Afghanistan was ruled by Taliban, Taliban harbored Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda attacked the most powerful nation on earth live in morning TV....what did people think was going to happen? Afghan northern coalition with some CIA help and US airpower threw Taliban off fairly easily. This opened a window to catch Bin Laden and his cronies. If this had happened quickly,  recent history would look different. George W would not have needed to invade Iraq with false premise of WMDs. Probably a naive view on things,  but that's how I expierenced all of this.