Veterans who served in Afghanistan have been watching the Taliban takeover from afar, reacting with heartbreak from their Connecticut homes and in some cases wondering: What was it all for?

They voiced mixed feelings, saying they wanted U.S. troops withdrawn but not like this, and they didn't expect the country to fall so quickly.

The Trump administration last year negotiated a withdrawal with the Taliban, and President Joe Biden announced this April that all U.S. forces would be withdrawn by Sept. 11. Biden said in July it was "highly unlikely" the Taliban would overrun everything and own the whole country. But on Sunday, Taliban forces entered Kabul, the capital, and President Ashraf Ghani fled.

"I'm torn," said Norwich resident Matthew Quigley, who served in Afghanistan for almost two years. "It's nice to know that people don't have to send their loved ones to war, but we just left a country high and dry. It just doesn't seem right to a certain degree. I always assumed we'd maintain a certain degree of occupation there just because of the insurgency."

Quigley, 35, served with the Connecticut National Guard 102nd Infantry regiment in 2009 and 2010, and with the Rhode Island National Guard in 2011 and 2012.

He said there were some embedded interpreters with his regiment, most of whom are in the United States now. He spoke of doing presence patrols in communities, and bringing children food, water and candy.

At the level of infantryman, "We never truly knew what our mission was," Quigley said. He added, "Fighting an insurgency with no end goal in sight and no plan, just to withdraw, it's confusing."

He said to imagine the municipal, state and federal governments of the U.S. but "all that crammed into one village, and then the next village is completely different. He questioned, "How would you try to create a certain government or culture there, when it's so vastly different? I don't think it would ever be possible, to be honest."

Similarly, Lyme resident David Lahm, who served in Afghanistan for about eight months in 2002-03, said he "can't think of a situation where we'd be successful in 'building the nation.'" He thinks the mission went off the rails when it went from anti-terrorism to nation building.

As an Army JAG — a lawyer — for special forces groups, Lahm said he got a got a ground look at efforts to train Afghan soldiers. He said going back 20 years, "no one had a lot of faith that we were going to create a stable army in Afghanistan," because "Afghanistan is not a nation-state; it is a tribal society."

He said without a strong nation-state that people believe in, you can't take soldiers from one side of the country and send them to Kandahar to fight, "because Kandahar's nothing to them." Lahm said it's "not surprising" the Taliban took control but it was surprising how quickly it happened.

His estimate was the end of August.

"I was all in favor of withdrawing from Afghanistan, but we have not done an orderly withdrawal, and there's enough blame to go around," Lahm said.

He said he was shocked to hear how many Americans are still in Afghanistan who need to be evacuated, saying that should have been done a month ago.

But he doesn't think it was all in vain. He thinks soldiers who were wounded and killed did serve a purpose, pointing to the lack of large-scale terrorist attacks in the United States in the last 20 years.

"I think all American service members who did serve there should be proud of their service," said state Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, who served as a rifle platoon commander with the Marines in Afghanistan in 2011. "For the time we were there, we provided a measure of peace and security that many parts of the country hadn't seen in decades. Whether we should've been in there in the first place, that's an entirely different question."

Talking on Monday, Blumenthal said he was thinking of the Afghan soldiers he met who wanted peace and civility, and about the interpreters who are at particular risk.

"It's heartbreaking and it's gut-wrenching to see all the images from Afghanistan, as the Taliban has entered Kabul and the government has fallen," Blumenthal said. "I know that it's felt very deeply by all veterans of the conflict, especially folks who have lost friends and family members over there. I think it's been a devastating day."

Blumenthal said every Marine and service member he's talked to who served in Afghanistan thought it was time to leave and everyone thought the government "would probably fall in some shape or another, but I don't think any of us expected it to happen this precipitously."

He said the focus now has to be on getting as many of our allies out of Afghanistan as possible, and cutting the red tape to get people to safety.

'What was the end state that we were looking for?'

The Connecticut chapter of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America said in a statement, "We are heartbroken for the people of Afghanistan, and our thoughts are with our brothers and sisters who have given so much over the last twenty years. At this time, it is imperative that we do everything we can to get our allies out of the country and to make sure we are caring for our veterans here at home who are struggling with these events."

On Facebook, IAVA directed people to the Vet Center Call Center at (877) 927-8387 and Veterans Crisis Line, (800) 273-8255.

Navy veteran and Ledyard resident Mark Jones said while the idealist in him is "glad that we're bringing everyone home," the libertarian in him is torn up about the sacrifice of so many lives, and the pragmatist in him had a hard time figuring out, "Why are we still in Afghanistan? What was the end state that we were looking for?"

Jones didn't serve on the ground in Afghanistan, but he was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise when it helped launch the first airstrikes into Afghanistan in October 2001, and again in 2007, when the Enterprise served as air support for Afghanistan from the Arabian Sea.

He recalled that the Enterprise was heading home on Sept. 9, 2001, but two days later, "you could literally feel the ship turn around."

Jones said he's "not going to blame any one administration over another, but why, 20 years later, did we still not have an idea of how to end this the right way, and the safe way, for everyone involved?" He questioned, "Why couldn't we keep a small footprint of a military force and air support in the country, just to kind of keep everything in check?"

e.moser@theday.com