I think, Don, that our exit strategy should be the same as it was for the Russians. They presented the same set of justifications for being in Afghanistan, after all ("We were asked to come in by our friends there."), so why not?

What exit strategy should the Germans have used in regards to Poland in 1944? They couldn't just abandon their position there, after all, could they, and leave people behind to the mercy of the Russians? It could lead to further very bad repercussions to do that... ;-)

You know, it's easy to get into a war, but it's damned hard to get out of it if you cannot achieve a final and decisive victory. People have been discovering that ever since anyone can remember.

I disagree with your statement: "we have not invaded Afghanistan with the intention of making it part of our empire"

Oh, yes we have. But empires don't look the way they used to, you see. They are not official now, in terms of setting up colonial regimes under the authority of king and country. That has become politically unacceptable. Empires are now achieved by extending corporate control over the marketing and allocation of key resources...and the control of strategically important areas through client governments that are officially independent...but quite definitely controlled by a combination of bribery, economic arrangements, trade arrangements, and the direct presence or imminent threat of the empire's military forces. The USA has built some very extensive military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you really think the USA has any intention of abandoning those bases? I don't. So they are garrisoning those countries, just like an empire does in its colonies. Furthermore, a very large part of the USA's military committment in those areas is by private contractors...mercenaries, in other words. Not a peep has been said about ever withdrawing any of them. They will stay as long as they are paid to, and the corporates who employ them will profit by it.

Empires are not run by kings now, Don. They are run by the boardrooms of a consortium of banks and corporations. They do not require a flag or a uniform to exist. They require money to exist, and money is what they have. Money can buy all the firepower, lawyers, and crooked politicians necessary to maintain the empire. It isn't a poltical empire like the old ones were. It's a financial and mercantile empire that takes effect through the power of money and violence.

I have no particular liking for the Taliban. I have no particular liking for the Northern Alliance. I have no particular liking for Karzai's people. I have no idea which one of them would end up in control of Afghanistan once the foreign troops left, but my guess is that they'd be fighting each other for years, just like they used to after the Russians left. This whole Afghan mess started when the Russians went in there. That's when the place go destabilized, so the original blame is on the Russians. They opened Pandora's box and ended a long period of stability in Afghanistan under the old king. It's been hell there ever since. The Americans and Pakistanis found and funded every Islamic fanatic they could find back in the 1980s to break the back of the Russian occupation (and its client Afghan government under Najibullah). Those Islamic jihadists were called the Mujahedin, and they eventually beat the Russians and drove them out...with much CIA and Pakistani assistance in supplying weapons and training. Then the different Mujahedin factions all starting fighting amongst each other. The most effective among them turned out to be the Taliban, who were also the most extremely fanatical in a religious sense. They took over most of the country, but never succeeded in defeating the Northern Alliance people in the northeastern areas. The Pakistanis regarded the Taliban as a key ally to keep the Russians out of the area, and were loathe to abandon them when the USA eventually decided that the Taliban, former allies, were now to be considered "enemies"...but the USA basically put a gun to Pakistan's head (by implied threat) and said, "You either abandon the Taliban or you are fucked." So the Pakistanis swallowed the bitter pill and gave in to American pressure. This has led to massive destabilization of Pakistan and Afghanistan both. It has been an immense tragedy.

Don, you would very likely never even have had a Taliban...if the USA and Pakistan had not colluded to raise Islamic fundamentalist forces from all over the Middle East to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. America and Pakistan built the Frankenstein monster they are now fighting against...they did it to kill Russians.

It's just a huge mess. Russia's to blame for it. The USA's to blame for it. They are both to blame for it, because they were both out there playing the game of empire.

You're just looking at one single angle of it...which is that the Taliban are a bad outfit. I agree with that! They are a very bad outfit. But that's just one angle of a huge, giant mess that was created by Russia and the USA playing imperial games on other people's land. It started long before the Taliban even existed. They're a symptom of a much larger problem. You don't cure a disease by battling a symptom. The disease is Russian and American imperialism, which is really corporate imperialism to all intents and purposes. It's all being done for strategic resources and strategic positioning. It's not being done so that ordinary Afghans can send women to school or hold corrupt "democratic" elections in a facade of democracy. That's just window decorations.