WASHINGTON: Keen to avoid a repeat of the Saigon fiasco and the traumatic pictures it yielded as Americans exited Vietnam in 1975, US forces on Friday quietly and abruptly packed up from the Bagram air base outside Kabul and turned the facility over to the Afghan government.
The handover brought to an end for now Bagram’s status as a military hub for foreign intervention: The former Soviet Union controlled it for a decade from 1978 to 1988, and after a 13-year interregnum when various Afghan factions fought over it, the Americans occupied it for almost two decades after the 9/1 terrorist attack on the United States.
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An emboldened Taliban insurgency is making battlefield gains, and prospective peace talks are stalled.
Some fear that onceA spokesman for Afghanistan’s ministry of defence told reporters that the Afghan military “will protect the base and use it to combat terrorism,” even as there have been reports of Taliban overrunning several towns and districts amid projections by US analysts that Kabul itself could fall to within months.
The Taliban was restrained in its celebration notwithstanding the perception that the US exit was a victory for the fundamentalist force, with its spokesman describing it as a “positive step” that would allow Afghans “to move closer to peace and se­cu­rity.” 1/11US troops leave Bagram after two decades of war Previous NextShow CaptionsAn Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier looks out while standing on a Humvee vehicle at Bagram Air Base, after all US and NATO troops left, some 70 Km north of Kabul.
(AFP photo) American soldiers approach the United Nations planes on the tarmac of the Bagram airbase in Bagram.
(AFP file photo)An Afghan National Army soldier stands guard at a check post near Bagram US air base, on the day the last of American troops vacated it, Parwan province, Afghanistan.
(Reuters Photo)All US and NATO troops have left Bagram Air Base, a US defence official told AFP.
(AFP file photo)A US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft takes off for a nighttime mission at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.
(Reuters Photo)Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division prepare ground to bury a piece of rubble from the World Trade Center at Bagram Air Field north of Kabu.
(Reuters Photo)Firefighter Joseph Higgins of the New York City Fire Department poses with soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at Bagram air field north of Kabul.
(Reuters Photo)Afghan soldiers stand guard at the gate of Bagram US airbase, on the day the last of American troops vacated it.
(Reuters Photo)Afghan soldiers stand guard at the gate of Bahram US airbase, as the US and NATO leave the airbase.
(AFP Photo)A general view shows Bagram airbase, after all, US and NATO troops left, some 70 Km north of Kabu.
(AFP Photo)
An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier sits at a road checkpoint near the US military base in Bagram, some 50 km north of Kabul.
(AFP Photo)Many Americans saw it differently, including the US military leadership that eventually had to bow to a political decision.
“Civil war is certainly a path that can be visualized if it continues on the trajectory it’s on.
That should be a concern for the world.” General Austin Miller, the top US commander who led the US war in Afghanistan told reporters in what is expected to be the last US military briefing in Kabul.
Most other allied forces — from 36 countries — have already exited Afghanistan.
The United States is expected to retain a contingent of around 650 troops to protect its embassy in Kabul.
At the peak of the American presence, more than 100,000 US troops were scattered across the country, almost all entering and exiting through Bagram, which, about 70 kms north of Kabul, was itself was something of a mini-city, featuring among other things, American fast food outlets.
Technically, the Biden administration’s deadline for full and complete withdrawal is September 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist event that led to the US invasion of Afghanistan.
US analysts and planners who support the exit maintain that Washington has succeeded in eviscerating Al Qaeda, which carried out the attack, and sending a strong message to Taliban not to host them again.
Skeptics warn that Taliban will be back in control soon, and they will continue to patronize Al Qaeda and spin-offs such as ISIS.
“Biden’s Afghan pullout is an unforced error, likely to have very bad consequences.
Trump began the process, and would have carried it out even more recklessly.
But this is on Biden, and all we who supported him can do is urge him, again, to reverse course,” the conservative commentator Bill Kristol said.
For now, the US plans to protect its interests in Afghanistan with what is called “over the horizon” missions – air support from aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf, and bases in Qatar or UAE.
Whether that will be effective, given that the US could not tame the Taliban even with troops on ground over two decades, is doubtful.
The US lost close to 2400 troops in Afghanistan, with another 1000 casualties from coalition allies.
Afghan casualties were many times the western toll.