But the view that in the post cold war environment America should "spread democracy" was hardly a fringe

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/why-united-states-s...

The 2002 National Security strategy was explicitly about spreading US style democracy and free trade to countries including Afghanistan.

"As we pursue the terrorists in Afghanistan, we will continue to work ... to rebuild Afghanistan so that it will never again abuse its people, threaten its neighbors, and provide a haven for terrorists. "

This view was certainly championed and repeated across opinion posts throughout the western press.

Now the view is "we failed in that, and it sucks, but we can't make it work". This of course was what many on the left were saying, but articles like

https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2006/12/21/de...

"So actually, as far as I can see, the way that America uses its military power will be quite central to any spreading of democracy in the Middle East. If you can be victorious, kind and smart, then people are going to want to find out how you did it. And I can't see why Fukuyama would want to argue to the contrary. "

There were always contrary views of course, many in academia were saying you can't force a cultural change. Those were reported a little, but in general it was very much pro-intervention.