Please study Creative Chaos Theory and juxtapose Afghan predicament accordingly. US is doing exactly what Pakistan was supposed to do back in 80's. We must have control the winning of Mujahideen. Making CIA's victory as slow as possible. It is not US government who want to be there in Afghanistan, It is Corporate America and MIC that wants this war to continue till last day of earth as their profiteering is directly related to this conflict. They are same people who time and again derail this process giving new imputes to Washington's power echelons to allow US military and private contractors to continue this war. Talibans are there because CIA/MIC doesn't want them to be eliminated completely. Spy world is extremely dirty one.
Having said all this, I concur your original point that our real failure has been inability of the state in nurturing a strategic thinking culture across the society. We used too much time on useless bravados which led us nowhere!
Coming back to JF-17 Vs. F-16 ... I think JF-17 must our priority despite its shortcomings vis-a-vis F-16. Thunder will be a killer machine once Block-4 hit the production in late next decade. (I say Block-4 because I believe after Block-3, only thing needs a real upgrade will be its power plant and I hope in Block-4 that will be the key feature along with some other upgrades of course). Strategically, this Thunder project is more critical for us than our nuclear program as it has redefined or is redefining conventional deterrence against a much superior enemy. Strategic deterrence will comes into play only once conventional one failed. In Feb 2019, Indians were hoping they will achieve that but PAF foiled it. They tried through sea, PN foiled that one too. Pakistan army was ready to unleash response to any Indian ballistic missile misadventure. PAF and PN both are in process to get next gen hardware means our conventional deterrence will have a new threshold and if PAF can manage to produce enough Block-3 along with adequate number of force multiplier (AEW, AWACS, EW, Refuelers etc.) to raise few squadron dedicated to support our strike corps, the entire complexion of balance of power in the region will change for now India has upper hand in conventional warfare but Pakistani forces have proven that the worst period has gone pass as far as military parity in terms of quality is concerned thanks to close cooperation with China and Turkey. US has offered us many things if we somehow come out of what they call is a Chinese bloc, but it looks like Pak mil establishment has learned its lessons during the last 70 years and now is taking strategically correct steps!
