Is the road out of Helmand paved by bad excuses?

I have heard it said that the path to hell is paved by bad excuses, rather than good intentions.  There are good intentions and bad excuses in abundance when it comes to the war in Afghanistan. It seems that people who provide bad excuses are able to justify all kinds of evil enterprises.  We are hearing bad excuses in relation to the Afghan War and the failure to see any tangible results. Rogue army personnel manage to kill British troops with alarming regularity.  That's what I hear on the BBC news.  Despite NATO forces spending billions, Afghanistan seems no better off today.  The number of civilian deaths and casualties is totally unacceptable. Disgraceful!  Yet the Ministry of Defence continues to spin and send out bad excuses for failures in Afghanistan.

British troops are often regarded as occupying infidels, and those who have suffered from "friendly fire" and stray bombs will be glad to see them leave their country.  Far too many civilians have been harmed by NATO
bullets and bombs that have afflicted thousands of Afghans.

I believe that the NATO forces will have wasted billions of dollars on an enterprise that was doomed to fail.
The lessons of the previous Afghan wars and the Vietnam quagmire have not been learned.  Sadly the hell of Helmand continues. Foreign invaders will not sort it out.