They don't actually care about "winning" in Afghanistan. American troops are going to be stationed there indefinitely. The Taliban still existing and also being awful reactionaries is just a convenient justification for keeping them there.
The only way they'd actually consider admitting defeat and withdrawing is if American casualties start hitting Vietnam-esque highs and a renewed large-scale anti-war movement fractured American society through civil unrest again. Until that happens Afghanistan serves as a convenient base to project covert operations into Central Asia and theyre perfectly content in ceding control of the rural regions to the Taliban
They don't actually care about "winning" in Afghanistan. American troops are going to be stationed there indefinitely. The Taliban still existing and also being awful reactionaries is just a convenient justification for keeping them there.
The only way they'd actually consider admitting defeat and withdrawing is if American casualties start hitting Vietnam-esque highs and a renewed large-scale anti-war movement fractured American society through civil unrest again. Until that happens Afghanistan serves as a convenient base to project covert operations into Central Asia and theyre perfectly content in ceding control of the rural regions to the Taliban
o7