Well, I suppose we could just turn Afghanistan into a glass parking lot as we leave and then redeploy troops in Washington DC to take back OUR government...
The attack on New York in September 2001 required a response that could prevent a recurrence.
This, in turn, required a government wise in the ways of power and the instrumentalities of war, which we did not have.
These maleficent savages who inhabit Afghanistan needed to be taught an unforgettable lesson, and they still do.
Instead, they have been shown weakness after weakness, craven cowardice after craven cowardice, while in the meantime we have intruded into their domestic affairs to a literally incredible degree. My congressthing was over there this summer presuming to instruct them in the proper organization of the marital relationship.
The country does not need to be turned into a glass parking lot. That would be barbaric - murdering hundreds of thousands of innocents who only want to live out their brutal, savage, and short lives according to the instructions of their religion.
What should have been done was the nuclear destruction of Tora Bora as soon as Bin Laden's presence was confirmed (Kandahar would have done just as well, a month earlier).
The main point is that such destruction should have been immediate, implacable, and accomplished by invisible (seemingly magical) instrumentalities.
After the mushroom clouds cleared, we should have told the survivors - "Live how you like. We don't care how you raise your children, what you do with your women, what god you worship, or how, We don't care what you grow, how you choose your barbarian chiefs, how you arrange your civic affairs (to the extent that you have any). But consider this - we just delivered four hydrogen bombs to your land. We have 12 000 more. Don't f*ck with us again - and we'll be watching".
What happens now was decided after our failure to embrace victory in 2001. Withdrawal is inevitable - if not now, next year, and if not next year, then the year after that, and so on.
There is NOTHING in Afghanistan which is worth the dusty bones of a single Pomeranian Pennsylvanian grenadier.