It’s worth repeating this part of Zakaria's column:
The USA wasn't the first to try that. England (1830-1914), and the USSR (1980-90) tried and failed at that. If you go back in history far enough you'll find others (Alexander the Great) who had similar bad experience in that part of the world.
Others in this thread have suggested that the USA failed to succeed at nation building in Afghanistan, citing the long British colonial experience in India as an example where it was successful. It ignores nearly a century that England spent trying to occupy Afghanistan. Their first effort ended in disaster in 1842. Afterwards, subsequent governments in London realized their real goal was not military conquest of Afghanistan, but to defend their Indian colony from expanding Imperial Russia. So they set up a friendlier king in Afghanistan, and paid him to block Russian expansion. That effort succeeded, but didn't really end until the lead up to WW1.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org