All civilizations require bureaucracies to function.
When established, a bureaucracy serves the function for which it was established, and because of human nature, it also functions to serve the bureaucrats.

At the lower levels, hard working, often courageous worker bees (soldiers, social workers, etc.) strive to serve the function for which the bureaucracy was established.
The others, drones, strive to do nothing more than collect a paycheck, which is an acute endemic problem when the drones are unionized.
At the upper levels, self-serving bureaucrats strive to expand the size, power and influence of the bureaucracy.
In government bureaucracies the topmost bureaucrats are primarily politically driven with token regard for the bureaucracy’s original purpose.

It was clearly shown that the failures leading up to 9-11-01 were the result of inter-bureaucracy rivalries between the CIA, military Intelligence, FBI, etc.
The Department of Homeland Security was established to overcome this problem.
Unfortunately, despite DHS, political considerations at the very top of the military, State Dept.,CIA, etc. led to the colossal strategic and foreign policy disaster of the US scurrying from Afghanistan, under the cover of night, with its tail between its legs.
Our enemies are laughing and licking their chops.
Our NATO allies are furious for the betrayal, cringing in embarrassment for us, and seriously questioning our alliances.

The”War on Terror” is a misnomer because what the US and NATO military have been doing for the past 20 years is pest control.
The vermin have been suppressed and batches exterminated, but never comprehensively defeated…like cockroaches.

If first Trump, and then Biden had had the stern stuff of real national leadership in their spine, we’d have continued the successful vermin control, instead of bending to the fickle winds of public opinion.
For the past year an a half, by using a couple of secure airfields and other outposts to prop up the Afghan military, the Taliban were held back with no loss of US/NATO lives.

Biden, Milley, and Blinken, all cowardly politicians, are crowing about the amazingly successful evacuation of 140,000, to try to mask their failure.
In fact, the evacuation was successful because of the amazing personnel and equipment of the Airlift Command, which was able to overcome the nearly impossible circumstances in which they were deliberately placed by Biden’s incredibly bad judgement.