The war in Afghanistan was lost by the Bush II administration sometime between 2001–2003. They took what should have been an international law enforcement operation and turned it into an indefinite military occupation with no plan, no criteria for success, and no off-ramp. They dumped hundreds of billions of dollars in with limited accountability or due diligence. They had no clear separation between “good guys” and “bad guys” and limited understanding of local relationships or culture, and ended up killing large numbers of civilians and leaving a large part of the population and local social structures angry at them.
The predictable product was a dependent and kleptocratic puppet government and military without local legitimacy or support, an endless parade of suffering, continuing local opposition, and ever growing apathy among the American public. US civilian and military leaders consistently lied to the public, and were too cowardly to admit their “mission” was an abject failure.
And now all of the people who set up and supported this 20-year debacle: military contractors, hawkish congresspeople and DOD leaders, pro-establishment media, etc. have the temerity to claim that there was some kind of magical perfect withdrawal that the US military could have executed with no bloodshed or instability, and Biden’s administration were just too careless or pig headed to let them plan and execute.