The recent events in Afghanistan shows the weakness of the current most powerful nation in the World.

When the War started, I was still in high school. I had a firm believe in that democracy is good for all countries. I was full of western liberal ideology, like the young protesters in Hong Kong. I supported the war and believed in the lies and propaganda from the US and UK.

Fast forward 20 years later, I lost my believe that democracy is good for all countries. I believe in personal freedom as the highest value. I do not believe democracy is always the best safeguard for personal freedom. I am not a supporter of Saddam Hussein, but I do believe that the personal freedom of Christians was better protected under Saddam Hussein than now under a democratic government in Iraq. Saddam Hussein killed Kurds and other opponents and that is horrible. But those victims are only a fraction of people died direct or indirect as the result of the US invasion.

I am skeptical about the wars that the US fought after the second world war. Imagine that all the money that the US spent on those wars, they spend it on building up nations that are friendly to the US. Spending on building schools, hospitals, road and bridges. If the US did that, we would certainly live in a much better world than now.

A new great power competition is good

In the western media, I see a lot of bad press for China and its foreign policy in the Belt and Road initiative to build infrastructure such as road and railways. China gets enormous influences in the countries that take part in the Belt and Road initiative. The US has woken up to the loss of influence around the world and want to counter China’s influence.

I think a new great power competition is a good thing for the world. Let’s the US and its allies come with an alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative. This is what I say to the US and other western countries: please do not fight any more wars in the Middle East. Please compete with China to build infrastructure and make this world a better place.