Just over four years ago, the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan rapidly collapsed, marking the end of a two-decade effort to transform the country. The final days of U.S. involvement proved bizarrely emblematic of the tragedy that had unfolded up to that point. Afghans clinging to a U.S. airplane tumbled from the sky to their deaths . A suicide bomb left 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans dead . A U.S. drone killed seven children in what the U.S. military ineptly mischaracterized as a "righteous strike." Good intentions and moral high ground gave way to national embarrassment.

I served in Afghanistan as an infantry officer. Later, I helped direct a U.S. government think tank documenting the lessons of America's intervention. Despite a wealth of analysis, we're still n

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