I agree with Cause, those people want a different life than what we were told they wanted.
They wasted our time and our troops lives. They are to blame.
Cause is right that it came down to the politics of faith and belief more than money but I don't think the "people" wanted what's in place now. There's a big difference between the people and the government. The Taliban are religious fanatics who will do literally anything in service to their god, that is a level of belief that most americans can't really stand against. There's the hardcore among us who will do anything trump says even if it costs them their life, there's people who'll do anything for a large pile of money and there's people who
say they will do anything for their god but most people who make that claim are of the christian faith and I don't think they'd even give up their cellphones and aircons for their god.
The citizens, the real people of Afghanistan deserved better. They deserved to have a government that will look after what the people need. The thing is, that kind of change can only come from within. It will have to be the people of the country who fight back against the Taliban and risk everything to make the change, it cannot be imposed from the outside. The Taliban are fanatical and relentless. They are people who will live in the most awful conditions to wait out anyone seeking to bring them down and an occupying force like the US military cannot stay in the country forever. It's a massive drain on the resources and will of the nation and inevitably they will pull out.
And while I feel for the Afghani people I really think we need to start fixing our own country now. We spend far too much on our military and ignore the real issues happening here. We've got our own version of the Taliban festering and forming here and it needs to be dealt with. We have massive infrastructure issues, homelessness, our medical industry is something out of a dystopian nightmare or an episode of Star Trek.
So no. It wasn't worth it. And I think if we can't admit we were mistaken and wasted our time we're just gonna go even further backwards.