RASC News Agency: Former U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a direct and uncompromising warning to the Taliban, declaring that “severe consequences” will follow if the Bagram Air Base is not restored to American control. His remarks, delivered through a social media post and reinforced in a White House press conference, have reignited international debate over one of Afghanistan’s most strategically significant military installations.
Trump underscored the importance of Bagram, situated 65 kilometers north of Kabul, describing it as “one of the most powerful air bases ever built in history.” He sharply condemned President Joe Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, branding it “the most disgraceful day in American history.”
“I was withdrawing in an orderly way,” Trump insisted. “I reduced troop numbers to 5,000, but we were always supposed to hold onto Bagram. Its strategic value is unparalleled it sits less than an hour from China’s nuclear weapons development sites. Abandoning it was a catastrophic mistake.”
The Taliban, visibly unsettled by Trump’s rhetoric, responded with characteristic bluster. A spokesman for their Interior Ministry vowed, “We will never hand over Bagram to anyone,” while a Foreign Ministry official admitted that Washington was seeking “a deal.” More disturbingly, the deputy head of Taliban intelligence threatened that suicide bombings could resume if American pressure increased an ominous reminder of the group’s reliance on terror as political currency.
Analysts argue that the Taliban are exploiting Bagram as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from Washington, rather than standing on principle. The episode underscores the hollowness of the Taliban’s self-styled narrative of “jihad” and “resistance.” For years, the group invoked these slogans to recruit impoverished villagers and rally religious sentiment, yet in practice its leaders have repeatedly abandoned ideological claims in exchange for power, money, and international recognition.
Since their return to power, the Taliban have consistently revealed themselves not as defenders of Afghanistani sovereignty but as opportunists bending to foreign powers when advantageous, silencing domestic dissent through violence, and consolidating their control over resources and institutions. What they once condemned as “occupation” has become a potential instrument of negotiation, exposing their duplicity before both Afghanistanis and the world.
The fate of Bagram, therefore, transcends military strategy. It has become a litmus test of Taliban credibility an arena where their rhetoric of independence collides with their record of compromise and repression. For the Afghanistani people, Bagram now stands as a symbol not of resistance but of betrayal: a reminder that the Taliban’s promises of “sovereignty” and “faith” were never more than tools to seize power, at the expense of the nation’s freedom and dignity.
