Early on July 2, 2021, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, the last US. troops hurried out in the dark of night.
General Asadullah Kohistani of the Afghan army is the new commander of the base. He said in interviews with foreign media that the US troops left at around 3 am, but the Afghan military did not find out until several hours later.
After the Americans left, the base was briefly plunged into darkness by a power cut, ‘A group of robbers broke into the camp and ransacked the barracks and tents one by one.’ Later, many of the camp’s supplies turned up in nearby thrift stores and scrapyards.
Kohistani said Americans left behind about 3.5 million items, including thousands of bottles of water, energy drinks and military ready meals. Thousands of civilian cars and armored vehicles were also parked in the base square.
The withdrawal of US. troops from Afghanistan continues. Professor Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghan Studies at Lanzhou University, told that the situation in Afghanistan has become more volatile since the withdrawal of US troops. In the future, the United States hopes to seek a second foothold in neighboring countries to consolidate the ‘anti-terrorism achievements’ of the past 20 years, but that is unlikely to happen.
Evacuate Bagram Overnight
On the morning of July 2, at the gate of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, the gun-toting sentries have been replaced by Asian-looking Afghan soldiers.
Bagram Air Base was once the largest US military base in Afghanistan. There is a runway capable of taking off and landing large military aircraft, and there are also large hangars, supporting buildings, evacuation zones and residential areas.
It is also a bustling “small town” with plenty of amenities, such as supermarket, cinema, swimming pool, spa, and branches of many well-known international fast-food restaurants and cafes. “USA” signs can be seen on buildings at the site. As you can see, the evacuation was extremely hasty. Pictures taken by foreign media at the base showed unfinished mineral water bottles on the ground, with white tins scattered and unopened.
In a scrap yard near the base, a pair of khaki military boots lay on the ground, surrounded by rusty wire, severed ropes, discarded wires and gravel.
On the same day, Afghan defense ministry spokesman Fawad Aman posted a statement on Twitter: ‘The US and coalition forces has completely withdrawn from the base last night and the base is now in the hands of Afghan national forces. In the future, Afghan forces will protect it and use it to fight terrorism.’
On July 2, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told CBS news that he welcomed the news of the bagram handover, adding that, ‘we want no more foreign soldiers in our land.’
Historically, Bagram Air Base is a microcosm of Afghanistan, which is dominated by the great power game.
According to public sources, the base was first built by the US for its Afghan Allies during the Cold War as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. It was occupied and expanded by the Soviet Union after its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. A decade later, with the Soviet Union out of the war, it was once again a battleground for Afghan forces.
Bagram Air Base has witnessed the international landscape of the post-World War II era and has been visited by many American presidents.
Another 20 years have passed since the September 11 attacks and Bagram is back in Afghan.
Bagram Air Base houses a prison where thousands of Taliban prisoners are held. In the Oscar-winning 2008 documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side,” Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver who was accused of being a terrorist, was handed over to American troops here.
According to the documentary’s investigation, Dilawar was tortured there. His hands were cuffed to the ceiling and he was repeatedly attacked in the thigh. Dillawar died a few days later. The medical verdict was that Dilawar’s leg had “festered”. If he’s still alive, he’ll need to amputate.
According to the documentary, of the more than 83,000 people held by the US military in Afghanistan as of 2007, 93 per cent were captured by local militias in exchange for US bounty money. Of the 105 detainees who died in captivity, 37 detainees had been officially classified as “murder” before 2007.
The “dark side” was originally put forward by former US vice President Dick Cheney. A few days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Cheney responded on a television program to questions about how the administration would track down the perpetrators. “We have to work on the dark side, if you will… It is important for us to achieve our goals by any means.”
At the Oscars, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney said, “Let us all hope that we can turn this country away from the dark side and back to the light.”
Biden’s Decision to Go
Over the past few months, the United States and its Allies have been pulling their troops out of Afghanistan as promised.
When NATO announces its withdrawal from Afghanistan in April 2021, the total number of troops in Afghanistan is about 9,600. The Germans numbered 1,100, second only to the Americans.
On June 29 local time, German Defense Minister Karen Bauer announced the end of the withdrawal. “The last German troops in Afghanistan are coming home, two decades of service are over,” she said. This is the end of a chapter in history and the Bundeswehr has stood the test.”
In the 20 years since the start of the war in Afghanistan, Germany has sent 150,000 troops, of whom 59 have died. Previously, the German Defense Ministry had said it would withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by the middle of July. For now, the Germans are ahead of schedule.
The next day, Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Gherini said the last few dozen Italian soldiers had left Afghanistan and that the country’s military mission was over. Of the 50,000 Italian soldiers who have reportedly served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, 53 have died while serving and 723 have been wounded.
The US is far and away the largest foreign military presence in Afghanistan. As of May 2021, there are about 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan. That is faster than expected, compared with the September 11th deadline Mr. Biden had promised.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan is more than 90 percent complete, according to a July 6 statement from THE US Central Command. The statement said the US military had formally handed over seven bases to Afghan security forces and had removed “the equivalent of the load of nearly 1,000 C-17 transport aircraft” from Afghanistan.
As usual, there was political opposition to Biden’s decision.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “Staying and leaving will have both predictable and unintended consequences, and one of the consequences would be the collapse of the Afghan government, leading to a Taliban takeover and a new civil war.” General Miller, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, also warned that “Afghanistan is headed for civil war” after the US withdrawal.
The Biden administration, however, appears to have made up its mind.
“I want to talk about the happy stuff,” Biden said when pressed by reporters about the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan during a July 4 Independence Day news conference.
“Democrats and Republicans in the United States have reached a consensus that there is no need for further delays in the US military presence in Afghanistan.” Sun Degang, a researcher at the Center for Middle East Studies at Fudan University, believes that in the past 20 years, the focus of the United States has shifted from countering terrorism to great power competition. To cut costs, the US military is shrinking from Syria to Afghanistan. Compared with central Asia and the Middle East, the US is currently focusing on the Indo-Pacific.
‘The Taliban are winning a propaganda war’
Sadat Hussain, 35 years old, lives in Kabul, the Afghan capital. He lost his job a year ago and now works as a freelance journalist. He told that several of his journalist friends had been killed in attacks in the past few months.
“Right now Afghanistan is going back to the dark ages and people’s lives are under threat. Both the government and the Taliban are a threat to us… I feel very depressed.”
“They left Afghanistan when it got really bad.” For the departure of the United States and coalition forces, Sadat said, “They spent billions of dollars here, and now 90 percent of Afghans are living below the poverty line and the whole country is at war.”
The Taliban’s attacks are increasing and they are gaining control of more and more areas.
In April 2021, a video of a woman being flogged went viral in Afghanistan. A woman in a hijab screamed in pain as men and boys looked on or took pictures.
“She committed adultery, and I would give the same order, but we shouldn’t do it in public,” one cleric said in a telephone interview, the Guardian reported on the matter on July 4.
Shaharzad Akbar, chairman of the Afghan independent human rights commission, retweeted the report on her personal twitter account, saying with concern: “As an Afghan woman, I don’t have the option to ‘talk about happy things’ and I have to worry about the impending gender segregation.”
In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s theocratic rule, which began in the 1990s, still casts a shadow. A significant portion of ordinary Afghans fear that if the Taliban returns to power, it will re-impose strict restrictions on Afghan society.
For example, the restriction of women under Taliban rule has long been criticized. Women must wear a hijab; They may be beaten if they go out unaccompanied; A woman cannot work or leave the house for any reason without a male “guardian,” a role that can even be filled by a pre-adolescent son, nephew or brother.
SamZarifi, secretary general of the international commission of jurists, also said that as the international community abandoned Afghanistan, a generation of brave and strong women faced the nightmare of a Taliban resurgence.
Against this backdrop, the Taliban have continued to reassure people with amnesty offers and high-profile displays of American-style equipment seized from Afghan government forces. On social media platforms in recent days, the Taliban have posted numerous videos of seizing new areas and allowing foreign journalists into areas which are under their control, while the Afghan government has appeared “quieter”, with its representatives appearing less frequently in the media to explain its positions and offer assurances to the public. “The Taliban are winning a propaganda war,” commented Sky News in Britain.
Far from being vanquished, the Taliban have gained some international recognition after 20 years of fighting their fiercest rival. In many public appearances, Taliban spokesmen have been projecting an image of change, with messages of peace and promises of education and work for women.
Sun Degang, a researcher at Fudan University’s Center for Middle East Studies, said the Taliban’s image had improved considerably in recent years. After 9/11, they cut ties with al-Qaeda. At the same time, it sought to portray itself as an Afghan nationalist. In addition, the Taliban’s control is mainly in the countryside, and they have done a lot to fight corruption and alleviate poverty, which has won many people’s hearts and minds.
“The withdrawal of the most powerful enemy, the United States, is even more encouraging to the Taliban. Now that the Taliban are gaining momentum and are likely to take full control, many outside countries are hedging their bets and hoping to take the initiative in foreign relations. It reinforces the legitimacy of the Taliban regime.” “Sun Degang said.
As foreign troops leave Afghanistan, fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban has intensified.
According to Al Jazeera and AFP reports On July 4, local officials confirmed that the Taliban captured several key areas in Badakhshan province in the northeast and Kandahar province in the south. Many of these areas were “successfully captured by the Taliban without a fight”.
Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province borders Tajikistan and China. Defeated by the Taliban, many Afghan soldiers ventured across the border. Reuters reported that a senior Afghan official confirmed that hundreds of people had crossed into Tajikistan, but they did not know the exact number. “The Taliban have cut off all the roads and these people have nowhere to go but across the border.” On July 5, the President of Tajikistan issued a mobilization order for an additional 20,000 military reservists to strengthen border control.
“The Taliban has had many successes, but this is related to the strategic contraction of the Ghani government, and there is still a big challenge to return to power.” Zhu Yongbiao analysis said, from the hearts and minds, Afghanistan is not “one-sided” at present, the proportion of supporters of both sides continued dynamic change. From the perspective of the international community, both sides have supporters and legitimacy.
“At present, the Afghan government forces and Taliban forces are engaged in a seesaw battle, each side has its own sphere of influence. “It is unclear who will be in charge of Afghanistan in the future.” “Mr. Zhu said.
Will the US army leave a tail?
Among the large troop withdrawals from Afghanistan exists a special group.
Since entering Afghanistan, the U.S. military and its Allies have employed a number of local people, including interpreters to exchange messages. The United States has said it will evacuate thousands of at-risk Afghan interpreters so they can safely complete their visa applications before withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
“Those who have helped us will not be left behind… They are welcome here, as are others who risk their lives to help us.” Biden said.
A #TakeThemToo campaign was launched on the social networking platform Twitter on July 4. In a public video, 11 members of The U.S. Congress appeared on camera to call for the “immediate withdrawal of Afghan interpreters who have served alongside U.S. forces.” “There are thousands of Afghan interpreters on our side, as loyal as any one of us,” lawmaker Jake Auchincloss said in the video.
However, America’s loyal friends are now stuck with the Taliban.
“The so-called public opinion campaign reflects the ‘broken promise’ of the United States.” “In fact, the United States does not directly issue immigration visas for these people, but sets a lot of thresholds,” Zhu said. For example, they need proof of service, clean record and so on. The number of people who can actually get visas is relatively small.
“The Taliban issued an amnesty and promised to protect foreign embassies and consulates. But the Taliban had little to say about those who had served with the Americans. “This contrast is feeding fears among the community of liquidation and retribution if the Taliban takes power.” “Zhu Yongbiao said.
At the same time, reports show that the United States is trying to carry out a lot of “small gestures” in Afghanistan’s surrounding countries.
The US government has asked three Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — to temporarily shelter about 9,000 Afghan citizens working for the US, according to two people familiar with the matter. The State Department declined to comment.
At the same time, “the U.S. military talks with Pakistan to build military bases” also spread. In response, Pakistani officials have repeatedly clarified as “false news” and said that “the United States rejects any military base in the country”.
Relocation of “friends”, rumors of a military base… Many have speculated that the United States can find a second foothold in Central Asia to continue to pressure the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“The United States has this intention, but it is not certain that the neighboring countries can cooperate with the United States.” Zhu Yongbiao said that after the withdrawal of US troops, if the US can find a second foothold in neighboring countries in the future, it will be able to maintain its strategic deterrence against terrorist and extremist forces in Afghanistan and consolidate the “anti-terrorism achievements” of the past 20 years. However, the neighboring countries should also consider the benefits and losses, potential risks and demonstration effects, as well as the attitude of neighboring powers such as Russia and Iran.
“Similar cooperation is possible, depending on what kind of bargaining chip the United States offers and the way of cooperation. At present, the US and relevant countries are refusing to comment or show their attitude on the rumors. It also suggests that future collaborations may be secret or semi-public.”
“It is possible for the United States to have a tail in Afghanistan.” Sun Degang believes that for a period of time in the future, the US military may also undertake the training mission of Afghan government forces. At the same time, the US military may also leave drone bases in Afghanistan for special military missions such as targeted killings and precision strikes.
However, Sun also believes it will be difficult for the United States to try to build military bases in neighboring countries.
“Building military bases in Islamic countries is easily politicized, and there have been many examples of the opposite. If anti-American sentiment is generated over the military base, it will lead to conflicts with the host country. With these lessons in mind, I believe the United States will be more cautious about military bases.” “Sun Degang said.