[Neither can we.
Fuel for those aircraft costs well over $400 per gallon to deliver to our forward air bases. All types of supplies have similar exorbitant costs. And much of that money goes into the pockets of our enemies in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Wars of attrition are won by superior logistics. We don’t have them. We will run out of money long before the Taliban runs out of fighters.]
Plenty of people are born every day as they were in centuries past. They don’t all become revolutionaries. It depends on the incentives at hand. Colombia fought a 50+-year civil war. It finally came to a close in 2016:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_conflict
But even someone as charismatic as the self-proclaimed Mahdi of Sudan had his movement die out after an interval of 20 years, and his followers were absolute fanatics who charged into machine gun fire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdist_War
The thing that stands out is none of the rebels helped someone else attack some random foreign power in their financial and political capitals. This is what must be punished severely. Again, since a final reckoning in the manner of a Carthaginian peace (where 10% of the entire population remained alive at war’s end and was promptly sold into slavery) isn’t possible, we must persist until the Taliban is gone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Carthage_(Third_Punic_War)
...this is what must be punished severely.
OK, I'm with you here.
Again, since a final reckoning in the manner of a Carthaginian peace (where 10% of the entire population remained alive at war’s end and was promptly sold into slavery)...
I find your proposal - acceptable.
...isn’t possible
Well- dang. I am sure you are correct on this point. How about a "Plan B" then.
..., we must persist until the Taliban is gone.
No.
We do not have the national will to "persist". That is an illusion and a certain route to failure. We are burning money and lives to no benefit. If we are not going to exterminate the Taliban quickly then we should be leaving quickly. That is "Plan B".
Preferably unannounced and in a 24-hour period. And kill any forces that get in the way.