I feel terrible for all the Afghans who aren’t religious extremists, who are going to live a life of terror and suffering under the Taliban. Afghan women especi

I feel terrible for all the Afghans who aren’t religious extremists, who are going to live a life of terror and suffering under the Taliban. Afghan women especially, who are going to go right back to the brutal oppression they faced pre-9/11. However, I don’t really see a good alternative, either. Having your country constantly occupied by invading forces is a great way to breed religious extremism. The Taliban win because they have a lot of support in Afghanistan, and this isn’t likely to change anytime soon. From what I’ve read, it’s a minority of the population who support them, but the support of around 20-30% of the population, with many, many of those willing to fight and die for the Taliban, is still formidable. I believe the Taliban has more soldiers now than at any other point in their history? Also, it seems that in a massive number of cases, the Afghan National Army just quickly surrendered without even giving up a fight. They were bigger and better funded, but so many either wanted the Taliban to win, or at least felt that being ruled by the Taliban was acceptable and/or inevitable. The US had to pull out eventually. When you leave, you no longer control what happens … and in Afghanistan right now, this means the Taliban take over. Really, the US should never have invaded in the first place, so many lives lost so pointlessly.