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

No veteran who served in Afghanistan, should be down about their service. We are not responsible fo the outcome of any activity that we have done while in the military. We as veterans can be proud as we answered the call to the colors and were faithful to that call, regardless of where we served.
We who are Vietnam veterans, often were portrayed as participants in evil, and we were disrespected. But we have honored, and do honor all who went to Afghanistan and made sure that our veterans who followed us were honored and made to feel as though they were supported.
The events that have unfolded over the last few weeks, are not the fault of any veteran of the United States as well as the other countries veterans who have been there. Every veteran carried out their duty, not matter what.
The debacle was the politicians nightmare, not ours. When we went into the service, there was not a guarantee that anything we did would be successful on a grand or small scale. All we were guaranteed was the honor of serving our nation. We were called to be faithful to our nation, and our fellow military.
AS much as we mourn the loss of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the Afghanistan ambassador to the United States till July, said that she did not want any veteran who fought in Afghanistan, to feel depressed, down or feel all was for nothing. She said that she was glad that all those who were there and fought,, deserved respect, as it gave time to develop the nation in a different way. Though she also was saddened on what has happened, and has a brother who is a professor and is not sure what will happen, yet she in a sense has said not to feel betrayed, but grateful for serving in her country and hopes that any Afghanistan veteran will take heart at serving in her country with honor as they will be remembered by many people both in Afghanistan and the United States.

vietnam all over again. politicians never learn.

It is their country, they can do what they want with it. We did our best to point them to a better reality but the Afghan people we trained up and folded. It's their problem now.

As a Vietnam veteran I see this action as a repeat of our actions in Saigon. Once again, we are sold out by our government. It seems like we are expected to die for our country for the sake of profits for the "war industry" for every generation. Send the politicians to fight the next war.

Never should have been there in the first place, The Russians new this, what took us so long? If we stay there for another twenty years we pay the price both in lives and $$$, not worth it!

Honestly, its a distraction for COVID being spread all over our country by the invasion happening now.. Shit head planning.. Covid Joe and crew.

Now, (Wednesday), it looks like we cannot have a complete military pullout. We are basically stuck having to fix this huge mess. We have maybe 13,000 to 20,000 Americans still there and they are scared that they will be killed. Plus there are a lot of Afgans there that helped us for many years. There is no way to locate they and get them out, without military force, apparently.
We need to tell the Taliban to get them out NOW. (12 hours) And, start bombing their strongholds today. Negotiating with the Taliban
terrorists is ridiculous. They respect strength only.
I hope this will not become a hostage crisis like Iran in 1979.

Thanks for all the cash. Made my life. Never thought I was doing any good, didn't care. Was poor all my life because of bad decisions, and now was my chance to not be. Thank you, DOS and DOD, for allowing me more than a retired MSgt's pay to live on.

Was all a big waste. We made the taliban much more effective. We trained them, gave them guns, gave them clothes. Made them think we are rich stupid people, which is fairly accurate. Gave them everything they need for a successful army...Me personally? I set up the Firearms training for the ANP at the Central Training Center in Kabul, and on a later contract, the same thing for the ANA. Worked security at the USEK for a few years, too. Was there for the 13 Sept 2011 debacle.

I was told the desertion rate for both the ANA and ANP was about 30% but I think it was a lot higher among new recruits.

I did not care to train my future enemies particularly well, so I mainly just wrote the lesson plans, had them translated, and watched the ANP or ANA instructors mangle my instruction into virtual unusability. I had stuff back-translated pretty routinely, and it said completely different things than I did. I gave up, and just made sure I was coming back from the range with no more holes than I left with.

I tried for years to get the DOS or my company to buy the less-than ten dollars from Cheaper Than Dirt sight adjustment tool for AK's, to, you know, actually be able to adjust the sights. I had 2. We needed hundreds. It didn't matter, because they weren't gonna use them, anyway. Inshallah targeting works I guess if you just spray enough lead around in the general direction.

China or Russia next? China wants the vast reserves of lithium and that little part that sticks up into China, Russia wants to retrieve it's Vietnam and have a do-over. We will see what happens.

As to whether we could have won or not? Yeah, we could have. Nobody with power had the guts. If you give them shit, they think you are weak, and try to get more shit. Just like your average inmate in my experience.

Here is a quote straight from WWII--"If you kill enough of them, they'll stop fighting" General LeMay.

We didn't do that. Had we went at this war with a WWII mentality, there would be a shining new example to hang on the wall along with Japan and Germany.

Should have been foreseen that this would happen as the Afghan forces have done nothing without the support of US Troops. The evacuation should have had the civilians out 1st, the equipment out 2nd and the military forces out after all other matters had been accomplished.

The so called leaders in this government are a bunch of totally incompent idiots. Any major corporation would have fired Biden and his totally imcompentent advisors a long time ago. This is a black mark on the United states government. The military in country served bravely. Many are severly injured or passed away, for what ? It's time that we citizens leagellly replace the brain dead so called leaders at the election booth if we can fix that liberal crooked system. This is Biden's fall of Saigon. I was an Army grunt in Viet Nam in 1970 and still feel the disgust of that mess. These stupid politicions and their adviosers are to blame for this mess, not the brave saervice people who served. The boy scouts have lots more leadership than the idiots running this country. Both parties are to blame.