We left Bagram AFB in the middle of the night on July 6. We took air support and maintenance crews with.
" Afghan soldiers who wandered Monday throughout the base that had once seen as many as 100,000 U.S. troops were deeply critical of how the U.S. left Bagram, leaving in the night without telling the Afghan soldiers tasked with patrolling the perimeter.
“In one night, they lost all the goodwill of 20 years by leaving the way they did, in the night, without telling the Afghan soldiers who were outside patrolling the area,” said Afghan soldier Naematullah, who asked that only his one name be used."
https://apnews.com/article/bagram-afghanistan-airfield-us-troops-f3614828364f567593251aaaa167e623From the same writer (on 8-10) of the CNBC article .....
As the U.S. withdrawals from Afghanistan, the Taliban has made stunning battlefield advances despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military. Over the weekend, the Taliban swiftly seized five provincial Afghan capitals, taking three in one day alone.
“They have an Air Force, the Taliban doesn’t. They have modern weaponry and organizational skills, the Taliban doesn’t. They have superior numbers to the Taliban,” Kirby said. “They have the advantages, and it’s really now their time to use those advantages.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/10/biden-says-afghans-must-fight-for-themselves-as-taliban-advances.htmlAnd on 8-16 ....
"But few expected a takeover this swift, with so little resistance from the Afghan government and Afghan National Army, the latter of which was funded and trained with $89 billion from the U.S. taxpayer."
"But among the main causes, analysts say, are intelligence failures, a more powerful Taliban, corruption, money, cultural differences, and simple willpower."
“When the U.S. announced a total withdrawal, that sent a signal to Afghan soldiers and police that the end was near, and converted chronically poor motivation into acute collapse as nobody wanted to be the last man standing after the others gave up,” he explained.
“Once the signal was sent, contagion dynamics thus took over and the collapse snowballed with increasing speed and virtually no actual fighting,” Biddle added."
No mention in either article of leaving Bagram on July 6.
We left with our intent of keeping troop numbers small enough to protect our embassy and a 1 runway international airport in the middle of an urban area. We couldn't protect Bagram and the embassy with those numbers.
We then sent 5,000 troops in.
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