It should be pointed out that any application of military force to slow the Taliban advance would have meant that instead of walking into towns they would have had to fight a war, and

1. Regarding concerns for civilian quality of life, stability of resource flows, anything, war is also bad for that
2. Also “surge” for the purpose of strategic retreat is basically incoherent, it would be entering into a military action with the intent to lose, because trying to win would be the opposite of getting out of Afghanistan, which is what we decided to do