afghanistan is a literal shithole.
how is that a success?
it depends on how you measure success?
kabul is far more developed and sophisticated than xamar or hargeisa, herat is not too bad,
kandahar is a shithole full of sodomizing pashtun tribesmen...
i havent seen it though, just spent a week in kabul back in 2008 for work..
only good thing about kabul was the hash, for an aficionado like me it was pretty kool.
i was offered a full time job there with 3 times my salary and monthly ticket home...
i was considering it but my company expanded into irbil, iraq (kurdistan) which was much better
so jumped on that instead. but our Nigeria project was launched at the same time so i only spent a few weeks in irbil.. i would have stayed though it wasnt too bad..
but lagos turned out to be much better and i ended up staying a year there..
its hard to imagine afghanistan from the 500 AD to the 1350's was one of the richest and most advanced societies on earth, with some of the highest levels of literacy and education outside of sung dynasty china and iraq plus Andalusia.
burqa/chador was only worn by rich and powerful women during travel and was a status symbol.
most women did not even cover their hair, and the taliban would be more offended by what was worn in 1200's than today, see through silk skirts and blouses was all the rage.
northern and western afghanistan i.e balqh also had more bars/taverns than khorasani towns like marw, and those dudes loved their wine.
i wouldnt be surprised if more wine was consumed there than western europe, where their was a beer culture even in france ...