Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "Afghanistan staring at the abyss" video.

Fixing it was really limited to breaking Al-Qaeda, developing Afghanistan was secondary. It's an impossible task anyway since we'd always have to clear with Pakistan, Iran, Russia, or China just to move people and supplies. Unlike say Germany or Japan where we have free access through the open sea. In fact Afghanistan basically exists as a buffer between its larger neighbors -- that thin arm stretching to China was granted to them by the British Empire specifically as a separator between them and the Russians.
1
That's basically the stance now, just monitoring and making sure Afghanistan no longer provides a threat to the US regardless of who's in power.
1
@Thanatar13 Humanitarian aid and civil society can't exist without first establishing predictable security, and Afghanistan's literal and cultural terrain provides plenty of spaces to sabotage the peace. The strong local tribalism would mean colonial methods of governance to keep the place together, and it's not in America's interest to be seen as an openly colonizing power when its reputation is already that of an informal one hypocritical to its ideals of democratic self-determination.
1
It's unlikely the Afghans would let it get reattached for long. China expresses far too much animosity against both Muslims and Turkic people -- they've habitually invaded westward throughout its entire history -- and any cooperation would likely be a temporary transaction until one side gets into the position to backstab the other.
1