> not enough planning was done 20 years of planning was done. 40 years, if you count when the US was arming the proto-Taliban to fight the secular leftists in

> not enough planning was done 20 years of planning was done. 40 years, if you count when the US was arming the proto-Taliban to fight the secular leftists in the PDPA who were running the country back then. > and the wrong assumptions were made about the Afghan Army. 20 years and trillions of dollars poured in, and four months after the US and NATO announces they will keep funding but remove ground troops, pretty much the whole country outside Kabul and surrounding areas is under Taliban control. I had the right assumption about the Afhan army as I'm sure the White House had - that they are puppets of US policy and would immediately fold when foreign armies leave. One reason the taking back of Afghanistan is so slow is the Taliban is being a little cautious. > It didn't have to be like this. When the NLF and PAVN went on the offensive in Vietnam in 1975, Saigon was liberated by the NLF within two months. Puppet governments and armies do not survive when their puppet masters begin withdrawing support. As the US is not going to sacrifice money and enlisted men's lives forever in a country on the other side of the world with a GDP less than Zimbabwe, it was always going to be like this.