we're in Afghanistan as we were in Germany post WW II. beause it is the only hard power the United States has that sits proximate to the central Belt and Road Initiative of China that runs across Central Asia. If we had to impact that with military power we are in position to do so in Afghanistan.
Second reason we're there is because we're cheek and jaw with the potentially most unstable nuclear stockpile on the face of the earth in Pakistan. We wanna be able to leap on that stockpile and stabilize it necessary, and
The third reason we're there is because there are 20 million Uygurs if the CIA has to mount an operation using those Uygurs as Erdogan has done in Turkey agaist Assed, there are 20000 of them ended up with living in Syria right now. Well the CIA would want to destabilize China, and that would be the best way to do it to form an unrest and join with those Uygurs in pushing the Han Chinese in Beijing from internal places rather than external.