Conclusion

In mid-December 2001, US servicemen raised the Stars and Stripes over their new embassy in Kabul. James Dobbins, the US Special Envoy, remarked at the time that this ‘symbolizes the return, after more than a decade of absence, of the US to Afghanistan … we are here, and we are here to stay’. ¹ The euphoria generated by a successful invasion was short-lived. Liberal democracy, at least in the US sense, was always a fantasy, as it ignored Afghanistan’s cultural, religious and political traditions, each of which has a rich, albeit troubled, history. Yet there were some achievements. The Taliban had prevented girls from obtaining an education. After a decade of nation-building, 2.5 million were now enrolled in schools across the country. More broadly, the number of children who received some sort of tutelage dramatically increased, from 900,000 to seven million. Death rates among adult males halved and access to clean water has helped to curb disease and improve life expectancy. ²