Intimidation in these circumstances has and will continue to fail. Fortunately so. For as Winston Churchill was wont to say: Democracy has many failings but it remains the best option (when tyranny/autocracy/plutocracy/subserviency and all the rest have had-their-day and have failed).
And as an aside, Jamal. I concur with the point you make about Dahlan. I do not in any way concur with your suggestion that Nato and the US of A might have fared any better (the US Afghanistan debacle is indeed “evidentiary” here, just as the earlier Russian debacle was.)