Afghanistan, 1979-92:

Everyone knows of the unbelievable repression of women in Afghanistan, carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, even before the Taliban. But how many people know that during the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly backward nation into the 20th century, including giving women equal rights? What happened, however, is that the United States poured billions of dollars into waging a terrible war against this government, simply because it was supported by the Soviet Union. Prior to this, CIA operations had knowingly increased the probability of a Soviet intervention, which is what occurred. In the end, the United States won, and the women, and the rest of Afghanistan, lost. More than a million dead, three million disabled, five million refugees, in total about half the population.
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https://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_page.html

Afghanistan page

Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden, and the Taliban
The Real Afghanis
How can the US bomb this tragic people? - Robert Fisk
A Resource War - Afghanistan
The Fire Down Below
The Truth About Afghanistan
Betrayal (1/04)
War Without End - Afghanistan (9/04)
'One Huge US Jail' (3/05)
The U.S. War In Afghanistan Continues (7/05)
Women and Warlords: Letter From Afghanistan (5/06)
Afghanistan: The Other Lost War (9/06)
Abandoning Hypocrisy - Canada in Afghanistan (9/06)
Afghanistan - Foreign Troops and the Insurgency (9/06)
Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade? (9/06)
Afghanistan: Five Years Later (10/06)
Afghanistan Unliberated (10/06)
Women in Afghanistan (11/06)
Afghanistan - The Bloodiest Field for Slaughtering Human Rights (12/06)
Iran Is Seeking More Influence in Afghanistan (12/06)
Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence - by Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls (3/07) - a book review
Occupation Forces Support Afghan Narcotics Trade - Multibillion dollar earnings for organized crime and Western financial Institutions (4/07)
The US and Her Fundamentalist Stooges are the Main Human Rights Violators In Afghanistan (12/07)
Women's lives worse than ever [in Afghanistan] (2/08)
Afghanistan, Another Untold Story (11/08)
The Other Front [Afghanistan] (12/08)
The Afghan Scam (1/09)
'The Killing of Women Is Like Killing a Bird Today in Afghanistan' (7/09)

https://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html
Following its bombing of Iraq in 1991, the United States wound up with military bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Following its bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the United States wound up with military bases in Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia.
Following its bombing of Afghanistan in 2001-2, the United States wound up with military bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Yemen and Djibouti.
Following its bombing and invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States wound up with Iraq.
This is not very subtle foreign policy. Certainly not covert. The men who run the American Empire are not easily embarrassed.
And that is the way the empire grows-a base in every neighborhood, ready to be mobilized to put down any threat to imperial rule, real or imagined. Fifty-eight years after world War II ended, the United States still has major bases in Germany and Japan; fifty ears after the end of the Korean War, tens of thousands of American armed forces continue to be stationed in South Korea.
.... we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."
1996: "We will engage terrestrial targets someday-ships, airplanes, land targets-from space.... We're going to fight in space. We're going to fight from space and we're going to fight into space.