[zozbot234]

> We did have a goal. The building of the nation of Afghanistan into a functioning liberal democracy.

Come on. You can't build a functioning liberal democracy in a place like that while doing zilch to promote even the basics of civil society and liberal norms. (And no, elections and ballot boxes are quite irrelevant; they're simply a red herring. Electoral processes have zero legitimacy to begin with in a non-liberal society.) The whole idea is quite simply preposterous.