"I don’t know why we agreed to go back in with the US troops in the early 2000s."

NATO agreement. It's why Canada, Romania, Ukraine, Italy and Australia and France et al also went in.

"We pretty much let the Arab Spring play out."

Au Contraire. We helped stamp it out. Complex web of intrigue that leads back to Hillary Clinton in particular and the Obama Admin in general.

Think that the Mossad want a pro-Gaza, pro-Palestine Islamic Brotherhood holding the reins of power in Egypt? Nope. Get the dictators back now! Make it so...and it happened!

Afghanistan was always part of the strategic chess/RISK game as highlighted in the 1997 'Project for a New American Century'.

"Of the twenty-five people who signed PNAC's founding statement of principles, ten went on to serve in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz."

IOW, Afghanistan's misfortune lies in its strategic geography as well as its vast mineral wealth...it's staggering.

"Afghanistan is rich in resources like copper, gold, oil, natural gas, uranium, bauxite, coal, iron ore, rare earths, lithium, chromium, lead, zinc, gemstones, talc, sulphur, travertine, gypsum and marble."

God only knows what was taken out in the 20 years the US was 'almost behind the wheel'.