The Taliban attack
The Taliban used a suicide car bomber to force their way into the base. They then dug in defensively resulting in a 10 hour battle. Airstrikes were clearly the most convenient way for the US to dislodge the Taliban but at the cost of extensive damage to the hospital that was under renovation.
Resolute Support the name of the US led operation said: “The attack was quickly contained and repelled by our [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] and Coalition partners, but the future medical facility was badly damaged.” The attack was quickly contained but only after ten hours and causing huge damage to a hospital
The US response
The Pentagon was eager to blame the damage on the Taliban. However, a recent article points out that the US itself is not without blame: ” The Afghanistan Papers reports about failures in US reconstruction in Afghanistan, after all, wasn’t just lacking a scapegoat. The inability to construct sites without getting the unbearable urge to airstrike them is part and parcel to why nothing ever gets built in US-occupied Afghanistan.”
The Pentagon emphasizes how valuable the hospital would have been to locals. But why was it built right on the outskirts of a US base? This might not be convenient for locals but it would serve as a prime target for the Taliban in an attack and consequently also a target for US airstrikes.
US pauses talks with the Taliban
The US expressed outrage at the Bagram attack even though there is no negotiated cease fire. The US has also continued attacks. Previously Trump had called off the talks after one US soldier was killed in a Taliban attack. Again there had been no ceasefire.
Special envoy to the UN Khalilzad also expressed outrage while the Taliban were positive: “”I met Talibs today, I expressed outrage about attack on Bagram,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter, referring to the attack on Bagram air base on Wednesday which killed two people and injured more than 70 others.”We’re taking a brief pause for them to consult their leadership on this essential topic,” he added.Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said Friday’s meeting was “very good and friendly”.”Both sides decided to resume the talks after a few days of break for consultation,” he said.”
The Afghanistan Papers
The Washington Post recently published a number of interviews on the Afghan war that reveal the war has been an unplanned disaster from the beginning: “In hundreds of confidential interviews that constitute a secret history of the war, U.S. and allied officials admitted they veered off in directions that had little to do with al-Qaeda or 9/11. By expanding the original mission, they said they adopted fatally flawed warfighting strategies based on misguided assumptions about a country they did not understand.The result: an unwinnable conflict with no easy way out.”
