The whole world would have breathed a sigh of relief when US President Joe Biden announced that the Afghan exit marked the end of Washington’s crusade for nation-building through use of force and spreading democracy in the world. President Biden has been savagely attacked, inside the US and internationally, for the embarrassing retreat from Afghanistan but the truth is that he initiated a wide debate about not just leaving the war-torn country but also restricting Washington’s interference in the affairs of other countries soon after becoming president. Also, to be fair, the awkward withdrawal owes more to his predecessor’s sudden turnaround in Afghanistan than the way in which he honourd the already agreed upon timeline. And the shift away from taking too much interest in the affairs of other states has also, most likely, been forced by President Trump’s rather extremist foreign policy, which saw everything in the black-and-white backdrop of America First and gave a clean chit to client states that backed US policy and bought expensive American-made weapons off the international market. There can be no argument that Washington has lost a lot of credibility and nobody in the world trusts its word especially when it says that it is interested in spreading democracy in some region or the other. Because, going by historical precedent, the Americans have always left behind death, destruction and ruin wherever they have tried to install US-style democracy and introduce their own version of nation-building. The most recent examples are Afghanistan and Iraq, of course, but the list of countries that had to pay a very heavy price for being chosen by America to be schooled in basic democracy and democratic institutions is very long indeed. And the one thing they now have in common is not thriving institutions or representative government, but utter death, destruction and chaos. Also, as a result of these interventions, not many people in any of these countries are too fond of America; except perhaps those that collaborated with them and landed a one way visas to the United States as a result of all their efforts.It’s a shame that the richest and most powerful country that the world has ever seen has been so blindly committed to ruining international peace and literally destroying much poorer and weaker countries; mostly to get control of their natural resources, etc. The situation becomes much uglier when you consider that America is also the citadel of all sorts of human rights and equal opportunity in this world, and it leaves a particularly bitter aftertaste when it steps into the affairs of other countries, overthrows governments in the garb of spreading democracy and whatnot, and installs its own puppets that help it loot and plunder other nations.It is unfortunate that it took the long and ugly war on terror, not to mention the thousands upon thousands of people killed, for Washington to realise that its intervention is not welcome nor liked anywhere. And it has not achieved any results worth speaking of when it comes to spreading democracy, much less nation building. It is best if the US leaves other countries and their people alone to live their own lives. *