The people who live in those countries don't view it any differently when their relatives get murdered.

99.9% of the population of any country mostly just want to live their lives and politically all they do is talk and maybe fill in a circle on a ballot once in a awhile. There's a useful fiction that they're all collectively responsible which is used for various illegitimate justifications.

Just like soldiers fight for the person next to them, insurgencies are born because your family members got killed by foreign solders who parked tanks in your cities. Once you leave the rationalizations of the political theater behind and get down to the reality of where the individual acts of homicide are happening in the war, it is all the same thing.

Why can't I? Are you implying the Afghani wanted their torn up country invaded by yet another superpower? They haven't seen anything resembling normal life in generations. Or that Iraqis deserved to get their well developed country almost completely destroyed?

What are you saying?

You seem to be completely ignoring the lack of legitimacy and popular support that the authoritarian regimes in both Iraq and Afghanistan had, as well as the human rights violations that were commonplace while they were in power.

The war in Afghanistan was obviously a complete and total failure given that the Taliban are now back in charge, but it's hard to argue that after all this time that the Iraqis aren't better off living in an (albeit flawed) democracy than under the rule of Saddam Hussain.

I don’t think it’s hard to argue that at all.

A different clique is on top in Iraq now, but Iraqi standard of living does not appear to be an improvement over the Saddam years.

If you’re Shi’ite there’s no doubt it’s better now, though.