Getting out of Afghanistan is dealing with an establishment hydra. The DOD and the Army and the DOS and K Street are all determined to keep us involved for various reasons. With the Army it is institutional stubbornness by a generation of generals who have been there several times. They are determined that this will not be Viet Nam again and there will be a positive ‘Mission Complete’ endstate. The rest all have some agenda or other and it is impossible to cut through the bureaucratic undergrowth quickly. The President is the CiC of the armed forces but look what happened when Trump said ‘no more trannies and get rid of those in the ranks’. The SecDef actually defied him and it took 8 months to get this change effected.