The point I do not see underscored enough: the "graveyard of empires" reputation is built upon an accidental history of said empires the moniker is based upon being relatively benevolent compared to the Mongols. It isn't an intrinsic property of the people or geography of Afghanistan when looking at all available records, but of generally voluntary evolving war conventions.
Never underestimate the horrific wartime capacity our species are capable of unleashing. In the sweep of recorded human history, we happen to live in an era of relative peace, and even most of our worst wars today play by Queensbury Rules compared to the relative scope, scale and ruthlessness our distant ancestors regularly abided by. To give a sense of proportion, Genghis Khan is estimated to have killed 11% of the world population; scaled to today it is 0.84 BILLION. He would have literally erased the entire male population of Afghanistan and hardly noticed by his standards. None of today's relative decrease in bloodthirstiness is enshrined like laws of physics, and is but a thin veneer upon our civilization when push comes to shove.
Should climate change worst-case scenario predictions come to pass, desperation can erase that tenuous progress in decreasing human misery, relative as it is, in the blink of an eye. It is best we all remember that War Is A Racket, and anytime two or more sets of elites clamor for war, we'd all likely be better off they were all the first killed on the front lines, and then we all re-evaluate the "need" for war again with a new elite who want to go to the front lines.
Never underestimate the horrific wartime capacity our species are capable of unleashing. In the sweep of recorded human history, we happen to live in an era of relative peace, and even most of our worst wars today play by Queensbury Rules compared to the relative scope, scale and ruthlessness our distant ancestors regularly abided by. To give a sense of proportion, Genghis Khan is estimated to have killed 11% of the world population; scaled to today it is 0.84 BILLION. He would have literally erased the entire male population of Afghanistan and hardly noticed by his standards. None of today's relative decrease in bloodthirstiness is enshrined like laws of physics, and is but a thin veneer upon our civilization when push comes to shove.
Should climate change worst-case scenario predictions come to pass, desperation can erase that tenuous progress in decreasing human misery, relative as it is, in the blink of an eye. It is best we all remember that War Is A Racket, and anytime two or more sets of elites clamor for war, we'd all likely be better off they were all the first killed on the front lines, and then we all re-evaluate the "need" for war again with a new elite who want to go to the front lines.