US again fails to export its democracy

Twenty years ago, the United States attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan with a mission to forge a democratic model. Today, the country is in ruins.

For 20 years, the US has invested enormous human and material resources in Afghanistan. More than 800,000 US troops have served in the country. And it is estimated that US taxpayers have spent about $2.26 trillion on the Afghan war from 2001 through April 2021.

The question is why such huge input has not paved the way for "American democracy" to take root in Afghanistan.

The values the US promotes lack broad support in Afghan society. The so-called reconstruction of Afghanistan ignores the actual conditions of the country, and the immediate needs of the people.

To use force to transplant the US civilization and system to a country such as Afghanistan was always doomed to failure.

For a long time, the US has been committed to exporting American democracy, which is actually an excuse for it to overthrow the regimes it dislikes. Washington claims that American democracy is universal and the best democracy, and tries to export it to other parts of the world, especially the less-developed countries and regions.

Yet a brief review of history shows that, from Kosovo to Syria, from Vietnam to Iraq, when the US has tried to export its model of democracy, it has not only got itself into trouble, but also brought disaster to the countries concerned.

The purpose of its "democracy export" is to safeguard its own interests. The path of development of a country can only be determined by the people of that country themselves.

The shocking scale of the US' defeat in Afghanistan represents the long-standing failure of its political culture, rooted in the belief that the solution to all political challenges lies in military intervention or CIA-backed sabotage.

History has repeatedly proved how mistaken that belief is. Respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and respecting the rights of the Afghan people to decide their own future are the prerequisites for the war-torn country to regain its long-lost peace and stability.

But ironically, US democracy has no after-sales services at all.

CHINANEWS.COM