Very similar situation in Ceausescu's Romania (which also ended in 1989), in broad terms.
Many people (unhappy with their current quality of life) are still nostalgic of the old days. Low criminality, low unemployment, high home ownership (still the highest in the world even now) were some of the upsides.
If you read interviews with Afghan women (outside a small urban elite), they mention similar upsides to the Taliban. At least they prevent crime. At least they have principles, however harsh. At least they're predictable. At least they forced out the thugs that the Americans had backed.
I'm from the UK rather than the US and, although I'm no fan of the way we pulled out of Afghanistan (it has a certain sense of washing our hands of the situation about it given how involved we were in creating that situation), in general I do think we might be better to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries that we ill-understand. The other most obvious canonical example here would be Iraq. Saddam was a complete scumbag but, honestly, WTF were we thinking? We basically had a very large hand in giving birth to IS and allowing them to spread, and look at all the trouble that's caused.
> I do think we might be better to stop meddling in the affairs of other countries that we ill-understand.
Itβs been hundreds if not thousands of years at this point. Leaving it behind seems incredibly unlikely.
Ditching empire and empire building by a few countries would be an amazing thing to observe. My fear would be the various groups and countries that would likely seek to fill the void.
Many people (unhappy with their current quality of life) are still nostalgic of the old days. Low criminality, low unemployment, high home ownership (still the highest in the world even now) were some of the upsides.