The Soviet’s spent twenty years or so in Afghanistan before they bailed.
I’m not sure why the US thought they could do any better.
Look at the mountains. Does that look like a place where you want to fight, especially if the locals know caves where they can retreat to and wait to fight another day?
Apparently the fighting routinely stops in the winter because the conditions are too harsh, then resumes in the Spring
Not a good place to try to change the culture.
i am not defending the way that the US carried out the pullout, but it seemed like an unwinnable war.
All the money and time and manpower the US spent training the Afghan Army amounted to nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
Biden did not expect the Afghan Army to walk away and disappear immediately
I have read that the Taliban merely bribed local leaders to tell their troops to turn over their weapons, and that was that.
Blame it on lack of military intelligence, as clearly the US had no clue that everything would fall so fast