The failure with Afghanistan, why it can never achieve peace, is simple: it’s the culture. The difference between technology available to the powerful and the public is just far too great – it poisons leadership and turns them into power hungry oligarchs.
When the average person lives in a shack, or a poor apartment, without infrastructure; mass transit, public health, all encompassing internet, available food, water, and sanitation there is only survival – against nature, against each other. And the person with the most bullets wins. Remove guns and bombs from the equation and it becomes what it was – a set of nomadic tribes cooperating for the sake of everyone, not the benefit of the few.
Afghanistan isn’t civilized in the sense first world nations can understand. Even the leaders in the cities are aware of the most fundamental truth: me first. Not only did Afghani leaders expect the US to withdraw, they were ready for the instability to return years ago. The decades which could have been spent building a stable infrastructure with mass transit, public health, internet, and all those things listed above were instead spent backstabbing each other for unfettered access to American money. There are some very, very wealthy men in Afghanistan, men who will use that wealth to buy their safety away from the violence which will consume the nation.
Ultimately Afghanistan suffers from a lack of humanity, leaders care only for themselves and not a thought for the benefit of their people. The people live only to serve, to pay tribute, to suffer and die for the leader’s glory. This means that suffering of citizens, the brutal abuse of women are part of the culture. Accepted because it’s always been that way.
Honestly there’s nothing civilized nations can do, other than deny the leadership the one thing they crave, and that is international attention. Why? Because if they aren’t united to kill the people that would help the people of Afghanistan, then they will be satisfied with killing each other. Because that’s all they know. Because they aren’t civilized.