Never should have put one boot on the ground there.
30 days of B-52 raids until the rubble was bouncing was all we should have invested in that hell hole.
You’re hired! :)
And that should be how we do it hence forth.
Annihilation and leave.
I would blame more the western leaders around Obama’s time in office, they had a stable situation which could have been reinforced and they had a reasonably strong government in place, but they let all that slide gradually after Osama bin Laden was captured. Such gains as might have been made were already eroding when Trump took office and he could see it was a choice between massive reinforcement or making a deal, and he chose the latter probably knowing that public opinion would not support massive occupation forces for many years to come. I don’t blame Trump for that but had the previous government acted differently he might have had a viable situation that could be maintained.
Not everyone there is going to want the Taliban so there is likely to be ongoing hostilities. At this point we should just quarantine the whole mess and keep an eye on the intel implications from a safe distance.
14 days to flatten the curb...