.. It was about why the country changed from a hippy's dream where a foreigner could walk without fear of harm, to the mess we have now.

It wasn't Islam as some try and shift the blame onto, but the Cold War.

Both the USSR and America tried to buy favour with the Afghanistan people as it was to them a strategic country, with Pakistan on one side and Iran on the other.

As we all know, the USSR won the war of words with a communist government being elected into power. So the USA did what they always did in such situations and started arming anybody who didn't like the Russians and communism. They played the religion card, using the atheism of communism which had alarmed some Afghan Muslims.

As US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski told the local muhajhideen...

"We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident their struggle will succeed. That land over there is yours, you’ll go back to it one day because your fight will prevail, and you’ll have your homes and your mosques back again. Because your cause is right and God is on your side."

... Aid increased to over a billion dollars per years.

One point seems to be stated by various officials of the time. It was a matter of revenge for the USA to help the Afghan Insurgents.

"We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would... That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Afghan trap... The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, "We now have the opportunity of giving to the Soviet Union its Vietnam War."

They trained the anti communist forces in the use of IED's. Which as we all know is being used on our troops today.

Russian soldiers who fought in the war have words of advice to our forces....
.... get out, you can't win. No-one has ever conquered Afghanistan.