From an interview with Dr. Abdul Latif Pedram, member of the Afghan parliament and leader of the National Congress Party of Afghanistan, in China’s Global Times on August 13. Though not an endorsement of him, his party or everything he says in the interview, the following excerpts seem too apt not to share:

What Afghanistan has inherited from US is poverty, a rising unemployment rate, the destruction of social services, the unprecedented increase in class distinctions, a wealth gap, the destruction of the middle class, a vast economic mafia network, an underground economy, increased cultivation, production, and smuggling of drugs, addiction among more than 4 million young people, an ethnic war, the collapse of good values, the growth of a culture of corruption, money laundering, and lying.

The removal of patriotic officers and generals from the Afghanistan armed forces, early retirement, the destruction of Soviet-era weapons, eventually the reliance of the Afghanistan army-like forces on NATO in a small and incapacitated subset are parts of this catastrophic American legacy.

In addition, the stunning rise of brothels, the collapse of individual morality, and prostitution, are parts of the American legacy in Afghanistan.

The United States also disappointed the people and ruined their expectations of democracy, human rights, and civil rights. The faces of America, imperialism, and postmodern-colonialism, hidden beneath American democracy and human rights, were revealed. People’s frustration with what is called American democracy and human rights are another part of American legacy in Afghanistan.

For an intellectual or even ordinary Iraqi, Libyan, and Afghan citizen, the United States is a face of aggression, bloodshed, murder, looting, and crimes against humanity. For us, the American heritage is a devastated land and political system tainted with blood and hatred.

The Afghanistan left after United States is an example of hell in the book “Divine Comedy,” written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri: O posterity! O you who pass here, throw away your hopes! (lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate)