https://allthatsinteresting.com/ambergris
Ambergris, The Rare ‘Whale Vomit’ Used In Perfume
BunkerBusterKeaton
joined 1 year ago
Oh damn dawg, I guess you haven't heard of the PDP before. All good, I gotchu
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/12/02/afghanistan-another-untold-story
Since feudal times the landholding system in Afghanistan had remained unchanged, with more than 75 percent of the land owned by big landlords who comprised only 3 percent of the rural population. In the mid-1960s, democratic revolutionary elements coalesced to form the People's Democratic Party (PDP). In 1973, the king was deposed, but the government that replaced him proved to be autocratic, corrupt, and unpopular. It in turn was forced out in 1978 after a massive demonstration in front of the presidential palace, and after the army intervened on the side of the demonstrators.
The military officers who took charge invited the PDP to form a new government under the leadership of Noor Mohammed Taraki, a poet and novelist. This is how a Marxist-led coalition of national democratic forces came into office. "It was a totally indigenous happening. Not even the CIA blamed the USSR for it," writes John Ryan, a retired professor at the University of Winnipeg, who was conducting an agricultural research project in Afghanistan at about that time.
The Taraki government proceeded to legalize labor unions, and set up a minimum wage, a progressive income tax, a literacy campaign, and programs that gave ordinary people greater access to health care, housing, and public sanitation. Fledgling peasant cooperatives were started and price reductions on some key foods were imposed...
Because of its egalitarian and collectivist economic policies the Taraki government also incurred the opposition of the US national security state. Almost immediately after the PDP coalition came to power, the CIA, assisted by Saudi and Pakistani military, launched a large scale intervention into Afghanistan on the side of the ousted feudal lords, reactionary tribal chieftains, mullahs, and opium traffickers.
A top official within the Taraki government was Hafizulla Amin, believed by many to have been recruited by the CIA during the several years he spent in the United States as a student. In September 1979, Amin seized state power in an armed coup. He executed Taraki, halted the reforms, and murdered, jailed, or exiled thousands of Taraki supporters as he moved toward establishing a fundamentalist Islamic state. But within two months, he was overthrown by PDP remnants including elements within the military.
It should be noted that all this happened before the Soviet military intervention. National security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski publicly admitted--months before Soviet troops entered the country--that the Carter administration was providing huge sums to Muslim extremists to subvert the reformist government. Part of that effort involved brutal attacks by the CIA-backed mujahideen against schools and teachers in rural areas.
In late 1979, the seriously besieged PDP government asked Moscow to send a contingent of troops to help ward off the mujahideen (Islamic guerrilla fighters) and foreign mercenaries, all recruited, financed, and well-armed by the CIA. The Soviets already had been sending aid for projects in mining, education, agriculture, and public health. Deploying troops represented a commitment of a more serious and politically dangerous sort. It took repeated requests from Kabul before Moscow agreed to intervene militarily.
TL;DR: An organic, popular left-wing government deposed the king and made some serious reforms that challenged capital. Then -- and stop me if you've heard this one before -- capital interests and social reactionaries allied with the U.S. and its client states to attack said popular left-wing government. This pushed the left-wing government into the USSR's camp (again, stop me if this sounds familiar) and it asked the Soviet Union for more and more help, up to and including military assistance.
Now please log off, read theory, then come back and join the adults
I’d guess they’d get a lot more help if they held free and fair elections
Yes because THAT'S what the US cares about. Like supporting 'free and fair elections' by overthrowing democratically elected governments in Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Bolivia, Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Nicaragua...
In each case they installed (or tried to install) a puppet dictator they could control. But no, please go on about how Cuba are actually THE BADDIES here.
It already has been a war between Russia and Nato. Where do you think Ukraine is getting all of their military equipment?
glad to see we have the history understander here!
"hmm blockaded country that can't import food/crops can't feed their people. maybe they should simply grow crops and feed their people"
No. As nations we’ve decided what weapons are inhumane and cannot be used. For instance they cannot use chlorine gas, no matter how effective that might be at clearing trenches
The US says that the new cluster bombs are much more reliable
The US says a lot of things that are not true. They also said agent orange used in Vietnam didn't have lasting health effects but that is a horrifying lie. Children are still being born with birth defects to this day in Vietnam because of agent orange. In no way should the US be trusted with what's "safe/reliable". Especially in wartime, when the US and its weapons manufacturers stand to benefit from the sale of these weapons.
Ukraine should be allowed to decide how best to defend themselves.
No. As nations we've decided what weapons are inhumane and cannot be used. For instance they cannot use chlorine gas, no matter how effective that might be at clearing trenches
there isn't really any 'nobility' in 'taking the high road' while marginalized communities continue to get owned and killed. Trans kids are being targeted, women are being targeted, BIPOC are being targeted.
what good is civility? authoritarian leftism is the only way to get results
and how did those tanks perform this weekend? and how many of those tanks are ACTUALLY IN UKRAINE right now? without air support those tanks are sitting ducks and will continue to be destroyed.
ISW was founded by an historian. please tell me you're joking when saying anything they say should be taken seriously. this shit is so easy dude, how do you all get dooped by these people every time.
you're going to see a lot more of these stories as the collective west tries to find a way to back out of supporting Ukraine.
they've never cared about Ukraine they were (dumbly) hoping russia would topple over internally but that was never going to happen. now they have to do a turnabout saying "wow the heckin russians are more powerful than we thought"
i am once again urging you to understand that the war began in 2014.
the LPR and DPR regions are ethnically russian. they were living peacefully until 2014 when their political parties were disbanded and they've been systematically shelled by ukranians every day since 2014. minsk 2 would have reintegrated Donbas with Ukraine with some protections for its minority population, but Ukraine didn’t even implement the first step. zelensky was elected on a platform of ending the war, but when he tried Azov told him they would rather coup his government than stand down. at some point when negotiations are broken down the only thing any organization has left to do is resort to violence, which the Russian state did when it felt threatened enough by NATO (which if you’ll recall spent months warmongering prior to the invasion start) to justify the risk.
deranged comment