Afghanistan was considered backward, extremely primitive and secretive. There were no tours there so folks who did go there went on their own, not an easy thing to do. I don't even think that they had an airline. Having an airline was considered a mark of advancement for a country.
Even Pakistan had an airline. It was called PIA, Pakistan International Airlines I think....lol,we used to say the OBVIOUS -- pain in the ....
What else? Not much to say. When I read or watch T.V. about Afghanistan I still cringe.
It is SUPPOSED to be pronounced Af-ran-in-stan, with the "r" in "ran" like a French "r"--very gutteral. I've never heard it pronounced here with anything like that. ..and who cares? :o) I don't. They can have their third world sewer.
They have NOTHING for us. If there HAD been anything, the USSR would not have given it up. We should never go near there.
Outside of its most northern border, Afghanistan is almost a no-man’s land. It is very landlocked by mountains and deserts, little or no major rivers, and a very poor road system. All of this creates an economic environment which makes traditional commerce almost impossible outside of the largest cities, leading to most of the country being very poor, isolated, tribal regions. Subsistence farming using terraced farms to capture runoff is the norm in most of the country. It is almost impossible for anyone to travel from a small village into a large town. You would need a rugged vehicle, provisions, jerrycans of gasoline, and weapons.
Thanks for the information - I agree that we should never go there...
>>>>Afghanistan was closed, even more closed than China. We visited China back in 1981. We visited India too.
Afghanistan was considered backward, extremely primitive and secretive. There were no tours there so folks who did go there went on their own, not an easy thing to do. I don’t even think that they had an airline. Having an airline was considered a mark of advancement for a country.
Even Pakistan had an airline. It was called PIA, Pakistan International Airlines I think....lol,we used to say the OBVIOUS — pain in the ....
What else? Not much to say. When I read or watch T.V. about Afghanistan I still cringe.
It is SUPPOSED to be pronounced Af-ran-in-stan, with the “r” in “ran” like a French “r”—very gutteral. I’ve never heard it pronounced here with anything like that. ..and who cares? :o) I don’t. They can have their third world sewer. They have NOTHING for us. If there HAD been anything, the USSR would not have given it up. We should never go near there.<<<<
In fact Afghanistan wasn’t such a crappy place back when and it was developing pretty rapidly.
It had an airline, ‘Ariana’ if memory serves me well.
Afghanistan actually slided into barbarism in late 1980s, about time the USSR lost interest in propping a secular regime and withdrew troops.
So called Soviet-Afghan War was pretty similar to current events in Syria. Russians weren’t perfect but they certainly were a less evil side.
We went there because the Taleban government of Afghanistan allowed their country to be used as home base for the people who executed 9/11. I am surprised, that village idiot John Kerry wants to talk peace with the Talibs. Especially more surprised, that we are still talking peace when hours after our nonsensical announcement that we are trying to bring back to power the very people who did 9/11, they attacked Bagram air base and killed 4 US Servicemen, and CLAIMED FULL RESPONSIBILITY. Heck, just leaving and allowing Karzai to deal with this would be better than installing our own enemies back to power after spending ten years getting rid of them.