Tyler Nycum: Our nation should remain engaged with the Middle East President after president has tried to solve the problem of Afghanistan. FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2012 file photo, U.S. soldiers, part of the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrol west of Kabul, Afghanistan. After 20 years of military engagement and billions of dollars spent, NATO and the United States still grapple with the same, seemingly intractable conundrum — how to withdraw troops from Afghanistan without abandoning the country to even more mayhem. (AP Photo/Hoshang Hashimi, File) By Tyler Nycum | Special to The Tribune | April 30, 2021, 3:00 p.m. On Sept. 11, 2001, many of my classmates were just born or becoming toddlers. Now we are in college, studying a war that has gone on for 20-plus years.