There is no way how the mess could still turn out to have a favourable cost/benefit ratio. It may turn out to be no defeat, but it will certainly be inappropriate to claim the war was won.

I suppose that -as usual- only a few hundred or few thousand people in the world will turn out to be "winners" in this war. This is going top include some who make a quick career out of it and some who are war profiteers.


There is a potential point that some females in Afghanistan may be winners, too - but I see no guarantee that the Taliban would have stayed in power for so long without intervention.