I keep finding these accounts, usually 1-2 per community, singlehandedly keeping these alt forums afloat. What keeps you going, after all this time?

Shoutout to Ahmad Shah Massoud, there’s some great reading in that chapter of Afghan history. Rare to find a guerilla leader who can win the battlefield and have keen political intellect, a shame that Pakistan was more interested in power projection than a stable neighbor:

All the parties had participated in the war, in jihad [against the Soviets] in Afghanistan, so they had to have their share in the government, and in the formation of the government. Afghanistan is made up of different nationalities. We were worried about a national conflict between different tribes and different nationalities. In order to give everybody their own rights and also to avoid bloodshed in Kabul, we left the word to the parties so they should decide about the country as a whole. We talked about it for a temporary stage and then after that the ground should be prepared for a general election.