Oliver’s army is here to stay
Oliver’s army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today
I got the second Punic war, but I think that’s just a freebie. I also spent a lot learning about the Falkland’s war just to annoy Argentinians online.
I’m glad I missed this.
btw, did you know that the Australian government killed almost 1000 Emus in the Great Emu War and still lost?
The military used over 10,000 rounds of ammunition. that would mean they used around 10 rounds per Emu.
They also used actual military tactics to fight the Emus, like mapping their routes and setting up ambushes. In one of these, they managed to get close to a flock of about a thousand emus and attacked them with machine guns only allowing the escape of… lemme check… about a thousand emus.
i got the soviet-afghan war and wow did that recontextualize a lot of things about the modern world
bear in mind i was 10 during 9/11 so a lot of it was just upending things i had taken for granted. but like, how the US was pretty much allied with the taliban throughout the 80s, giving them training and weapons to fight against the soviet-friendly progressive, secular government of afghanistan.
The Soviet-friendly Afghan government wasn’t a) progressive and b) wasn’t secular. The government is explicitly Marxist-Leninist who oppressed and forced people to drop their religion as part of state atheism.
The progressivism and secularism you refer to was during the kingdom era before being overthrown by the communist Afghan military. The more liberal attitude is only contained in a bubble in the capital city of Kabul. The rest of 80% of Afghans are still religious conservatives living rural and in poverty. An Afghan female former politician lamented not seeing this because she grew up in liberal Kabul.
Also more importantly, it’s a misconception that the US helped the Taliban. The mujahideen was composed of various factions, some are secular, some are conservative, while some are more Islamists. But, the ultraconservative elements only came later in more definite form under the Taliban, which defeated both the secular and conservative forces.
My case was Paraguay War a few weeks ago and I learned so damn much that school completely glossed over. What surprised me the most was just how much of a madman Solano Lopez, the Paraguayan dictator, was. You dare bring bad news to him? You bet your ass you’ll be flogged. You failed to follow one of his suicidal orders? Off to forced labor camp. You didn’t put him above God and Christ? Say your prayers, you’ll be shot bayoneted in order to save bullets.