Henry Kissinger wrote in The Economist on events in Afghanistan that the attempt to build a modern democracy in a country without a central power is doomed to failure.
In writing – by HVG360 looked at Kissinger said that although democracy could not be built in any way, the United States could have done enough to curb terrorism. At the same time, the former Secretary of State said, there were basically bad goals, unattainable in the eyes of the Americans,
While the Afghan issue emerged as if the only choice was between complete control of the country and permanent departure.
The biggest concern was that the United States was not able to set achievable strategic goals during the mission, says Kissinger. He said the mission got off to a good start as the invasion succeeded after the 9/11 attacks. However, America mistakenly believed that the re-emergence of terrorism could be prevented only if Afghanistan became a sophisticated Western-style democracy.
He noted that it would have taken decades because geographic, ethnic and religious circumstances run counter to this goal.
Meanwhile, the overseas public slowly lost interest in Afghanistan, and its presence there was a growing bulwark for Western nations, which ultimately failed to permanently crush the insurgents, strengthen local government or make it a corruption-free Western. Within America, it is becoming increasingly questionable whether a presence in Afghanistan is even needed.
Kissinger believes that the common denominator in the controversy over this is that jihadists should not be crushed, but sufficiently repulsed.