Red Dawn

Red Dawn

Postby Bookben » Mon May 12, 2014 4:05 pm

This movie is startlingly like an invasion of the then-Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The movie just didn't go far enough (at the time of its release, the country was still occupied). I've seen what the aftermath of a Soviet Invasion looks like. I was an embedded journalist in Afghanistan in 2004 for six months. In that time, I met with various Afghans who had survived the invasion, occupation, and then the pullout. In the invasion, the Soviets did much of what was depicted in the film. Reprisal killings, "reeducation" camps. I've seen huge mass graves created during that time. They smashed ancient irrigation canals to depopulate whole regions. I talked with men who were youths (like in the film) and fought the Soviets. One had been 12. It was brutal. As much as you might think it's just "Hollywood", the film is not far from reality.

Nevertheless, the Soviets were at least a form of civilization. There was the massive war that followed to push them out, which also destroyed lives and infrastructure and gave rise to extremist factions. Then, following the pullout, the country descended into a massive civil war with several factions battling it out. Then the rise of the Taliban--who were 96 percent illiterate.

25 years of civil war will turn a country into a wasteland. No schools for 25 years (at the time I was there). Much of the countryside ruled by warlords, actual feudal societies in clusters across the country.

I really think Afghanistan is what the end of the world looks like.
Bookben
 
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