I'm glad Afghanistan is finally ending, the GIRoA is corrupt and evil as fuck to the extent the Taliban taking over is probably an improvement for most Afghans. It's surreal to watch Saigon 2.0 play out, especially this fast; Kandahar City and Herat fell today and probing attacks have already begun on Kabul. The one saving grace right now for the latter is the 4,600 Anglo-Americans coming into evacuate everyone out, so the Taliban will probably wait until we clear out to finish off that city in favor of taking out Dostum and Noor in Mazar.
20 years, 3,000 Soldiers and $1 Trillion....and all for nothing. A very fitting end to Empire, in a sense, and to the end of the "End of History".
I wouldn't say that we got nothing, we just got very little for the effort and money we put into it. We weakened Al Qaeda, but that was about it. No stable government, no democratic society, and not even a functional military. As for America, we're not really an empire. At best, it was a pseudo-empire.