I don’t know that we have to leave altogether. We just need to change the mission from building a nation to disrupting the bad guys. We can do that with a much smaller footprint, mainly just a few lilypads from which to launch operations, and without the absurd, morale-killing ROEs. The mission would be to keep the taliban types from coalescing into something strong enough and organized enough to pose a threat to our interests (whatever they are). Something along these lines would actually be doable. In fact, negotiating with the taliban might even make sense within this concept. We’d divide them into two groups: the tolerably bad and the intolerably bad. We’d negotiate with the former and harass and kill the latter.
Ever hear about the massacre of Elphinstone’s army at Gandamak pass in January of 1842 after the force of some 4,200 had to withdraw from Kabul to Jalabad?
This was in the first Anglo-Afghan war where the British were defeated followed by the second and third Anglo-Afghan wars where the British were defeated again. At least both of the subsequent events resulted in withdrawal by the Brits.
I don’t know if the “lilly pads” are defensible with air power from where ever it has to come from.