CIA Director Bill Burns revealed on Tuesday that Putin planned to capture Ukraine's capital Kyiv in two days: "after nearly two weeks they still have not been able to fully encircle the city"
The Americans conquered Afghanistan very quickly. The problem is that they never managed to create a stable Afghan state able to resist the Taliban. So as soon as the Americans withdrew, the Taliban took over
Problem is you can't create a state; because a state is made of people. The people have to have the knowledge, skill, desire, etc to form and maintain the state. They did not.
We actually did create a state in Iraq and it still functions. Not the world's best state, obviously, but it has elections and transitions of power, which is amazing given the environment.