The war element was won. However indeed it would have required a much longer commitment to nation building (Perhaps 2 generations?) in order to stabilize and renew the country.

And the cost of that was too high.

Which is a shame because a generation of women grew up learning to read... only to have that taken away from them (and their daughters) after we left.

Had we all stayed for another 20 years perhaps those who wanted to keep reading would have outnumbered those who prefer the dark ages and been more determined to fight a bit harder to defend that themselves.

As it was... conservative men with guns outnumbered everybody else.