>>508473074>When we invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban was running the country.Regime change and getting rid of the Taliban was not why we invaded Afghanistan, you stupid Zoomer.
The military objectives for OEF were to capture/kill those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, destroy/disable Al-Qaeda and their training camps in Afghanistan, and prevent Afghanistan from being used as a safe haven by terror groups.
The Taliban were only fought because they refused our demand for them to turn over Osama Bin Laden and other AQ leadership. In 2001 we didn't have any beef with the Taliban itself, and would have let them be if they worked with us to dismantle AQ and capture OBL. But they refused because they had some kind of obligation to protect AQ since they were considered their guests according to their Pashtunwali code of honor.
Over time, the neocon and neolib interventionist shifted toward trying to achieve regime change and liberalization and democratization of all of SW Asia, but that wasn't the reason we initially invaded in 2001. All of the initial objectives were achieved within a relatively short amount of time, and from 2011-2021 we were basically just babysitting the Afghans because they are retarded.
Literally everyone who knew anything about Afghanistan knew that the Taliban were going to retake power after we left, the withdrawal turned into a clusterfuck because Biden was rushing it to try to get all of the troops out in time for him to make a big speech on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 where he declared victory and took credit for winning and ending America's longest war.