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

The world is in total turmoil and Kabul is a testament for what will happen in our futures if we don't make an effort in changing our ways.

I am disheartened as well as concerned for our allies in Afghanistan. They trusted us and we pulled out. I am quite concerned for the plight of women and girls; especially the women that trained to fight along side us. These women will be executed no questions asked.

Hey. I just joined here, and am glad to have found it. My service ended during Desert Shield in 1990. Being of Pashtun and Utah, USA descent, and a born and bred Californian, my heart is heavy. Okay, I will just say it out now. We can't save every puppy in the pound. And even though I understand that reality, it all stinks to high heaven. My Father became a Naturalized US citizen in 1962, but having fallen out with his dad in the old country,; first for marrying an American, and then for not bringing her and the kids back to the frontier when the first transgression was forgiven, dad became really bitter. They parted ways in 1957, and never saw each other again, with grandfather Juma dying in 1971. Grandpa even had a clean 1957 Chevy Bel-Air two-door sedan, and my cousins found the picture of it last year..

Mom and Dad split up in 1965, and Dad lived out his days in Brazil, Peru and Venezuela as a structural engineer, including being the Director of the Engineering Design Team for the Itaipu Hydroelectric Project. When he had a heart attack and died in Caracas in March of 1984, us kids went down to bury him there. He was going to take us to Quetta, Pakistan that November to meet the family there.

My big brother blazed the trail that fall, and me and my little sister followed in 1985 for the summer. I still remember one of my buddies in the squadron warning me 'and don't you get a friggin hair up your but and cross the Afghani border. All we need now is a friggin incident with the Soviets over your butt'. I took the advice, but I did step foot on the Pak/Afghan border, east of Kandahar. And visited some of the refugee camps.

My Dad's family was among the last to give in to British rule in the late 1880's. And the British were more than happy to pay them well not to blow up their telegraph lines. in the 1980's, the Afghans were facing genocide at the hands of the Soviets. It was during that conflict that the zealots began to hold sway, on both sides of the border, and became the Taliban of note. My father's family hammered this into me, as a warning. That, for expedience sake, we tend to back the wrong horse. I believe my dad's family hit the nail on the head over these mistakes in policy.

And it is my opinion, and that is all it is, that the US, having played a crucial part in what then to us was still proxy war between us and the Soviets, failed to understand that we had, in fact, played for the Afghans the same part that the French had played so nobly for us during our own revolution, culminating in the intervention of the French Fleet at Yorktown in 1781. I would say that the historical parallel was our supplying of the Stinger AA missiles to the Mujaheddin. And then we took our ball and went home when the Soviets pulled out. No post-apocalyptic grants, loans, or aid to those people. The Soviet Union was collapsing, and by that event, we lost sight of the trees, for the forest seemed to be ours by forfeit.

Are we responsible for the resentment the Afghani people felt at the world? No. Absolutely not. By culture, by lifestyle, by the way they dress and speak, we have little in common with these mountain folk.

But we are responsible for our own people. And that means that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, we inherited more responsibility for our fellow men and women around the world. Not for a hand-out. But for a hand-up. The best way we enhance our own security in our country in this shrinking world is to lend a hand. Unconditionally, at least to start.

The rapid collapse in Afghanistan was not the fault of our brothers and sisters in uniform, but in the total erosion of any clarity of purpose at the State Department, a malaise throughout the halls of our Intelligence Agencies, and perhaps a sad leftover from the last Presidential administration; the obliteration of the administrative civil function at the heart of our own government, by the functionaries at the center of that administration.

These same ills at the center of our government, with the exception of acts bordering on sedition, happened in the 70's, after Vietnam, the protests, and Watergate.

My heart is heavy, and I pray for deliverance form danger all those men and women of good will...

What should be the feelings of veterans who put so much into serving their country only to be let down by their cowardly politicians? What are we to think about their grandiose plans of nation building and democracy in societies that have no concept of the ideas? If only we could hold them truly responsible.

Slap in the face! Same as what the Government did in Nam. Don't care about the lives that were lost, nor casualties that occurred.

Look, was active duty from 1984-1996 Air Force and 2009-2015 contractor. Spent 4 years deployed to OEF. Most with JSOC and there are some awesome Afghanis but most while in training were un- educated farm boys with zero will to fight for what they have. We did make life better for most but damn, to go down like this it really sucks!

I am pretty devastated. It has touched the depths of my person. What was the sacrifice for?

Below was my local newspaper posting--have been working many hours per day trying to help my 3 interpreters get to safety--on the phone and texting them as they live in such great fear. Maybe now we can't get it done--going house to house to find them I know. Incredible betrayal by this administration. Still trying and will not give up for them.

In 2011 I deployed to Afghanistan, serving with an amazing group of American Heroes—the Afghan interpreters. The first target of the Taliban, these souls risked their lives beside us enabling our missions and advising us on unknown cultural matters. For three years I have been trying to get one such Hero and family out; he/wife/children have been in constant hiding during this time; two more Heroes were since added to my list. The overseeing State Department SIV Office has been like we have come to expect from any bureaucratic office now wanting to fully take over our lives—going months without a response and denying an application for not crossing a “T” right. We have been back in forth in steady effort, with these families lives on the line, and now the fall of Afghanistan has occurred. Last night I am texting my Heroes to help them find a way out, knowing that they and their wives/kids may soon be dead. Children crying--great tears and grief. Surreal Schindler’s List experience to have in Sanpete County Utah. They, and our own sons whom I saluted those nights at the Kandahar airport when they returned in boxes back in the day, all dying in vain. Damn our leaders.

CDR Carl Thomas Sullivan, US Navy Retired
Disabled Combat Veteran, Afghanistan 2011-2012
(Information Effects, 82nd Airborne Division/Regional Command South Headquarters, Kandahar Afghanistan)
From my cabin above Palisade Lake State Park, Sterling, Utah

I was proud to have served in Korea 1953 7th Inf. Div. but now with our corrupt leadership, I feel betrayed!

First and foremost, NONE of this reflects badly on any US or Allied servicemember who fought there, they followed orders and did the best job they could under the circumstances. Without question, they are all brave heroes, all should hold their heads high. Those who died or were horribly wounded there did NOT do it in vain - they served their country honorably and bravely. They did their duty! All are heroes.

I spent a year in Iraq (2004), served other places and I was in Afghanistan in 2013 as a HUMINT OPSO, can't say more but I knew a lot more than the average Joe. Even then, I was wondering why we were there, there was no defined goal beyond a vague "establish an Afghan government that could take over." That was never going to happen due to corruption amongst the Afghans (government officials in particular), Afghan soldiers were not motivated (OK, there's a few exceptions), green on blue attacks and Afghan history going back to Alexander the Great - no one has ever ruled Afghanistan other than the most MOTIVATED Afghans. Even the Soviets learned the hard way and their tactics were brutal. Hell, we worked with an Afghan general who we knew was working both sides of the fence! He'd throw us a bone by giving up a Taliban weapon cache or even a unit just to make things look good while he enriched himself through vendors on certain allied bases. The minor "contributions" of certain allied countries who would send a handful of troops that would never leave a FOB was also an indicator of the true lack of NATO or UN commitment. The US and GB with a couple other NATO countries beared the brunt.

If US and NATO allies intend on actually winning a war - look back to WW2. Send a massive hoard of troops and supplies, kill or capture ALL enemy combatants and fully occupy the territory - control everything. You'd think Vietnam would have warned us away from how we fought this war, evidently we didn't remember much. You can't let politicians dictate the means of fighting wars. If we're going to get involved with COIN in the future let SOF manage and handle it, that's what they're trained for. If you're going to bring in conventional forces to "win" then do it overwhelmingly. All in all, I'm not at all surprised by this end and but I am surprised we spent 20 years there. Originally our mission in AFG was to capture those responsible for 9/11 and to destroy the terrorist training camps there, then it sucked us in more and more in larger and larger increments but never truly enough. I've been in the Army and Army Reserve for 43 years so I've seen it all since Vietnam beginning with the hostage crisis in Iran. I hope we learned our lesson this time about establishing exactly what our goal is before we get involved in future major engagements and stick to it - or get the hell out early.

But to you vets who served in AFG, please don't be unhappy with this result, you had zero control over it. It's not your fault. Know you did what you were supposed to do and you all fought valiantly and accomplished the mission, we did our duty. Your country is proud of you. In my opinion, our government (and NATO governments) as well as very high ranking military leaders blew it with undefined (or unrealistic) goals and expectations that were far fetched and unachievable.