I can't compete with you on details of Pakistan!

But, somehow while supposedly trying to help the
US bring peace to Afghanistan, Bin Laden lived
in a relatively large and nice house for some
years about a good golf shot from the Pakistan
army college. And no one knew he was there?

And when President Clinton fired cruise missiles
at the Bin Laden training camp in Afghanistan,
US Secretary of State Albright
(also known as Half-bright)
informed the Pakistan government since the
missiles would have to fly over Pakistan
territory. Then somehow Half-bright's information
made it to Bin Laden who was well out of the area
when the missiles arrived.

Of course Islam is not all there is to it, not
in Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, or even Afghanistan.
And clearly economics is also important.

But my
point was about 'culture'. Or just why have US
efforts to create democracy in Afghanistan failed?
My answer, culture: There's no real basis for
democracy in Afghanistan culture. Does this mean
that Afghanistan has no culture? No, they do.
They have a strong culture, one that runs nearly
everything, Islam. Get rid of Islam and they
don't have much except maybe a few goats, some
poppies, some rusty AK-47s. So, they don't
get rid of Islam. Not all of Islam is against
democracy, but the culture in Afghanistan
is Islam with no foundation for democracy.

This thread (sorry about the times I typed
'tread' instead) has mentioned that in part
the Taliban act like the Mafia in Italy and
at times parts of the US. That's some of
what I thought, and, yes, it's not from Islam.
But the main reason for a Mafia is that
there is no good alternative system of police
and government. With a good system of police,
when a Mafia guy comes to a store owner and
asks for a monthly payment, the store owner
can go to the police who will be waiting when
the Mafia guy comes and accepts the money
and then ... lock up the Mafia guy for a long
time. But this system needs a good culture
to support such good police and, thus, good
police to protect the citizens. In contrast,
all Afghanistan has in culture is just Islam;
Islam doesn't provide good support of
police that support the citizens;
there's no other culture; so the
Taliban get to use Mafia tactics.
Neither the Taliban nor the villagers
believe that a democracy should be
better. So, Islam and Mafia tactics
are what's there.

It's not that Islam is against good
police protection; it's mostly just that
Islam doesn't provide good police
protection, and in Afghanistan Islam is essentially
all the culture. So, no good police
protection. And it's not that an
Islamic country can't have good police
protection; I can believe that some
Islamic countries have some very
strong police. But in Afghanistan,
about all there is is Islam and
next to nothing about good police
or democracy. And the Islamic
clerics? It's not in their interest
to see the growth of strong, secular
institutions such as good police.
So, again, no good
police force can grow up.

Or Islamic Sharia law: Try to implement
something descended from Napoleonic law
or British Common law, etc., and,
in a country that has essentially only
Islam, many
Muslims will keep asking for Sharia law.
So, get a 500 year old legal system.

Education? Try to set up a 21st century,
or 20th century, education system, and,
in a country that has essentially only
Islam, a lot of Muslims will insist on Islamic
education instead. Halt: Again out
of date by 500 years.

Look, if Islam were only religion, then
it would be much less of a road block to
progress in Afghanistan. Instead, Islam
is running nearly everything there and,
thus, is able to block nearly any
change or progress.

A big point about Islam for people
in the US is that Islam is not just
religion but is also how to dress,
what to eat, how to run a marriage,
education, architecture, system of
laws, government, etc. So, in
the less developed Islamic countries,
Islam is a roadblock to change.
E.g., in Iraq, there are two sides
to Islam, the Shiites and the Sunnis.
So, since they have little more important
in their lives than just their religion,
they fight. They would just rather
have a civil war than get on with
pumping oil and living a life of
milk and honey. They did that
already in Europe, been there, done
that, got the T-shirt, and had the
rivers running red for hundreds of years
from religious wars. Finally they
learned: Have politics and government
separate from and largely independent of
religion; have freedom of religion;
and don't fight over religion. Done.
When the Muslims in, say, Iraq learn
that lesson, they will be ahead some
hundreds of years.