I find this a highly informative and thought-provoking thread.
I guess the ultimate question was whether 10-20 thousand Afghan deaths a year in a country of 38 million was a price worth paying for a free society for some 60-70% of the population; one where women could learn, work and live their own lives, heck one where you could listen to music, because you can't now!
Trump had an election promise to keep and he did. Biden; I just don't know. Certainly the US and NATO military presence was sustainable
https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020...-us-president/ . Aiui, the Afghan government wasn't really consulted and wasn't offered the opportunity of making that decision.
I don't really understand anyone in the media calling the evacuation a "disaster". It was a highly successful operation spun up in just a couple of days and sustained for a fortnight, and largely met its objectives (in fact I bet it exceeded what the planners thought was possible). Everyone involved should feel very proud. If they mean
needing to perform the evacuation is a disaster, fair enough, but I wish they'd choose their words more carefully.