The Taliban Taking Afghanistan Was NOT A Surprise

There is a lot of talk about it being a surprise that the Taliban is swiftly taking over Afghanistan now that the U.S. is leaving. That's ridiculous. It's not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the 20-year war the U.S. has waged there. In spite of that 20-year war on the Taliban forces, they have remained to strongest military force in that country -- and it was obvious that they were just biding their time and waiting for the U.S. to leave.

There are even some who say we should not be leaving Afghanistan. I don't understand that thinking. If we haven't "won" in 20 years, why should anyone believe another year (or even another 20 years) would change that situation? It wouldn't!

The United States made the same mistake in Afghanistan that it made in Vietnam. It tried to use its military to build another nation into something we wanted -- without understanding the real wishes of the population in that country. Hopefully, we have now learned the lesson we failed to learn in Vietnam -- that "nation building" is not something our military is capable of doing (even though they are the best and strongest military in the world).

People in this country are bemoaning the fact that the Taliban is likely to re-impose a brutal regime, that will especially deny any rights to women. They will. But that is not for us to prevent. The people of Afghanistan will have the government they want -- and when enough of them don't want the Taliban to govern, they will do away with them. 

When will that happen? No one knows. That is up to the people of Afghanistan.

NOTE -- Some have also said the Taliban will once again allow al-Queda to operate from their country. I'm not so sure. They have to know by now that the U.S. will react to that, and I doubt they want any more war with the U.S. Anyway, we have forces in the area, and any new base built by al-Queda would be bombed out of existence. We don't need to stay in Afghanistan to prevent that.