they were Atheist?

They were

If I were them I'd be planning for an eventual railroad/ highway going from Moscow to the Indian Ocean

The islamic governments were anti-communist to a large extent

Like a forced version of their roads to Crimea

Although Iran did have some backhanded cooperation with both sides

Many of the secular MENA governments were socialist systems propped up by Soviets

Libya, Iraq, Syria, etc

Yeah

In the fall of the cold war, those sort of governments are necessary to protect religious minorities

Iraq went somewhat fundamentalist after the first gulf war

And yea mostly

Unfortunately, Conservative Inc hasn't learned that.

There is a huge problem of Christians getting killed in the Middle East tho

Yeah, of course.

Reason u don't see more Arab Christians or Coptic Christian Egyptians is bc of such atrocities

Yeah, islamic theocracies have a large tendency to force against christians in the ME

That's the reason we need to keep Assad and why we should have kept Hussein and Gaddafi

Even though Tribal religious tendencies are strong in even "monotheistic" African peoples .... a lot of the tension in Africa is Islam vs Christian

Democracy does not work in the ME

Tito helped reign in Yugoslavia, but unlike other socialist dictatorships in fractured regions Tito's regime didn't have a clearly established line of succession

Succession is almost more important in these types of Govts than in Monarchies of old

I hear most people in Saudi Arabia are on the govt dole and only a scarce few natives actually work

Something like a 75% labor non participation rate if u include women iirc

Or 50% if u look at men

I don't think Socialist Monarchies are a long term solution ....

But USA has had reason to be "allied" with several of these "Oil socialist" nations.

Especially after Soviet Union fell

Democracy in ME almost always goes to Islamic Theocracy it's just a fact.