The US-supported Afghan government wasn't worse than the governments before or after it.
South Korea's an interesting example. It was a dictatorship, now it's a thriving democracy. Ditto for Japan, Taiwan, West Germany. Sometimes things turn out alright.
Re:Tell HN: If You Are in Russia
by sudosysgen on Tuesday March 01, 2022 @09:45AM
(#30514756)
I still don't see how that's an excuse for killing hundreds of thousands of innocents, though.
In Afghanistan? Unlikely to be hundreds of thousands of civilians killed by Americans/allies. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/af... says "at least 71,000 civilians killed" and many of those would have been killed by other side(s).
"Justified"? Probably not, but we'd have to determine what alternative actions America/allies should have taken instead and compare.
I mean, "avoid all US-caused civilian deaths by letting AQ continue to operate from Afghanistan with impunity after 9/11" would not obviously have been the right thing to do.
Try to tell me with a straight face that the previous Afghan government was democratic and represented the will of the Afghan people. You cannot.
Iraq's democracy is about as successful as Russia's, that is, not at all.
The US installed a dictatorship in South Korea, and overthrew or contributed in the overthrow of many more.