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

I don’t understand how they could have gained so much control without the US being aware. This has been a cultural war since the beginning and there is no way the US or any of its citizens will be safe if we completely turn our back on people who are born to die for their on cause. They are more dangerous than the Kama Kazi.

The US should have realized, after the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, that any occupation would be difficult. Yes, the mission to Afghanistan was a response to 9/11 but the US knew that there would be a time of withdrawal. President Biden failed to get the timing right. However he did admit his error unlike the goon that occupied the WH before. The US is not, and not be, the worlds standard of governments.

Cant say that I am really all that surprised TBO, the region will always be in flux. Do I hate it...absolutely. There are going to be millions of innocent lives in danger, many tortured and killed. do I feel like what I did was for nothing while deployed...not at all. For some, the time my unit was there, we gave a sense of security, peace, even hope. Giving people those three things even if in a small amount was worth it.

This is long overdue. As others have said, whether people want to blame Trump for setting the stage for this or Biden for following through on Trump's agreement with the Taliban, the fall over the government that, culturally, was not native to the Afghans was a likely outcome at some point.

What bothers me about this is not the damage to our reputation (has anyone here actually spent time outside of the US in non-combat zones over the past decade or so?) or the sense of loss of meaning of the sacrifices that paid employees of the US government - who knew what they were getting into if they joined or remained after the invasion - now have with respect to their service there. What bothers me is the fate of those who were left behind, particularly the vulnerable and those who risked their lives to help the coalition with the expectation that their lives would improve. An entire generation of young adults - including women - has grown up with experiences vastly different from those of their parents and are now going to again be lost to an oppressive regime, with little opportunity to escape to safer havens.

And of course, had we not been dragging our feet for decades before 9/11 with regards to decarbonizing the global economy - and we know why that's happening - then this entire geopolitical mess would be very different today. As long as we in the US remain dedicated to hydrocarbon-based energy we are going to be politically tied to Eurasia oil and gas geopolitics.

This is no different than Viet Nam. Politicians need to be held accountable all the way back to George W Bush! We should never have let this war continue for as long as it did. So, where will the Pentagon direct their resources now that they don't have a 'war' to fight? They are way to big and need to be reigned in.

This is a national disgrace......only thing worse was the pretense which started this war in the first place. Our military has been used horrifically in major war crimes around the world for all the wrong reasons. I was on the Flag bridge during Desert Storm when ships were ordered to drive into mines that were well marked and known, despite a clear channel for navigation being available. Roadside bombs the work of CIA and Mossad.....literally no one shooting back.....tanks shelling compounds that have had white flags flying for days....it was a horrific evil act...we were all lied too....now we have to try and live with what has happened. The only thing that will make a lot of us feel better would be the public hanging of those who authorized and forced these horrific acts. I was in a position to see more than most......and I have suffered greatly living with what I know. It was a made for TV orchestrated mass murder.....casualties had to be imposed on US forces to prevent world wide blow back....in fact there was hardly anyone shooting back and the entire fiasco was a lie.....all of it. God Bless you all.

I've noticed that many of my fact proven comments of common sense with military decor have been erased or taken out .I'm already beginning to believe that anti Democratic morons are attempting to sway the narrative to right wing favored arguments, but that would mean " Rally Point " is complicit with a one way discussion and dialogue which could be construed as propaganda.. who's taking my posts down !!!!!!

A military withdrawl is not the last chapter written here. I am a little more optimistic than most though I never served in Afghanistan. Remember that there are some decent people in the Taliban and there was at the time of our invasion Harmid Karzi was Taliban before he became opposition to it and the first President of Afghanistan. The problem Afghanistan has is a curse of corruption which erodes greatly the effectiveness of the ANA. It was reported widely the end strength of the ANA was greatly inflated and over estimated with the extra money being embezzled. Logistics and pay to some ANA units was not existant or abysmal If I was an ANA member and had to deal with this repeatedly, I am not sure if I would have fought for that system either. Then you had the Afghan government giving US Aid money directly to the Taliban in the form of a protection racket and in a series of bribes to get access to roads and mountain passes. Afghan government pretending it was soverign at times when it was clear it could not stand without the U.S. also contributed to the collapse when they ignored our advice. The whole house of cards was rotten to the core.

Very telling at the 11th hour that the Afghan government turned to the drug dealing warlords in a last ditch effort to retain control of the country. This tells me that there wasn't really a seperation of the warlords from the government to begin with and they always had a back channel relationship. Given all the negatives I am more of a wait and see person. Perhaps the Taliban will rule differently this time as they have repeatedly stated or perhaps it is another in a long string of lies. Time will tell but I have not written the country off just yet.

It’s an unfortunate situation! It appears that American forces wanted to protect more than the protected. I won’t lie, I felt a little defeated and defensive. I thought, after all of this time from family, friends…through tears, training and casualties; this was the best fight you had in you? Did Afghanistan forces become too dependent on the US? Did they they become to comfortable? President Biden’s words clearly underestimated the Taliban but I am not sure why given their history and “devotion” to their causes!
Our military did an exceptional job as they always do but this is not our fight! Taking care of self is hard sometimes and it was way past time Afghanistan stood on their own two feet as the saying goes. Praying for everyone

If you don't learn from history, you're most likely going to repeat it. They continue making mistakes and then ask me, "How does that make you feel" My answer" You wouldn't understand"