that was very thoughtful...
Now, as to the crux of your post...I never, for one moment, envisioned this exit from Afghanistan to be without hiccups or serious problems. With the Taliban being what it is and certainly not known for playing by 'Marquess of Queensberry Rules', it was always going to be a high-stress, high-risk endeavor and under such circumstances, things won't always go according to plan...Oh, and let's not forget about the emergence of ISIS-K in the final weeks...btw, there was some very accurate U.S. Intel that foretold the fatal events (bombings) that cost U.S. and Afghan lives...that Intel on ISIS-K could have also been the impetus for speeding up the exit from Sept. 11th to Aug. 31st.
I also saw that there were only two goals to be achieved...#1) Get USA personnel out safely, and #2) Get as many Afghani Allies out as possible...Goal #1 was never a concern for me...the Taliban wanted us out, and agreed to not shoot at us...which they didn't....I've already posted regarding the remaining Americans, so you can search that post yourself...#2 was the real challenge, and made much more difficult by Donald Trump and his team (e.g. Steven Miller) when they took the following steps...
>Starting just two months into DT's term, he authorized a cessation in processing, or authorizing Special Visas for Afghani and Iraqi citizens who helped save American military lives...this continued throughout his four years in office, thus creating a backlog of well over 18,000 petitioners...with each one typically requiring ~13 months of vetting...had he cared at all about those people...which he clearly did not, things would be a lot different...in a good way...today.
>Donald Trump negotiated an exit deal that was not only extremely short (May 1st), but totally without Afghan government involvement, thus demoralizing them politically and militarily...contractors who were essential to the maintenance of the military equipment immediately started shutting down operations...along with sharp reductions in our troop levels...to the point where only 2,500 were there when Biden took over...DT essentially 'paved the road to Kabul' for the Taliban with that deal.
So, given that Donald Trump was only focused on goal #1, and had no desire...much less a plan...for the extraction of friendly Afghanis...I consider every Afghani rescued from that country to be a "Victory" and not a screwup. Could the process have been 'better'?...of course...even Dunkirk could have gone 'better'...but IMO, in the context of goals and objectives, Joe Biden deserves immense credit, whilst Donald Trump deserves intense distain...guess I'm not a "Glass Half Empty" kind of guy...sorry about that.
Finally, I couldn't help but notice how you gave glancing credit to Chris and Conor for being open minded, yet for the life of me, I can't recall a single post from you praising Joe Biden for getting over 120,000 Afghan allies out of there...you know...the #2 key objective and subject of all that's been in the news and this board for the last month or so...does that seem 'open minded' on your part?...of course it doesn't...but then you have no shame, so why do I even bother to bring it up.