I didn’t write about this when it happened at the time.
The GOP wasn’t screaming about how pulling out of Bagram Air Force Base was the worst catastrophe in history at the time. The “journalists” were still ignoring Afghanistan even though the Taliban was steadily gaining ground. Joe Biden was quietly moving forward with Donald Trump’s peace deal with the Taliban after postponing the withdrawal deadline from May 1 to August 31.
“KABUL, Afghanistan—American troops and their Western allies have departed Bagram, Afghanistan’s largest air base, officials said on Friday, turning over to the Afghan government the sprawling outpost from which the United States waged war for nearly two decades.
With little fanfare and no public ceremony, American troops left the base on Thursday night, U.S. and Afghan officials said.
The Afghan military “will protect the base and use it to combat terrorism,” said Fawad Aman, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense.
The closure of Bagram, a symbol of America’s costly operations in Afghanistan, comes just weeks before the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops, who entered the country in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. …”
The U.S. pulled out of Bagram Air Force Base on July 2.
There is no story here except the fact that the fake Afghan government had no legitimacy and its fake army folded like a deck of cards. It couldn’t stand on its own two feet without American military support. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in less than a month.
Do you remember what it was like in Afghanistan when we had Bagram Air Force Base in early July? There were no U.S. casualties in Afghanistan because we had brokered a peace deal with the Taliban to leave the country. The alternative was breaking with peace deal with the Taliban, holding Bagram Air Force Base and going back to war with the Taliban and remaining mired in Afghanistan’s civil war.
For what? If twenty years of occupying the country wasn’t sufficient to snuff out the terrorists (Osama bin Laden himself left shortly after 9/11), what would staying there at Bagram Air Force Base accomplish? To assist with the evacuation? Are we supposed to believe that was seriously the goal when Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo are saying that they had no intention of ever abandoning Bagram Air Force Base?
There’s something strange about abandoning Bagram so early in an evacuation. Ought to have been the last post to be held. The generals really fucked up.
Either it’s intensional or incompetence. Maybe a mix. I have been saying for a few months that I don’t think the US military could mobilize for combat anymore. Didn’t even occur to me they were incapable of retreat also. You would think running away would be easier.
Bagram Air Base was supposedly defensible, while Kabul Airport is (clearly) not. There’s no way to spin this clusterf**k in a good way for Bidet, Hunter.