The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has arguably caused millions of dollars worth of losses and damage and now, even lives of U.S. troops and Afghans who were merely seeking to flee the country that fell under Taliban rule two weeks ago.
The disorganized exit of Western troops from Afghanistan sparked chaos, which blame was pinned on none other than the Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, who refused to renegotiate the Afghanistan exit deadline of August 31.
Now, a Trump administration counterterrorism expert is speaking out on some of the "missteps" the Commander in Chief had done that had caused such a catastrophe in Afghanistan.
Nathan Sales, a former former ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism for the Trump administration spoke to Fox News to discuss what went wrong during the Afghanistan exit and President Biden's "most important misstep" that led to such disastrous results in Afghanistan, including the loss of the lives of 13 U.S. military service members.
"One of the most important and mistaken decisions that President Biden made was to withdraw from Bagram Air Base," Sales argued. The Bagram Air Base, which is located about 30 miles north of Kabul, is a military facility that Sales described as "the heart of American counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan for years."
Sales argued that Bagram Air Base, located almost seven miles southeast of Charikar in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, "would have been a far better alternative for carrying out the evacuation that is now going on" instead of the Kabul Airport, which has been surrounded by Taliban forces since the Afghan government fell.
The former Trump counterterrorism official said that the Bagram Air Base would have been a "far better" choice for evacuations of U.S. troops and foreigners because it was situated in a remote location, which was easier to defend and control access to. It was also away from population centers.
The Kabul Airport, meanwhile, has become increasingly dangerous because of its location near the densely packed city, where hotels, buildings, and crowds of people are located.
Bagram Air Base, meanwhile, was built and completed in 2006 and boasts of a control tower, large hangars, several support buildings and housing areas, and up to 13 hectares or 32 acres of ramp space and five aircraft dispersal areas and more than 110 revetments, as per 77 Construction USA.
Sales claimed that during several instances over the last few weeks, the White House was alerted about reconsidering the decision to leave Bagram Air Base, but refused to return to the base.
"I think that was probably one of the most important missteps that the White House took over the course of the evacuation," Sales said, adding that U.S. forces should have maximized the perimeter around the Kabul airport and questioning why the Biden administration offered no explanation as to why it was not done.
Earlier this month, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff explained that their mission was to protect the embassy and in order to do that, had to have a "significant number of military forces" to ensure its safety. He explained that they had to collapse either the embassy or the base and the decision was made to collapse the base instead, Newsweek reported.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas took to Twitter to blast the decision, writing, "They abandoned Bagram [because] they were ordered to reduce troop levels below that needed to maintain both Bagram & embassy security. This political decision-to close Bagram BEFORE evacuation-proved catastrophic."
What Milley said on 8/18 is exactly what DoD said on our briefing today:
They abandoned Bagram bc they were ordered to reduce troop levels below that needed to maintain both Bagram & embassy security.
This political decision"”to close Bagram BEFORE evacuation"”proved catastrophic https://t.co/QzVdLr5mOm
"” Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 28, 2021
