At Bagram, the new tenants are the Afghan security forces who will inherit the conflict the United States built for them, along with fields of military equipment, vehicles and weapons that will long represent the war’s grim legacy and the country’s uncertain future. To continue the fight, the United States has left behind its tan and green pickups and its Humvees, along with its Hesco barriers, the cube-shaped, dirt-filled boxes used to build and protect American, now Afghan, outposts. Even the U.S. special inspector general who oversees the war in Afghanistan isn’t sure how many American firearms were sent into the country to prop up the security forces in the past two decades. The physical objects left behind are reminders of decades of loss — staggering numbers of deaths on all sides, especially among Afghan civilians, as well as devastating injuries. Also part of history now are the failed strategies cobbled together by a string of American generals, who said that everything was on schedule and all was going well.

Source: International New York Times July 03, 2021 09:00 UTC