[So here we are, fighting Vietnam war style, by trying to take a city that we once had, but gave up.]
The city was never given up. This was a Tet Offensive type attack, mounted by the Taliban, probably as a test case, to see if they could take and hold a provincial capital for an extended period. A thousand Taliban with mortars, heavy machine guns, RPG’s and both weapons and ammo cached over time locally could probably take and hold any city of 200,000 in the US for days, if not weeks. No police department could stand up to that kind of firepower. But taking the city back from the Taliban would just be a matter of time, as superior resources and firepower made their weight felt.
Are you sure?
Your posted article says:
“The soldiers moved to a small makeshift outpost on Ghazni’s outskirts, where U.S. Special Forces teams had been based before the 2014 troop drawdown.”
Seems like we left 5 years ago...