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

I spent a year in Vietnam and when Sagon fell it made me rage, I am once again in rage mode. I believe the Trump plan to withdraw was all in order. The only reason Biden did not use it was because it was Trumps.

It has always been a heavy topic for myself, the questions lingered everyday for the past decade.

Was it worth the Injury? Pain? The hardship that came after?

I joined voluntarily because of the Economic Recession(2008) in 2009. But through my commitment, training, comradery, and values I gained/Earned, I learned what it meant to serve and defend for something more than just myself. That being said, I still believe that our entire occupation of Afghanistan was a waste of Resources, Time and Life. Almost half the time anyone asked or wanted to know what the mission was, no one seemed to have answers other than "keep doing what your doing".

Afghanistan's citizens were caught in the crossfire, they would be forced, by what we considered our enemy, to attack us in order to save their families. We all know what still happened to those families. And now after 20 years.....2 decades of occupation.....we finally pull our people out of the country and in literally days those 20 years were reversed. The Billions of dollars in Troops, Equipment, Resources in general, Lives Lost, Time.....It sucks to be proven that what you've thought would happen all along is proven to be true, for all the wrong reasons.

We had our individual tasks we were given, we completed those tasks to the best of our abilities. We followed orders, We watched each others backs, we felt like we were doing the right thing, did we do the right thing? Was it worth our mental health issues, the treatment we received when we came home?

I know a great many of you will have a difference of opinion, its expected, and what I have to say doesn't mean that anyone's opinions/experiences aren't valid, they most certainly are Valid. But through my experiences of these events, before during and after, how can I say that my service in Afghanistan was serving in the best interests of our country....let alone defending it thousands of miles away. Was it really 9/11 all these years, or was it something most of us couldn't stand behind and tried to sell ourselves short our Pride and Integrity?

No matter the topic, always be sure to keep communication with someone to talk about how you feel, find someone to confide in whether therapist of family/friend. Don't bottle these feelings up because it will only get worse, your mental and physical health matters, it doesn't make you weak to ask for help!

I served as an Army advisor in Vietnam for 2 tours. As a civilian working for CARE I was in Afghanistan while under Taliban control and later on the Afghan/Pakistan border just after 9/11. I listen to what Biden said the other day about his troop withdrawal and most of it I agreed with but I also listened to what the correspondent Richard Engel said. Mr. Engel has had boots on the ground in Afghanistan numerous times. Biden was speaking from the strategic level and Engle from the tactical level. Biden's figures were wrong about the Afghan military. There are not 350,000 Afghan trained troops more like a 100,000 and rapidly dwindling. This seems to support Biden's withdrawal strategy in that the Afghan military has shown no will to fight. But from a very dangerous tactical level and with a limited US Embassy support there is little hope for the issuance of visas for those needing to leave IMMEDIATELY. The Taliban have a parameter around the commercial airbase and thus can restrict entry for departure. I am not sure about Bagram. For the frightening long term consequences we have spent 20 years planting the seeds for democracy or efforts have improved women's efforts to gain education and work in professional positions in the country. I saw on the TV today pictures or Taliban using paint rollers to blacken billboards of woman's beauty parlors calling them "bordello's". Taliban today are standing outside the doors of woman's homes making sure they do not leave to go anywhere. Biden should have considered the tactical in this poor decision.

We did what we could while we could do it. It fucking sucks that it went down this way and yes, it feels a bit pointless, but the real issue is that the people in Afghanistan would still rather run from the fight than take it on. What would happen if some shit like that went down here in the US? It would be a damned bloodbath. This is on them. Sure, we have a “duty to help those who can’t help themselves” but we don’t have a duty to help those who refuse to help themselves.

Let's be clear, this is not all Biden's fault, or Trump's fault (or Obama, or Bush). It is ALL their faults. Bush - for not going in for the kill in 2001 and for taking our eyes off the ball for Iraq in 2003. Obama - for a surge that had no actual military objective, other than political grandstanding. Trump - for a 2-party (not a 3-party that included the Afghans) withdrawal agreement (not a peace treaty), coupled with a March 2021 exit (with no exit plan in place). Biden - for having no exit plan in place, even though he pushed the exit date to September 2021. Also, NONE of them, and neither political party for that matter, lifted a finger for our Afghan translators. Not enough space here to point out the faults in the military leadership's management and messaging and the CIA's and DoS's conflicting interference. PLENTY OF BLAME TO GO AROUND

Damn I was a part of training the ANA and ANP in RC-East. We put them on the frontlines to see how effective they were in combat while providing air support. They fought bravely and relentlessly on most occasions. And then this happened in a week the insurgents took over. I’m speechless. We had guys got hurt and died there for what?

20 years of Russian involvement and almost a century of the British. We didn't invent Afghanistan

let them fight their own war to much lives were lost and money Im a vietnam vet. we lost the war for nothing my brothers die for nothing

I am both sad and disgusted at the same time, and not necessarily at the withdrawal, bit at the fact that we just abandoned millions of people to endure slavery, rape, murder, and trafficking again. A total loss of their Freedoms that we have worked so hard to support and grow. We were the Afghanistan Forces supply chain, as that hadn't been finished being developed yet. We just allowed a 75,000 strong terrorist organization to take over billions of military weaponry and equipment, as well as civilian equipment that includes commercial airliners. It is as if this Administration just decided that 9/11 and all the lives lost just didn't matter anymore; as we just armed them to potentially do it again. If you voted for this Administration, those millions of people's fears and terrors (rapes, murders, trafficking, etc.) are now on your hands. So, there, that is how I currently feel about this entire situation.

The writing was on the wall just don't get it did we learn nothing pulling out of Iraq? He needs to take responsibility for the shit show he created...