You know, I either watched or listened to the news all day today. While I'm hardly a foreign policy expert, I'm pissed.
I don't know that we could've stopped this from happening if Biden had stuck to Trump's timeline. I think that Afghanistan is pretty much ungovernable and the Taliban is about the only organization brutal enough to pull it off (which is a sad reminder that the world isn't a warm and fuzzy place).
That being said, our actions over there have required the assistance of the locals and when I see those same people clinging to the sides of departing cargo jets (and then falling to their deaths) it strikes a chord with me. If my options were taking my chances desperately clinging to a C-17 or certain execution at the hands of the Taliban, I don't know which I'd choose.
I'd like to think that maybe our hasty retreat demoralized the Afghan military and America's welching on the terms of our withdrawal helped the Taliban recruit. Certainly, our leaving behind military equipment didn't work in the Afghan Army's favor. It's a what-if but I think there might be some merit to it. Then again, maybe they just don't care or are too afraid of the enemy to fight.
Regardless, we're going to inevitably leave people behind that we shouldn't have and they will suffer brutal reprisals as a result. That's a function of the disorganized mess and general incompetence of the people running this show and that can't really be denied. Maybe if the administration hadn't had their heads completely up their ass about the Taliban's capabilities, the army wouldn't have become demoralized at the Taliban's rapid advance. Maybe we would've had more time to get the people who helped us out.
Watching this president, whom I wouldn't trust with a potato (much less a potato gun), get up on stage three days after he said this wouldn't be another 'Fall of Saigon', blame everyone but himself and give us platitudes about how we need to apply international pressure against the Taliban to better the conditions for those we abandoned pisses me off. We all know that's not going to work.
I get that this is a long war and that it's long past time to go, it's also our responsibility to not leave the place in utter chaos and this administration's ineptitude has caused us to do just that.