Nothing Lost
How could the Taliban have won anything when the US/Nato has lost nothing by wrapping up combat operations? They are still living in caves and ****ting where they eat. We won because we are not further wasting people and money after the primary mission of avenging 9-11 was completed. Yes we did spend a lot of needless effort when it could have been finished in 2002 at Tora Bora, but Cheney needed his "boogeyman" to justify the Iraq invasion so US troops were told to stand down and let BL escape.
As to now, fortunes have been spent to train "our" Afghans. From the experience in Iraq if they populate their forces with women, Shiite/Sunni non-Eunuchs, or import Kurds any Taliban effort will be defeated. If the Afghans will not defend themselves that is their problem as they have nothing we care about (China appears to have all of the rare earth contracts).
The Sultan