WI: Best case scenario for Afghanistan post-1900?

[Turquoise Blue]

We all know Afghanistan, that nation which were screwed over and over again. Its Worst Case Scenario IS OTL.

But, today, I want us all to think together, to create a scenario where Afghanistan did better than OTL. Its Best Case Scenario.

 

[Lalli]

King Mohammed Zahir Shah not depose by Taraki on 1973. Afghanistan might be still quiet backward but is still stabil coury.

 

[The Oncoming Storm]

That's just what I was going to say!

I think that by regional standards Afghanistan was quite stable up until the July '73 Coup and then it all started to unravel. Zahir staying in power could have kept it as a slowly developing backwater that kept out of global politics, a sort of South Asian version of Finland.

 

[neopeius]

According to a friend of mine, who essentially ran the DOJ for Afghanistan from 2005-6, we missed a golden opportunity to stabilize Afghanistan in 2001. Afghanistan has always been a loosely federated group of tribes with a weak leader in the middle. The Taliban was the exception to this rule. When the Americans came in in 2001, this was the chance to install a strong central government, and there was popular support for it. Instead, because we were getting ready to cut and run to invade Iraq, we put Kharzai in charge... a weak leader in the middle of a loosely federated group of tribes.

 

[33k7]

Ahmad Shah Massoud
Does anyone remember that guy if you really want to point to one individual that would change Afghanistan if he had survived and was president of Afghanistan now the Taliban would be on the ropes