Yes, the cost of the war was astronomical, and yes a few thousand US troops died... but just abandoning a country to its fate when you decide you've had enough is not a great decision either tactically or ethically. This could become a disaster, with a sizable proportion of the population running for the border while they still can. And who will get the blame if al Qaida rise again? All fingers will point in one direction.
They weren't able to "fix" it in 20 years. It should be obvious by now that more soldiers and more money isn't gonna do anything positive, just increase the resentment towards occupying forces. I bet there are numerous countries in the world who would happily take the billions of dollars and put them to much better use than drones and bombs.
Yeah, I'm not disagreeing. They needed to get out, and the exit was always going to be messy... it's just that it didn't have to be quite this bad. They should never have gone into Afghanistan in the first place, but once you're in, and when you've been there for twenty years, you have a duty to the people of the country to make the exit as painless as possible... which is not what's happening. Some of the video footage is horrific.
Quote
Desperate Afghans clung to the side of a moving US military plane leaving Kabul airport on Monday, with at least three people apparently falling to their deaths from the undercarriage immediately after takeoff.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/16/kabul-airport-chaos-and-panic-as-afghans-and-foreigners-attempt-to-flee-the-capital 
