@Skide #97020
Might be difficult for those of us who, in classical four humours terms, have barely any yellow bile to speak of (e.g. me; black bile predominant, fair amount of phlegm, possibly subpar blood, definitely very little yellow bile). The idea of actually grabbing a halberd is…not exactly appealing to me. And for all that, I worry if ricocheting awareness of such quandaries and crises suffices for my own actions.
I have a feeling SpukiKitty’s concern is that the Taliban (and/or any other warlords fancying turning the lithium et al. reserves into their personal font of luxuries) might last for a century or so if immediate resistance to their authority disappears for any reason. Or at least get something like Nazi Germany Neu Tanz, with all the associated nightmares of even just fifteen years. I can see why she’s desperate for that to stay unable to (fully) manifest. Although that feels more like passive hope (what TVTropes calls Holding Out for a Hero) than active hope.
Not that the United States did much of anything right in Afghanistan, such as trying to destroy the 5,000-year poppy farming tradition just for the sake of moral grandstanding (we barely get any heroin from the Eastern Hemisphere). Good chance Washington was there to secure the lithium et al. for themselves, honestly. It wasn’t just revenge for the 9/11 crises.
There are two things about evacuation that gnaw at me a bit, personally. One, how many anti-warlord people will actually be willing to evacuate? I’m not sure Vietnam will be a good analogy necessarily. Two, do we know where they can go where they won’t have to deal with prejudice in turn? Only guess I really have is Indonesia…