No way we could win with Pakistan harboring the insurgents within their so called "tribal" areas. The stupidity is how much we assumed the Afghans would fight the Taliban on their own. It is remarkable how quickly they laid down their arms and ran away.
All of that was entirely predictable given that the legitimate leadership of Afghanistan was excluded from the talks that Trump carried out in 2018 - you know the ones, where he basically let the leaders of 200,000 heavily armed psychopaths out of jail in Pakistan, and did one of his famous "deals" with them. Question for you - if you were living in Afghanistan and were faced with that kind of force coming your way, would you feel very inclined to pick up a gun and fight? Perhaps rephrase that question as - would you pick up a gun and rapidly die? Lets face it, many Americans won't put a bit of cloth over their faces to save others so I think it's a bit rich that most of the US population (now experts on Middle East policy, in addition to being epidemiological geniuses) are suddenly blaming Afghans for running away. And that includes the President - his doubling down on the matter and refusal to accept any blame is utterly shameful.