megaman79 said:
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Democracy has everything to do with human rights. Few dictatorships or theocracies have ever advanced the latter; democracy as a system tends to reduce corruption and increase civil liberties.
We invaded because we were trying to help, only we should have got UN approval and an international coalition first. Terrorism in their country is as damaging to them as it is to us and did need to be tackled - possibly not with direct military force.
Illegal? There's no such thing as international law, not really. America's word goes, though I wish that wasn't the case.
Open-ended? Yes, because there weren't clear targets to meet and we didn't consider leaving when it became apparent we wouldn't get anywhere.
Their culture is the main reason for the conflict, as religious teachings cause the fundamentalism that leads to the Taliban's existence. No Islam = No Taliban. Not saying we should enforce secularism, just that we should go away until they find it for themselves as all wealthy countries have had to do. The people in charge cannot get over their tribal history, and cannot get out of the ways of corruption and power-building with government resources. Because of this, the authorities can't get respect and whole sections of Afghanistan don't really have a government, only alternating martial law and Taliban control.
For some reason, we allowed them to pass laws that perpetuate their cultural inequities like the oppression of women and punishment for apostasy. A government where the leaders won't speak out against that is not one worth supporting artificially as now.
