I don’t think it’s that straightforward. The Soviet Union also successfully pacified East Germany and turned it into an ally. The USA spent twenty years and two trillion dollars trying to build credibility in Afghanistan, and that was all for nothing.
The USA spent twenty years and two trillion dollars trying to build credibility in Afghanistan, and that was all for nothing.
Because they were doing it while supporting a corrupt government and bombing people willy nilly. There’s a reason the US is known for bombing weddings.
Yeah, they built credibility by checks notes giving positions of power to literal child molestors and war lords. The US spent two trillion bombing Afghanistan into the ground.
Yes, that’s my point. Credibility-building worked, and so did brutal repression. This leads me to think that there was some underlying cultural factor present in post-WWII Germany that made it governable by occupiers, by whatever means. The presence of radical Islamist movements appears to correspond to the absence of such a factor. (Sufficiently brutal repression might still work, the way it did for Putin in Chechnya, but it’s not an option for Israel.)
I don’t think it’s that straightforward. The Soviet Union also successfully pacified East Germany and turned it into an ally. The USA spent twenty years and two trillion dollars trying to build credibility in Afghanistan, and that was all for nothing.
Because they were doing it while supporting a corrupt government and bombing people willy nilly. There’s a reason the US is known for bombing weddings.
Yeah, they built credibility by checks notes giving positions of power to literal child molestors and war lords. The US spent two trillion bombing Afghanistan into the ground.
By executing anyone who didn’t want to get along. Remember the 1953 uprising?
Yes, that’s my point. Credibility-building worked, and so did brutal repression. This leads me to think that there was some underlying cultural factor present in post-WWII Germany that made it governable by occupiers, by whatever means. The presence of radical Islamist movements appears to correspond to the absence of such a factor. (Sufficiently brutal repression might still work, the way it did for Putin in Chechnya, but it’s not an option for Israel.)