A man collects valuable items at a recycling workshop near the Bagram Air Base, in Bagram on June 17, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)
BAGRAM -"Nothing important or valuable has been left at Bagram, but piles of scrap that we are buying for dealers," Gul Mohammad, an Afghan scrap dealer, told Xinhua on Saturday.
Once the coalition's largest military base in Afghanistan, the Bagram facility accommodated more than 40,000 troops, before it was handed over to Afghan government forces on Thursday. The "scrap" of which he speaks is trashed vehicles, generators, uniforms and boots of US soldiers.
Once the coalition's largest military base in Afghanistan, the Bagram facility accommodated more than 40,000 troops, before it was handed over to Afghan government forces on Thursday. The "scrap" of which he speaks is trashed vehicles, generators, uniforms and boots of US soldiers
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Forces based in Bagram reportedly smashed everything of any value before evacuating.
Gul, 65, laughed as he described the withdrawal from Bagram as a "humiliating defeat," and that is certainly how it looks to many. Scrap was heaped up like garbage outside the base and their hasty withdrawal clearly speaks of defeat.
The scrap dealers in Bagram are only too aware that the United States and its coalition failed to achieve their goal after military invasion and occupying the country, at least in part, for 20 years.
According to Gul, the invaders arrived to annihilate the Taliban and al-Qaida following the 9/11 terror attacks and failed on both accounts. The Taliban and al-Qaida remain active and operational in Afghanistan.
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"America came to destroy the terrorists but have been beaten by the terrorists and run away," Gul said.
An airfield built 50 years ago, the Bagram base, 50 km north of Kabul, was the US military center in Afghanistan where high-profile militants and suspects were held, including Taliban commanders.
Surrounded by concrete and razor wire, the status of Bagram as a stronghold quickly evaporated as the last troops scampered for home with their mission a failure and their standing in the eyes of Afghans lower than ever before.
Militants have declared victory and the "defeat of the mighty military power." The Taliban, they say, has driven the US troops out of Afghanistan, a view shared by many thriving on the mess they left behind.