I cried tears of joy when you won the presidency, President Obama, and was thrilled to see you win a second term, but no presidency is perfect, and Afghanistan was one example.

Was it also the fault of those who supported you, the people like me who bought into the neocon fantasy of a Starbucks on every Kabul corner and a West German style modern military that didn't fit the culture at all? Should we have pressured you more to work on an intelligent plan to get out of there?

We all forgot that in order to sustain a modern military, the people IN that military need to support the government.

Instead, the government typically had no support among the people, and so of course it is no surprise that they cut and run as soon as the Taliban began their offensive.

President Biden was given few options by his predecessor, who used a gutted state department to attempt to craft a mindless deal.

The Taliban were primed and ready to go, whether we left or not.

They played the long game and won. Let's not do this kind of thing again.