I’m calling that into question because last time I was reading about it the Deutsches Panzermuseum has been on the hunt for an authentic Tiger tank for a while now, but all the surviving examples are in foreign hands and refuse to give them up because they’re so rare.
“Many GIs took home looted Nazi Memorabilia.” Note that word “Nazi”.
Afghanistan was very much under the influence of the Soviet Union during the 1970s. This culminated in the Soviet invasion and occupation at the end of the decade that lasted for ten years.
Afghanistan sits geographically between competing superpower rivals who invade from time to time. This has been the case for the last few centuries But they never stay for long and usually occupy at great cost.
Afghanistan was never colony material. It was the North West frontier and the gateway to richer lands to the south. It was all about keeping other great powers out of India. In the days of the British Empire that meant Russia. In the twentieth century it was the rivalry the Soviets wanted to exclude and the US. In the twenty first century it was the US led coalition fighting the Al-Queda/Taliban to prevent it from being a base for international terrorism. It is a territory into which major powers pour resources to obtain security and strategic advantage. The money flows in the opposite direction from colonisation.
Any reparation after 1970 would have probably ended up in the Kremlin. That was a time when the Soviet’s were pulling the strings.
I still don’t get your point. Are you saying that the British Museum shouldn’t give back artifacts because some of the people they took them from are morally equivalent to Nazis? Or are you “just asking questions”?
My point was- not all loot is something that is morally and ethically wrong, and needs to be repatriated.
Afghanistan was part of Indian empires and had flourishing Buddhism ~200BC. They came under Muslim attacks starting the 7th century CE and the Buddhist culture was totally destroyed by Muslim invaders by the 13th century.
Afghanistan was not always like this. Kandahar is a corruption of Alexander who named it while on his war to India.
The Man Who Would Be King is an amusing movie (and, I presume, book) that pokes the pompous grandiosity of the British ambitions in Afghanistan. Yet the Afghans banned it.