Kabul: The Incredibly Vulnerable Position Of The Remaining Troops—This Isn't Saigon, This Is Điện Biên Phủ

General Milley and his subordinate generals have 7,000 marines and airborne here:

That is one runway surrounded by a fence.

With Taliban blocking all other egress. 

Should the runway close for any reason the remaining American and British troops have no way out.

What kind of general puts his troops in such a position?

Well....the French General Henri Navarre thought this was the spot for 6,000 (later reinforced to 14,000) troops under his command:

The valley of Điện Biên Phủ. The Viet Minh surrounded the French troops and rained hell down upon them. 

French casualties:

1,571dead (minimum)
1,729 missing
11,721 captured (including 4,436 wounded)

As one analyst put it:

At Điện Biên Phủ the French violated nearly all of the principles of war at every level of war--strategic, operational, and tactical.

At Kabul the Americans are only there because the Taliban allow them to be there. Should the Taliban change their thinking, shoot down one of those C-17's as it is rolling for take-off and block the runway it is hard to see an outcome any different from that suffered by the French troops in 1954.

In addition to the above linked analyst (Major Harry D. Bloomer, US Army) French Foreign Legion Info has an in-depth look at what happened at Điện Biên Phủ.

A (very) small defense of the French General and his officers: They were facing General Vo Nguyen Giap, who we've mentioned a few times. Here's 2019's "Philippines President Duterte Threatened Beijing with Military Action":

When the Chinese stopped laughing they reflected and gave thanks it wasn't Vietnam making the threat.*

*****

*General Võ Nguyên Giáp, possibly the greatest general of the 20th century, defeated in turn, the French empire, the U.S.A. Cambodia and China in 1954, 1975, 1978 and 1979 respectively.

That last conflict was the result of China's invasion of Vietnam in an attempt to force Vietnam out of Cambodia which Vietnam had invaded in 1978, putting Pol Pot and the Kmer Rouge génocidaires out of business. It didn't work, Vietnam stayed in Cambodia until 1989.
The General died in 2013 age 102. He outlived all his adversaries.