A Mission To Give Afghans Democracy Became A Bid To Repair America's Own
The United States inadvertently took on a mission to democratize Afghanistan, and instead undermined democracy at home, as unpopular wars tend to do.
The U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is a story of democracy and its shortcomings. In this piece, Steve Inskeep — host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First — analyzes how the United States inadvertently took on a mission to democratize Afghanistan, and instead undermined democracy at home, as unpopular wars tend to do.
In 2001, Americans pictured the Afghanistan war as a defense of their democracy. People didn't talk of reforming the country, just punishing the 9/11 attackers.
In Afghanistan's mountains that fall, I watched American B-52 bombers in a clear sky, and felt the concussion as bombs blasted Taliban fighters near the city of Kunduz. Some fled, some surrendered, and others were still lying dead in
