US President Donald Trump said on September 18 that the United States is seeking to "recall" the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan, which was withdrawn in 2021. The US media that this is the first time that Trump has publicly expressed the idea of "recalling the base."This statement sparked public opinion and not only formed a clear contradiction to its previous push for the withdrawal of troops, but also faced with multiple real obstacles such as troops, costs, logistics, and other, questioned by US officials and experts.

Back to Afghanistan?

Trump, who is visiting Britain on the 18th, referred to a reporter at the Chek's Villa in the British prime minister's rural residence at the Bagram Air Force Base, criticizing the Biden administration's decision and actions to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying: "We are working to get it (the base) back."

Trump said his call for U.S. troops to return to Afghanistan was ¡°urgent news¡± and the White House had not yet responded to whether the White House or the Pentagon had developed plans for U.S. troops to return to Afghanistan.

The Associated Press that it was unclear whether the U.S. had any new direct or indirect dialogue with the Taliban government, but Trump hinted that the Taliban may be willing to return to Afghanistan.

U.S. cable news network quoted several sources as saying that Trump has been asking security officials for months to study the "Return of the Base" plan, and this was the first time publicly revealed this idea.

During his first presidential term, Trump promised to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. After Biden took office as President of the United States in January 2021, the U.S. government completed the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on August 30 of the same year, officially ending nearly 20 years of military operations in Afghanistan, leaving behind devastation.

Bagram Air Force Base is located in the plain surrounded by Hindu Kush Mountains, about 50 kilometers away from the capital Kabul, covering an area of 77 square kilometers.

Reuters that Trump had previously sought to get the Danish autonomous territory island of Greenland, and at the same time in the Panama Canal, he has been working for years to reclaim the Bagram air base.

Ideas are questioned.

In response to Trump¡¯s remarks, Afghan Foreign Ministry officials said Afghanistan had ¡°necessary contacts¡± with the United States, but provided that ¡°the United States had no troops stationed anywhere in Afghanistan.¡±

A U.S. official unwilling to disclose his name told Reuters that he had not yet planned to take over the Bagram Air Base through a military operation and abandoned the Bagram Air Base when the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 2021.

The official said that it takes tens of thousands of American soldiers to take over and hold Bagram Air Force Base, and the maintenance cost is high, and it also faces thorny logistical supply problems. Even if you take over the base, you still need to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to clean up and control the surrounding areas to avoid being attacked. "I don't understand how this is possible."

Some experts say the recall of the Air Force base meant a lot of human resources, making it difficult to ensure safety there at first.

Reuters quoted a former senior US defense official as saying, "I don't think there is any special military advantage there, and the risk seems to be higher".

In February 2020, the Trump administration signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban, not only setting a specific time for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, but also explicitly pledged to withdraw all U.S.-led international forces in exchange for the Taliban¡¯s cessation of attacks on U.S. troops.

At the time, Trump saw the agreement as a key achievement of the campaign promise to "leave the U.S. troops out of Afghanistan's dirt", repeatedly stressing the withdrawal was "the right choice in the interests of the U.S."

Now, Trump has publicly called for U.S. troops to return to Afghanistan and withdraw the Bagram Air Force Base. More notably, Trump complained in February this year that former President Biden ¡°abandoned the base¡± and claimed he had planned to ¡°keep a small U.S. military,¡± which was clearly in conflict with the Doha agreement signed during his tenure.