What would Afghanistan be like today if no Soviet invasion happened?

[Forreigner]

Afghanistan seemed very open to progress in the 1970s...

I would like to think the country could've been modernized and industrial nation today (not with to confuse westernized)...but modernized/industrialized. like Japan, South Korea, China, etc.

If you have bright minds, you don't need raw materials/natural resources to build a prosperous country.

this is Japan today:



this was Japan 50 years ago:




This was Kabul in aprocimately 50 years ago:










gender issues:








I don't know if these pictures are exagerrated, but it seems the Afghan leaders back then may not have bad visions for the country....I'd like to imagine what the country could've been like today, if things had gone differently...ei. no soviet invasion => no mujahideen => no taliban => no osama bin laden => no US invasion, etc...If Afghanistan could've been allowed to peacefully progress and develope on its own.

Could Afghanistan have been a nice decent country, and not poverty stricken third world nation as it is today?

the photos above point towards Afghanistan having a decent/good future...50 years ago (maybe not as developed as Japan is today, but perhaps decent enough).

[Khostai]

Let say Daud never lost power and stayed in control, either way civil war would haved happend, becuase prior to sovjet and communist take over, there was Islamist plans to take over...this was already seen in Kabul uni. So even without Sovjet invasion some conflict would have started that would stagnated the country...Becuase Dauds vision was not that of an Islamic state, as what the mudjhahids wanted.

[Elite Pakhtun]

Would Daud not have the power to quell the Mujahideen on his own? Also, weren't most Mujahideen supported and built up because of Soviet invasion? How much strength would they have had without Soviets invading and creating a vested interest for the US to interfere?

[Elite Pakhtun]

Not solely US, but all those that supported the Mujahids. Saudi et al.

[DSM0305]

There were several attempt by the extremist to oust the government while doud was in power, but every single one of them failed. The problem was the communist revolution, which was successful because it happened from the inside.

Afghanistan wouldn't be the new Japan, but it certainly would have been far more progressive than any of its neighbors. Not only was Afghanistan well off for a third world country back then, but also had a great military. When Afghan government was destroyed in civil war, the Pakistani general said: finally, the strong Afghan army is destroyed.