I agree and I just wanted to extend your remarks.
I recall reading somewhere that the pacification effort in Germany at the end of WWII extended several years beyond the surrender—in the free part of the country. Besides, Germany had a national identity, something the Afghans can’t conceive.
Absolutely so. And we ruled Germany and Japan under military proconsuls for several years, MacArthur in Japan and a succession of folks in Germany, through the late 1940s. We did *NOT* hand these countries over to the State Dept, as we did with Iraq, say.
And it goes well beyond a national (instead of tribal) identity.