After 17 years, many Afghans blame US for unending war

The military problem is we do not own the land, therefore, we can't provide security to much of the nation. The Taliban will make their presence known in strategically important provinces by occupying them. They control the locals through politics and or guns. We own the air, the Taliban owns the ground.

Afghanistan was at war LONG before the US came into the picture. Having spoken to several Afghans, many will state their lives are much better than the "living hell" Mohammed Ismail Qasimyar, spoke of. While the US has made several mistakes along the way (most especially the pull out of a significant number of troops back in 2014), the Afghans are just as much responsible for this prolonged war. The article spoke of Afghan troops facing off against the Taliban "complaining of faulty equipment, inadequate supplies and reinforcements that show up late and ill-equipped, if at all." I can speak to that from experience. Anyone know what the most coveted position in the Afghan military is? Quartermaster. Why is that? Because these were the ones receiving and distributing military supplies where THEY saw fit. Logistics in Afghanistan was a whole new set of politics, rampant with corruption. Countless times I challenged the logistics leadership in Kabul to give the unit I advised the equipment and supplies they were identified for and authorized to have. Throughout the year I was there I made some progress, but it was like pulling teeth and the unit I advised was still severely ill equipped. I even had other advisers in Kabul put eyes on the equipment to confirm it was there. The equipment sat on shelves over the course of my tour simply because the Afghans would not release it. Some of it eventually went missing, which I later learned it was given to units that already had their allocations. But as the Afghan Lt Col I mentored stated, that unit's Commander has family members in logistics. Here are two things I think we did wrong (I have many more but these two stand out after reading this article):

1. The US military should have applied more initial resources to better educate the Afghan military and police force. That is, to teach them to read and write. They should have also introduced more English training too (more specifically aimed at their NCOs).
2. The US/coalition should have retained more control and oversight over the Afghan logistics centers. Specifically that which affects the units with coalition military advisers assigned.

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