To say that conditions today are worse than they were under the Taliban regime would be an exaggeration. Obviously, some Kandahar residents long for the old days, but it is very easy to be nostalgic when times are hard. If we were to poll residents and ask them if they want the Taliban to be back in power in Kandahar, I do not think the majority would want that. To say the conditions are worse today is an exaggeration.
I think we could do much better. I believe people view the current government in more or less the same light as the Taliban regime. We must not leave because we are responsible for giving them this government. We have a responsibility to the Afghan people to improve the situation that we put them in. The Western world, and in particular the Americans, made the decision to end the Taliban regime and to install a new government. We are responsible for surrounding the president with a number of strong men.
It would be irresponsible of us to abandon the rather impoverished Afghan people to their fate. We put these people in power and we provided them with arms and money, including development assistance. And now we are saying that they are responsible for holding on to these individuals. That is completely unfair. Afghanistan and the rest of the world have already faced a similar situation, namely when Afghanistan was left to contend with a civil war. The repercussions were terrible. We need to be mindful of history, because it does not necessarily have to repeat itself. However, we do need to learn from what has happened in the past.