Absolutely, and I'll pile on to shillelaghhugger's thoughts

As a career military guy on the tactical side of things, the mind-boggling move was staging the evacuation from Kabul Intl rather than Bagram. Bagram is the fortress. Any 10 year-old who has played a strategy game on an iPhone could tell you that.

That said, we abandoned a population we committed to protect. Beyond the civil population there were interpreters and other individuals we had a duty to protect. The generation that would have led Afghanistan to a better future was in their teens when we abandoned them. They were too young, inexperienced, uneducated and weak when we left - but that calculus would have been different given another 10-20 years to grow. It breaks my heart to think of the girls whose education came to a grinding halt because we left with our tail between our legs.

I also believe we left a massive power vacuum in an important strategic area. An American presence at the center of Iran, China and Pakistan was valuable. More than anything, turning our backs on individuals that put their own safety, and that of their families, at risk to assist us is a stain on our moral fabric as a nation.