President Trump wants Bagram air base in Afghanistan back from the Taliban.

 

An Afghan Mullah reviews troops at Bagram three years after the withdrawal. Fox News/AP.

President Donald Trump wants Bagram air base in Afghanistan back from the Taliban. Fox News. Trump said he was trying to get the base back and though he could make a deal because the Taliban "need things from us". He also said it was in a strategic position and was "an hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons". There was a high level meeting between the Taliban and the United States last March, though that was an effort to release George Glezmann, who was released shortly after. The Taliban has long wished to restore diplomacy with the United States and a deal over Bagram would go a long way towards doing so. America withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 after almost 20 years of war. 

My Comment:

As with everything with Trump, it is unclear if this is just a suggestion or a serious attempt at getting something done. Trump has made suggestions like this before and nothing has come from it. But he has also done things that nobody else could accomplish, like his historic visit to North Korea. If anyone would do something as seemingly impossible as this, it would be President Donald Trump. 

The benefits of this acquisition would be obvious. It would obviously be a major threat to China to have a major air base so close to their borders and Trump is right, it's near where they make their nukes. That was true when we owned the base for 20 years and it would be true again if we took it back. And it's not like we have been able to replace Bagram since we left there. 

It would also have other benefits outside of China. Having a major air base in Afghanistan would also be helpful if there was a resurgence of ISIS or other terror groups in Afghanistan. To the Taliban's credit, they have not so far allowed Afghanistan to be a hive of terror groups and have fought ISIS regularly. This of course makes sense because they have been major victims of ISIS as well, so it's not like they would stand in our way if we wanted to use forces at Bagram to attack ISIS. 

Another factor is that normalizing relations with Afghanistan would be a great way to gain access to their massive mineral resources, resources that have until now been largely unused. Regaining Bagram and having a real relationship with the Taliban would help secure these resources and perhaps keep China from exploiting them as well. 

Of course, such a move would be controversial. The Taliban are extremist Muslims. They provided aid and protection for al-Qaeda before, during an after the 9/11 attacks. And they have directly killed US soldiers in combat during our 20 year war with them. There are a lot of folks that would find any relationship with the Taliban to be abhorrent, and it's not like they don't have a point. 

There is also the fact that the Taliban is pretty horrible even if you ignore the war issues. They absolutely have major human rights issues and the way they treat women is absolutely abhorrent. And they are radical Muslims, with all the problems that implies. 

I am guessing that any potential deal with the Taliban will face a lot of resistance domestically. Trump would have a hard deal getting congressional approval for this. Not only are the Democrats not going to make a deal, they hate Trump no matter what, he's likely to face a lot of resistance from his own party, and not just from the war hawks. And there would be a lot of veterans and families of veterans that would be unhappy about this as well. 

Of course there is a long history of making friends out of enemies after America went to war with them. Germany and Japan are obviously allies now, and strong ones at that. Same thing with Vietnam, and that war was even worse than the war against the Taliban. The main difference I see is how recent we are normalizing relations, it's only been four years. There are still a lot of open wounds and for that reason I don't see this happening during Trump's administration. He might pull it off, but I don't know if I would put money on it.