President Biden is serious about leaving Afghanistan on its own…..
American troops and their Western allies have departed Bagram, the last active air base used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, officials said on Friday, effectively ending major U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.
With little fanfare and no public ceremony, American troops left the base on Thursday night, U.S. and Afghan officials said, even as the Taliban sweeps through the country’s northern provinces, capturing large swathes of territory. The closure, a symbol of the United States’ costly operations in Afghanistan, turned over to the Afghan government the sprawling installation from which the United States waged war for nearly two decades.
The departure from the base weeks before the planned withdrawal of American troops in mid July, and months ahead of President’s Biden announced Sept. 11 departure, highlights Washington’s efforts to signal two different messages: one to the U.S. public that its longest foreign war is ending, and another to the Afghan government that the United States is not abandoning the country in the middle of a Taliban offensive.
Bagram was operating at full capacity until the end on Thursday. Fighter jets, cargo planes and surveillance aircraft relied on the twin runways until it was no longer feasible to keep them in the country….
It IS becoming evident to those in Afghanistan that the Americans ARE leaving, except for a small force…..
Those who can leave the country ARE leaving….
The piece below points to things President Biden has seen in intel briefings that suggest a government that is corrupt and has little concern for its citizens….A Military that weak except for it’s Spec Ops units that trained extensively with American NATO Spec Ops and should still be in touch with the advisors…
The place is on many levels that has been held together by America and NATO….
Biden does NOT want to extend that…
And now?
Several tribes have gone back to arming up to fight the Taliban in the tradition tribe driven culture vs the Western nationalist way of government….
The government passport office has been jam-packed in recent days, filled with a jostling mob, even though visa options for Afghans are severely limited. Some of the humanitarian organizations on which the beleaguered citizenry depend said they would begin limiting the number of expatriate employees kept in the country, anticipating a worsening of the security climate.
The security blanket that the United States provided for two decades haunts the Afghan government’s actions, in-actions and policies, fostering an atrophying of any proactive planning, in the view of some analysts. If there is a plan to counter the Taliban advance, it is not evident as the government’s hold on the countryside shrinks.
Intelligence estimates for the government’s collapse and a Taliban takeover have ranged from six months to two years. Whenever it comes, the outlook is likely to be grim for Mr. Ghani and his circle, as recent Afghan history demonstrates. Several of his predecessors in the country’s top job have met violent ends….
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Recent days have seen government forces regain control of key districts in the northern city of Kunduz. But since the new cabinet appointments, more than a dozen additional districts have fallen.
Humvees, weapons and piles of ammunition have fallen into Taliban hands, much of it paraded triumphantly on videos released on social media by the group’s propagandists. The insurgents have even made easy inroads in northern provinces far from their homelands in southern Afghanistan, areas they struggled to capture in their mid-1990s takeover.
Yet the government seems detached from the onslaught on its soldiers and citizens. In the wealthier neighborhoods of Kabul, a frequent high-stakes poker game, with as much as $120,000 on the table, includes government officials, several people who have observed the game told The New York Times. At least one observer said he had seen people in positions of responsibility at the game, which he deplored as misguided at a time of national crisis….
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“A soldier sitting there, watching, asks, ‘Should I sacrifice my life?’” he added. “That’s why we are seeing soldiers surrendering across Afghanistan.”….
More on the Biden admin and West assistance to the Afghans …
…The United States military will still help Afghan forces, just by teleconference from afar. Armed Air Force drones will still hunt Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists, just from bases eight hours away in the Persian Gulf. The Biden administration still plans to provide the Afghan government more than $3 billion in security assistance, just with not as much oversight in the country to prevent corruption.
In reality, however, much has changed in the three months since President Biden ordered most of the 3,500 American troops to leave by Sept. 11. There are no more Americans on the ground to advise and assist Afghan troops. Few of the 18,000 Pentagon contractors will remain to repair Afghanistan’s air force and its fleet of American-supplied Black Hawk helicopters. Only two other NATO military allies are staying — Turkey and Britain — and most of their troops will be holed up in fortified embassy compounds or securing Kabul International Airport, that last major gateway out of the country.
Speaking on Friday, Mr. Biden underscored his administration’s dueling messages as it sought to reassure the American public that its so-called forever wars are winding down, at least militarily, while trying to convince beleaguered Afghans that the United States is not abandoning the country at a moment when intelligence analysts assess that the government could fall in as few as six months to a resurgent Taliban….
More…
Biden edgy about Afghan questions from the media…
U.S. Will Be Out of Afghanistan Next Month
Associated Press: “Biden had instructed the Pentagon to complete the military withdrawal by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, but the Pentagon now says it can finish the drawdown a little earlier.”
“In fact, the drawdown is already largely completed and officials had said it could be wrapped up this weekend. But a number of related issues need to be worked out in coming weeks, including a new U.S. military command structure in Kabul and talks with Turkey on an arrangement for maintaining security at the Kabul airport, and so an official end to the pullout will not be announced soon.”
The U.S. military has completed 90 percent of President Joe Biden’s promised Afghanistan withdrawal, U.S. Central Command announced on Tuesday.
The news comes days after the military vacated Bagram air base, the focal point of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan for the last 20 years. The U.S. has officially handed over seven facilities to the Afghan Ministry of Defense, including Bagram….
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“If the Afghan government does not get a handle on the security situation and finds a way to regain control of the north, its tenure may well be measured in weeks or months,” Roggio said in a statement….
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