Just a couple points that seem pretty skewed by Americans and media at home judging this thing. First, hunt down some video on the Afghans being trained as soldiers, then consider the fact that a bunch of people just killed themselves thinking they could cling onto some landing gear all the way to America. You can't apply your normal rational standards to the situation - even handled in a nearly optimal way, whatever that would have been, the exit period would have been a debacle. The idea that we just could have started earlier and avoided any issues is a laughable supposition, but it's being thrown around all over the place.
Second, the repeated "couldn't have gone any worse" stuff, in the wake of zero American casualties to this point (I think), when Trump had drawn us down to a number of troops that could have easily been overrun by the Taliban were it not for us setting an exit date and sticking to it, is also nuts. There absolutely could have been battles, bombings, they could have taken over both sides of the airport, etc. And if we fly on the hour we can still get tens of thousands of people out in a matter of days.
The speed at which the Taliban took over was a massive fuckup. It puts the ball completely in their court as far as who they allow to leave and when. If there had been even minor resistance, it takes a week or two, and we'd have had time to leverage the cities for evacuations of others. This could go south fast, or the Taliban could let folks leave who want to so they don't force more US soldiers to return.
Criticism is absolutely warranted, but it's being delivered through a lens that is completely detached from reality.