Why? Is it worth all this rhetoric?

pic.twitter.com/IwSyuGrEy3

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 20, 2025

Just blow it up already. Should have done that before the US left. Another Biden blunder.

NM.

The Afghan Foreign Minister responds to Trump's demand👆 to reclaim the Bagram Air Base:

"Not even a grain of our soil will be given to the Americans, let alone the air base. If necessary, we will fight them for another 20 years." pic.twitter.com/1q5zhJBgdm

— Rami Rahamim רמי רחמים (@RamiRahamim) September 21, 2025

Do we really want it? Or is this more fixation on how things should have been done rather than what is best for the present and future.

CS78 said:

---

Do we really want it? Or is this more fixation on how things should have been done rather than what is best for the present and future.

---

I recall hearing some talking head say that it has to do with China.

Why does Trump want to regain control of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan? - Gazeta Express https://share.google/Mcz6Sui5OwjebH2DF

Patriot25 said:

---

CS78 said:

---

Do we really want it? Or is this more fixation on how things should have been done rather than what is best for the present and future.

---

I recall hearing some talking head say that it has to do with China.

---

It has everything to do with China. One of kicks them out and keeps them from furthering use it at their pleaseure.

But it is also closest to their uranium sources and I believe their enrichment facilities and maybe even nuclear weapons fabrication area.

We should have never let Bagram go. It provides a central point for intelligence, location etc that was a huge asset.

Thx, I guess that explains it, the Chicom stuff 1200 miles away from Bagram.

Still another 'bad Trump' though, imho. If Trump wants to negotiate with the Chinese to stop increasing their nuke arsenal he should do that, not threaten to take Bagram so we can go bomb their facilities or some such idiocy.

Long range stealth drones/tankers (think unmanned B-21 etc) will/should render a need to populate the globe/asia with American bases is just silly/outdated.

That Peepaw and Milley surrendered Bagram first, during summer fighting season, is still an all-time self-own militarily speaking. It would have been far safer to just evacuate forces from Bagram than the downtown airport, but that was maybe part of the humiliation effort, which was wildly successful.

Dumb. Nuke it from orbit and move on.

Why give it back to the Russians? I say we keep it for ourselves.

There are a lot of things worth fighting for but until Trump can explain why we need that base, it isn't one of them.

It's not worth spilling one drop of American blood to intervene in the sewer that is Afghanistan. ….and most all of the Middle East. Leave it to rot

Say they give it to us, the military there would be dealing with daily rocket and mortar attacks.

Martin Q. Blank said:

---

Say they give it to us, the military there would be dealing with daily rocket and mortar attacks.

---

Would be a nightmare.

nortex97 said:

---

Thx, I guess that explains it, the Chicom stuff 1200 miles away from Bagram.

Still another 'bad Trump' though, imho. If Trump wants to negotiate with the Chinese to stop increasing their nuke arsenal he should do that, not threaten to take Bagram so we can go bomb their facilities or some such idiocy.

Long range stealth drones/tankers (think unmanned B-21 etc) will/should render a need to populate the globe/asia with American bases is just silly/outdated.

That Peepaw and Milley surrendered Bagram first, during summer fighting season, is still an all-time self-own militarily speaking. It would have been far safer to just evacuate forces from Bagram than the downtown airport, but that was maybe part of the humiliation effort, which was wildly successful.

---

There's zero operational reason to want Bagram back….this is essentially performative politics.

Quote:

---

Still another 'bad Trump' though, imho. If Trump wants to negotiate with the Chinese to stop increasing their nuke arsenal he should do that, not threaten to take Bagram so we can go bomb their facilities or some such idiocy.

---

It's leverage. China does not want us to have Bagram.

Martin Q. Blank said:

---

Say they give it to us, the military there would be dealing with daily rocket and mortar attacks.

---

This is not the Biden admin. If Trump is going to take Bagram he has a plan for both acquisition and ongoing security.

It's funny that people still fall for "Trump battling vocal diarrhea and obviously has no real plan" only to find out he had a well designed plan and will likely lead to full success.

agAngeldad said:

---

We should have never let Bagram go. It provides a central point for intelligence, location etc that was a huge asset.

---

And it cost an absolute fortune to logistically support operations there. I'm reminded of the 145 mile road to no where we spent something like half a billion bucks on, over 12 years while in peak nation-building-fail there.

But regrets are one thing, we are continuing to ship millions to the Taliban weekly. As of a year and a half ago, we'd shipped them around $3 billion since graciously exiting their country in a feckless way. We are still sending them money to this very day.

Funding refugees, that’s hilarious!

We’ve heard from people inside the Taliban that the parade was cancelled at Bagram Air Base so they wouldn’t piss off @realDonaldTrump—who is keeping the millions in U.S. taxpayer counterterrorism dollars flowing to terrorists through the Doha… https://t.co/PQRP7HUbML

— Sarah Adams (@TPASarah) August 16, 2025

To add insult to injury, we just brought over Al Qaeda (which also benefits from our cash payments to the Taliban, oh by the way) to walk around the Pentagon, and tour NYC (the Syrian branch with Jolani).

Imagine being a US soldier who spent years fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. You saw fellow soldiers die. You lived in fear of the next Al Qaeda attack on your base.

Now it is 2025. Al Qaeda is walking freely through the Pentagon in Washington DC with top diplomatic official… https://t.co/ZNcuSpEzpL

— Lacy MacAuley (@lacymacauley) September 20, 2025

“See this beautiful city? We still want to bomb it, just not now because we need the sanctions removed.” https://t.co/Ec58nPFm7d pic.twitter.com/3zZ9eJzuGw

— SyrianOSINT (@SyrianOsint) September 21, 2025

This make believe exercise in Afghanistan and Syria alike will not end well.

Bagrahm was and is easily defendable. We should have NEVER left it. We should have dialed back out presence, down to a few thousand permanent stationed there.

Make it like Germany. The force projection and security/Intel launch print it provided was beyond value.

How would security of Bagram compare to the Baghdad "green zone" during the 2nd Iraq war and aftermath? Easier? More difficult? Generally just asking.

At this point, I assume we would have to essentially destroy to get it back. That thing will be overflowing with terrorists armed to the teeth.

How are you going to take it back without first bombing it into obvlivion to clear the deck? If you don't' do that, you would have to air drop soldiers into that area and get a lot of them killed storming it.

Right? What other options are there?

Why do we want a drug treatment center?

Small EMP. Takes care of all comms, bugs, booby twaps (electronic ones).

Then use gas or other non kinetic means to remove the people. I really don't care if it's lethal or non lethal. Maybe 24 hour notice then lethal.

Chain gang of deportees to pickup trash and paint and build fences. They act up, they are released outside the gates.

YouBet said:

---

At this point, I assume we would have to essentially destroy to get it back. That thing will be overflowing with terrorists armed to the teeth.

How are you going to take it back without first bombing it into obvlivion to clear the deck? If you don't' do that, you would have to air drop soldiers into that area and get a lot of them killed storming it.

Right? What other options are there?

---

Um. Not doing anything about it.

I mean…that's an option.

Can we also take back Minneapolis, Detroit, New York and Houston from Muslim terrorists too?

RAB87 said:

---

Can we also take back Minneapolis, Detroit, New York and Houston too?

---

They can also start with the airports like Bagram!

Should have never left it. Thank the embarrassment of the Biden administration for that embarrassment.

Did Trump's exit strategy include us keeping Bagram? I don't recall.

I do know that Biden FUBAR'ed the strategy by abandoning it and trying to leave out of the other airport getting 13 people murdered.

agAngeldad said:

---

We should have never let Bagram go. It provides a central point for intelligence, location etc that was a huge asset.

---

Spot on. It's easily worth a few american soldiers a year or 2 to keep a foothold in the middle east.

Quote:

---

Long range stealth drones/tankers (think unmanned B-21 etc) will/should render a need to populate the globe/asia with American bases is just silly/outdated.

---

This is the thinking of the the US post-WWII. With long range bombers, what else do we need? It was the justifcation to split the Air Force into its own branch, and to reduce the dependence on ground forces. Then the Korean War happened and we were woefully unprepared. Dependent on long range bombing, the communists were on the verge of taking Pusan until we finally got ground troops there. Once there, the ground troops pushed the communists almost entirely into China, before the Chinese entered and we fought to a stalemate.

This lesson is still taught today about the risk of depending too heavily on air power.

20 years wasn't enough! Let's go back to Afghanistan

Task force smith and our unpreparedness for the Korean War I'd put in a separate category vs. the revolution in military affairs happening now with drones/unmanned combat aircraft etc.

We can deliver military force without nuclear ICBM's or relying on massive bases across the globe looking forward today. Your analogy I think breaks down for that reason.

Vepp said:

---

agAngeldad said:

---

We should have never let Bagram go. It provides a central point for intelligence, location etc that was a huge asset.

---

Spot on. It's easily worth a few american soldiers a year or 2 to keep a foothold in the middle east.

---

(Checks notes)


Shocked to see…


Al Udied Air Base
Ali Al Salem Air Base


…………


Among others….

YouBet said:

---

Did Trump's exit strategy include us keeping Bagram? I don't recall.

I do know that Biden FUBAR'ed the strategy by abandoning it and trying to leave out of the other airport getting 13 people murdered.

---

Honestly I think the only one that could answer that is Trump.
I don't think the plans were finalized.

What was the car at that point in time. We were down to under 10,000 personnel in the country and had been at those numbers long enough most people had forgotten we were still there. I want to say I've seen that we could defend/hold the facility with less than 5,000. That would include intelligent officials keeping eyes on the whole region.

The ANA would not have collapsed as long as we had their backs, even though we weren't doing much if any of the actual door kicking type work.

The geography of the region rendered the sure imminently defendable