The OP needs to brush up on history and current events. The Taliban didn't defeat the Russians. They couldn't have. They were not in existence. They only came about to govern Afghanistan about the same time Osama was thrown out of the Sudan--back in the mid-1990s. We fought them because, as President Bush said after 9/11, we will fight terrorists and the countries who harbor them...the Taliban, it's not hard to imagine, received support from Osama...money and fighters.
The OP also demonstrated an incredible arrogance over just who "we're fighting" and what we're doing there now. I am sad to think that many, many, uninformed Repubs also share those views...that it doesn't actually matter who we're fighting or why we're fighting, just that "we win":dunno:
To answer this question...YES WE NEED TO LEAVE THE MIDDLE EAST. We have removed Saddam, for better or worse, and we have created a climate for Democracy to "blossom" in Iraq. Whether it does or doesn't isn't our problem anymore...Iraq's WMD "threat" whatever real or phony, is no longer...it's OIL RESERVES...if they still exist...can be brought to market.
The job is done. We need to come home. The Middle East has been around for thousands of years. It will remain long after our troops are gone....