Reuters – July 2, 2021
- Soviet-built air strip became vast U.S. base
- U.S. to leave behind only an embassy protection force
- Taliban sweeping into districts as foreign troops go home
- Effective end to war launched after Sept. 11 attacks
KABUL, July 2 (Reuters) – American troops pulled out of their main military base in Afghanistan on Friday, leaving behind a piece of the World Trade Center they buried 20 years ago in a country that the top U.S. commander has warned may descend into civil war without them.
“All American soldiers and members of NATO forces have left the Bagram air base,” said a senior U.S. security official on condition of anonymity.
American troops pulled out of their main military base in Afghanistan on Friday, a U.S. defense official said. Here is a chronicle of U.S. involvement and major developments in Afghanistan over the past two decades https://t.co/r0MunKa3PQ pic.twitter.com/EKteThVpmk
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 2, 2021
U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that the U.S. withdrawal is “on track,” but that some American forces still will be in Afghanistan in September as part of a “rational drawdown with allies.” read more
Even so, the Bagram pullout brings an effective end to the longest war in American history.
The base, an hour’s drive north of Kabul, was where the U.S. military has coordinated its air war and logistical support for its entire Afghan mission. The Taliban thanked them for leaving.
What you need to know about Bagram, the Soviet-built air strip that became America's main Afghan base https://t.co/61VoPH0u8l pic.twitter.com/pOfM4pzKxU
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 2, 2021
“We consider this withdrawal a positive step. Afghans can get closer to stability and peace with the full withdrawal of foreign forces,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.
Other Afghans were more circumspect. “The Americans must leave Afghanistan and there should be peace in this country,” said Kabul resident Javed Arman. But he added: “We are in a difficult situation. Most people have fled their districts and some districts have fallen. Seven districts in Paktia province have fallen and are now under Taliban control.”
For the international forces, more than 3,500 of whom died in Afghanistan, the exit came with no pageantry. A Western diplomat in Kabul said the United States and its NATO allies had “won many battles, but have lost the Afghan war”.
It was at Bagram, by a bullet-ridden Soviet-built air strip on a plain hemmed in by the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush, that New York City firefighters and police were flown to bury a piece of the World Trade Center in December, 2001, days after the Taliban were toppled for harbouring Osama bin Laden.
The longest war: Scenes from two decades in Afghanistan https://t.co/TJwYQXEPuL pic.twitter.com/WKpiCJCY7N
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) July 2, 2021
It was also here that the CIA ran a “black site” detention centre for terrorism suspects and subjected them to abuse that President Barack Obama subsequently acknowledged as torture.
Later it swelled into a sprawling fortified city for a huge international military force, with fast food joints, gyms and a cafe serving something called “the mother of all coffees”. Two runways perpetually roared. Presidents flew in and gave speeches; celebrities came and told jokes.
An Afghan official said the base would be officially handed over to the government at a ceremony on Saturday.
The U.S. defence official said General Austin Miller, the top U.S.commander in Afghanistan “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the force” stationed in the capital, Kabul.
Earlier this week, Miller told journalists in Kabul that civil war for Afghanistan was “certainly a path that can be visualised”, with Taliban fighters sweeping into districts around the country in recent weeks as foreign troops flew home.
Two other U.S. security officials said this week the majority of U.S. military personnel would most likely be gone by July 4, with a residual force remaining to protect the embassy.
That would be more than two months ahead of the timetable set by Biden, who had promised they would be home by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attack that brought them here.
Washington agreed to withdraw in a deal negotiated last year with the Taliban under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, and Biden rejected advice from generals to hang on until a political agreement could be reached between the insurgents and the U.S.-backed Kabul government of President Ashraf Ghani.
“MANAGE THE CONSEQUENCES”
Last week, Ghani visited Washington. Biden told him: “Afghans are going to have to decide their future, what they want”. Ghani said his job was now to “manage the consequences” of the U.S. withdrawal.
In exchange for the U.S. withdrawal, the Taliban have promised not to allow international terrorists to operate from Afghan soil. They made a commitment to negotiate with the Afghan government, but those talks, in the Qatari capital Doha, made little progress.
In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan this week said the United States was firmly committed to assist Afghanistan and will provide security assistance of $3 billion in 2022.
“We urge an end to violence, respect for the human rights of all Afghans and serious negotiations in Doha so that a just and durable peace may be achieved,” the embassy stated.
The Taliban refuse to declare a ceasefire. Afghan soldiers have been surrendering or abandoning their posts. Militia groups that fought against the Taliban before the Americans arrived are taking up arms to fight them again.
A senior western diplomat said the United States has asked three Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – to temporarily provide home to about 10,000 Afghan citizens who had either worked with the U.S. or allied forces.
Several European nations were also providing refuge to hundreds of Afghan employees and their families as they faced direct threat from the Taliban.
Since Biden’s announcement that he would press ahead with Trump’s withdrawal plan, insurgents have made advances across Afghanistan, notably in the north, where for years after their ouster they had a minimal presence.
Fighting was intensifying between government forces and the Taliban in the northeastern province of Badakshan, officials said on Friday.
If US forces do genuinely leave, what does this mean for the CIA’ s heroin supply and for the US attempt to subvert Chinese and Russian trade and pipeline initiatives?
Does this mean that troops will be freed up for an attack on Iran?
Iran has held talks with Taliban, and it seems they have accepted not to cross Iran’s red lines after US withdrawal. It is in the interest of US to fake itself as a source of stability, recent deadly bombings targeting schools were designed to score more points just before leaving.
Shiite Afghans (Fatemioon) who fought ISIS returned to Afghanistan, some Taliban officials branded them as Iranian intruders, but Taliban can see that it has to cooperate with Iran, even in Taliban there are different views. The current Afghan government is clearly a US puppet and absolutely useless, at the same time many in Afghanistan don’t like or trust Taliban. Not long ago a key Taliban leader who was extremely anti-Iran was assassinated. Taliban has also cooperated with Iran to capture anti-Iran terrorists and handed them over. So if US dose not brew some evil plan after departing, we can be sure Afghanistan will head for a new government formed of Taliban and pro-Iran groups.
You must understand, these countries of the region are artificial and satellites, there are only about 7 organic civilizations in the world despite what may appear, even now real power centers in the world project power beyond borders.
US was unable to build the region, otherwise the entire world would have loved it. Zionists are only interested in keeping the region in a “wrecked” state. US leaving region is a nightmare scenario for Zionists, because Iran is the Godfather of the region and the only force for reconstruction and improvement, many would love to become part of Iran again. Not by force but willingly specially now that the smoke has settled and people can see more clearly.
China and Iran are going ahead with Silk-road vision, many countries in the region will be part of this massive project and the entire region will flourish. The amount of expected economic growth and development is staggering, India was left out mainly because its current leadership is a US puppet.
It is sad that US was sacrificed like this for the crazy ideas of Zionists. All of the countries allied with US, specially puppet Arab states will be losers, even now they feel that things are about to change.
Iran is going for the second phase of its Islamic Revolution and many of its borrowed subsystems have to be redesigned and changed, banking-system is on top of the list. Americans should do the same, they need a real revolution, even secession.
They said Iran’s election was bad because only 48.8% participated! Compare France with 28%… and just see how the media spreads crap! Iranians really won over the tyranny of media and centers of wealth, both inside and outside. Liberals just lost power in Iran, this is big but nobody talks about this.
Well, Given that all official news comes from Associated Press and Reuters. While Reuters owns AP, and the Rothschilds own Reuters, Given the very astute comment by anonymous above, it appears to me unlikely that we can take this article at face value. The heroin will possibly have no-one to buy it soon, according to Deagle, http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=211746, or the troops are needed for war with Iran/Russia. The US has served it’s purpose, and China seems to be the new US for the world controlling Mafiosa. It looks unlikely that the masked zombies will awaken soon, so things don’t look good for the years ahead.
They are not afraid of Civil War but the expansion of Russia and the likelihood that it attains the Indian Ocean, for a big increase in power.
Just another Orwellian war, to kill off more white gentile males, ‘fighting for your freedoms’…
The FBI never had a stitch of evidence Bin Laden in Afghanistan participated in 9/11 (I looked it up at their website) but there was so much evidence Israel demolished the Twin Towers and frontran the Bin Laden story from a BBC studio the morning of 9/11 that the US had to appoint the sayanim Zelikow to oversee the coverup for America’s greatest ally (not). And still the rumors never died down. I know even the jew Zabrosky is pissed about what Israel did on 9/11, and several decades from now he might just strike Tel Aviv and strike hard. If the War College agrees. So trust the plan (not). Besides, it’s fourth of July and we just want to be happy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JX5H1r7JcM
To the Iranian–I think your country and India stem from a civilisation in Central Asia. Something bad happened and they had to move south and west. It was at the Altai Mountains, probably, and the Dennisovan people, not known until the 1990s, might be involved. They are like the Neanderthals in that only a few per cent of their DNA is in people today. These considerations, incidentally, help us to eschew propaganda about African origins for modern humans.