Yup.Our goal spreading "democracy" was impossible. Had we set up a medieval feudal kingdom we would have succeeded.
The Taliban and the natives were utterly baffled when the US tried to establish what was basically a mini-America there -- They thought the US would come in and take over after kicking the shit out of them, the Taliban would swear what was basically fealty and run things with the US as their "boss", and things would return to a semblance of normality.