The vast majority of the Afghan population is rural and uneducated. The US and its western oriented urban Afghan allies can kill 95% of the jihadists there and fundamentally nothing will change. New violent ,barbaric jihadists will emerge from that population as sure as poppy flowers grow in the Afghan spring. Afghan culture after twenty years of warfare is unchanged. It is futile for the US to remain involved. Leave and let the Afghans work out their own consensus.
Remember 9/11? There is a reason we need to be involved. So, look at history. We aren’t going to go in and change their religion by the sword like Islam did. We’ve learned that they don’t take to Western Democracy. So we are left with two choices; a ruthless dictator that is OUR ruthless dictator or an Islamic state. Either way...to keep them from having enough resources to cause problems we need to eradicate the poppy fields. Some nice GMO that kills the plants off would be good. Then let them scratch for subsistence all they want.