What are your feelings as the Taliban reclaim Afghanistan after 20 years of US involvement?

I didn't deploy to Afghanistan. But I did a tour in Iraq and Vietnam. History repeats itself. Saigon Part II.

Thank you my friend SSG Carlos Madden for posting a poignant question.
International affairs tend to be problematic at the national level and range from financial and power gain at local level to devastation of ways of life, families, and towns and villages.
1. Afghanistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (the tribal lands) of Pakistan have been intertwined for generations.
2. The Pakistani intelligence [ISI] has enabled camps for training among the various terror groups which operate primarily in Afghanistan. The ISI shielded Bin Laden for scrutiny. The ISI 'guard's the wives and children of terror groups in the northwestern. In this way they have leverage over what the groups do [to an extent, most likely].
3. I am glad that Congress is looking into our relationship with Pakistan. I hope we will work to label the ISI as a terror supporting organization and take appropriate action against their funding streams, etc.
4. I was saddened that the coordination on the drawdown was so unorganized [hindsight] at the strategic level. We transferred Bagram to the Taliban before using its airfield to evacuate foreign nationals, SIV holders, etc. We did not inform the Germans and other allies until the decision to close the base was fulfilled. This also enabled the Taliban to free the terrorists imprisoned there.
5. No doubt there were contingency plans at various echelons [in varying degrees of planning stages] from pessimistic [rapid Taliban sweep] though the expected year-end Taliban sweep. The fact that we unilaterally pulled back our air support and drone support was a bad strategic and operational decision IMHO. The Taliban [potentially ISIL-K as well] had been killing US trained pilots before the evacuation escalated. We had trained the Afghan national military to fight with air support and intel including drone support. When we pulled out all of that air cover, we left the afghan national military to the intel assets of IS, etc.
6. The ISI was instrumental in the offensive to capture Panjshir province where those able to flee to join the resistance gathered. Taliban claims to control the province yet the remote areas still hold some rebel strongholds, most likely.
7. My heart goes out to the women, girls and those men who assisted us and allied forces in Afghanistan. I am thankful that volunteers have been working to get many out of Afghanistan. I hope and pray that many more will be able to be extricated in the coming month.

FYI Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. LTC Jeff Shearer LTC Bill Koski LTC Greg Henning Maj Marty Hogan SFC William Farrell SMSgt Lawrence McCarter PO2 (Join to see) SSG Bill McCoy SGT Mary G. MSgt James Clark-Rosa GySgt Jack Wallace SPC Michael Oles SR SPC Michael Terrell Cpl Vic Burk Cpl (Join to see) SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL

Seems like we must repeat history, this make me sad and reminds me of my Vietnam War experience.

After a couple of years in Afghanistan issues arose that slowly built up and resulted in pretty much guaranteeing there would never be a US "Victory". One, Afghanistan is not a country by our standards. Never was, never will be. It is a collection of tribes, who do not get along most of the time, and who really don't care what goes on in the rest of the world. We didn't do our homework before we committed divisions of troops. Two, trying to make a tribal society into a democracy was an absolute pipe dream by the administrations. They were foolish to assume this and really put the real mission in the back seat. Three, because of these reasons, it was never feasible to think that a combined Afghan military or police force would stand up to any resistance. They simply do not have the loyalties - particularly when outside of their valley or region. Lastly and most importantly - we forgot the original reason for deploying to Afghanistan: to get bin Laden, to root out and destroy al-Qaeda, and to punish the Taliban for sheltering the terrorists responsible for 9-11. Nation building. That was it, plain and simple, but the powers that be in DC forgot that. Social assistance, reconstruction and all the other touchy-feely crap was snuck in by politicians with no clue of the history of the area. Then they forced restrictive ROE on us which further cemented the fact that we weren't going to win. All to feed defense contractors, who in turn fattened their campaign funds.
Don't get me wrong. Most of the military who served there did so honorably and professionally. We, the military, did not lose. Don't blame the boots, blame the suits!

Another Vietnam! So many lives seeves to save a people and a nation, for what? Heartless decision by our soft government. I was there! And I am embarrassed for all who gave some and those who gave their all. I am so sorry!

No surprised. Politicians fucked over veterans, now the Afghanistan people.

We have been betrayed by our own government. They no longer reflect us. We didn’t miss birthdays, births, deaths, holidays etc etc just to be stabbed in the back by our own government.

Our oath says protect against enemies “foreign and domestic” as far as I’m concerned. Our whole government is a domestic terrorist cell.

I don't have too many friends left. After Iraq I thought it couldn't be much worse. I personally feel my time in RC-S was pissed away. I now understand to some extent the frustration of Vietnam vets. Its been nothing but a good damned waste.

Imagine trying to unite small Chicago gangs in an effort to fight other unified gangs. After some basic training and equipping, you take the gangs out of their own territories and install them as guardians of another gang’s territory, where you expect them to suddenly respect the rights and properties of the people in those territories. That’s basically the story behind the ANA.
Then you arm and but not train the remaining non-gang members in a territory. You tell them they are now police entrusted to protect their neighborhoods from the bad gang, though they can’t tell the bad gang from the good gang.
Then you tell all the people watching that more money and more ammo are needed to sort things out.
While not exact, that’s basically how the Taliban, ANA, and ALP interacted/intersected in much of Afghanistan. The obvious winners of the scenario are the weapons and supplies dealers. They gangs were just a mechanism to move the guns, ammo, and hundreds of billions of unaccounted for $$!!

I can’t help but think of my fellow Marines and friends that lost their lives there and what they would say right now. It’s frustrating for me to think that if we had just pulled out 9 years ago I’d still have my best friend. It’s apparent that the results would be no different. I say this mostly out of hurt and anger. I am also deeply concerned and sad for all the innocent Afghans that are now stuck in that shit hole with such violent & fanatic terrorist assholes. The range of emotions are something else.