Bingo. Whether it’s the Taliban or the warlords, “thugs with weapons” is the main way they persist. The weapons these days are firearms, the opiate sales and mountain redoubts help, and fundie religion provides a thin justification for rule, but it’s really force of arms in the end. The general populace is resigned to the situation, and the best we can hope for is that enough forward-looking people (esp. young women and the educated) were able to leave the country in time.
And let’s be clear: all that needs to be done in the preceding paragraph is changing the word “Taliban” to “Dominionists” and you could easily be describing Ameristan during a theoretical Second Civil War 20 years from now.
