They can't really be trusted, period. ;-) Afghanistan's always been a hellhole of competing tribal groups fighting for turf and resisting ANY foreign occupying force, and I expect it always will be. It also stands at a very strategic transit point between several vital regions of central Asia, so further conflicts there between major powers are virtually guaranteed. Excuses will be found to justify those conflicts.

This has true ever since the days of Alexander the Great, if not before. None of it has anything to do with bringing "democracy" to Afghanistan, but it does have to do with creating a client government in Kabul. That's what the Russians were there for too.

And that's what the British were once there for.

And that's what Alexander was once there for.