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Has the West tried to build liberal democracy in Afghanistan?
Although the US and British governments and their cheerleaders in the media often claim benign intentions, actual foreign policy decisions tell a different story, writes IAN SINCLAIR
Tony Blair pictured with Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan
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AS THE Taliban approached Kabul in mid-August, Channel 4 News’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson noted on Twitter that the West has been “obsessed about trying to turn Afghanistan into Sweden with sand, fetishising democracy and educating women” but “Afghans outside Kabul kept telling me the Taliban ended corruption and brought security which they want first and foremost.”
The idea the West is sincerely interested in spreading democracy in Afghanistan is widely believed across the political spectrum.
For example, in the recent House of Commons session devoted to the Afghan crisis, the brilliant Labour MP Zarah Sultana warned: “The West cannot build liberal democracies with bombs and bullets.”
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