SRS, I don’t give a FF about a ‘few oligarchs’ - I’d put the lives of millions of ordinary Afghanis, none of whom bear the slightest iota of responsibility for anything that’s gone on there, above everything else. The US has a military presence in many countries, some dating back 60 or 70 years - e.g. there are still 54,000 personnel in Japan, 35,000 in Germany, the US presence has existed in those countries for 76 years, yet they present no threat to the US, nor to their own populations. Why is there no clamour for ‘withdrawal’ from those countries, yet it was apparently essential to desert the people of Afghanistan with indecent haste and no viable plan, and leave them to their fate?

And I’m not ‘missing the point’ at all. I’m very much aware of what’s gone on, and I couldn’t agree with you more that GWB’s project was absurd. But start it he did, in the US’s name (and others of course) and, having committed the US and it’s allies to occupation, it’s only right that they should remain there to protect ordinary Afghanis until a viable exit plan was worked out. And the Doha Agreement wasn’t a viable exit plan.

And BTW, I include the UK, as the US’s major ally, in the above - our hands are just as dirty as yours.