Was there a winner and a loser in the Afghanistan War?
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(CNN) -
The last American soldiers at Bagram Air Base are expected to depart this Friday, a senior defense official told CNN.
This departure marks the end of the US presence in the sprawling compound that became the center of military power in Afghanistan.
The total withdrawal of American soldiers from the country is not yet complete, but is expected very soon.
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Almost two decades after the first American soldiers arrived in Bagram and helped take control of the terrain after the 9/11 attacks, the transfer of the base to the Afghan army was carried out without fanfare, a silent ending that portends the imminent conclusion of America's longest war.
The airfield, once a dilapidated runway with barely any electricity from the surrounding buildings, became a small town in its own right, with shops, gyms and classrooms for the thousands of military personnel and contractors who worked on the base and its facilities.
The runway, crisscrossed with the dark black tire marks of countless takeoffs and landings, was the starting point for military operations across the country, with room for cargo planes, fighter jets and attack helicopters.
Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump visited Bagram during his tenure, promising a victory and a better future for Afghanistan.
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But Bagram's withdrawal, devoid of pomp and ceremony, is a symbolic victory for the Taliban, who have waged a relentless battle at home against the Afghan army, pushing back government forces and invading a growing number of districts.
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On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi and said Washington was committed to the "security and stability of Afghanistan" as the withdrawal approached its conclusion. ending.
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Bagram was the entry point for tens of thousands of soldiers who entered the country as part of the War on Terrorism, and it was the exit point for many of the nearly 2,000 US servicemen killed in action during 20 years of fighting.
Soldiers stood on the main road across the airbase, known as Disney Drive, as the flag-draped coffins of servicemen killed in Afghanistan made their way to their plane for the final trip home.
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For years, the base was the target of numerous attacks by the Taliban, including suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
In the end, it was not violence that led to the United States leaving, but diplomacy.
The Pentagon had been reducing the troop presence in Afghanistan for years, but the Doha Accord, signed between the Trump administration and the Taliban in Qatar in February 2020, marked the beginning of the end.
As of mid-2011, there were nearly 100,000 American soldiers in the country and another 35,000 American contractors.
A decade later, that number had plummeted to 2,500 soldiers and 18,000 contractors.
The Biden administration made it clear that the last remaining soldiers would be out no later than September 11, but as the withdrawal progressed, it became clear that it would be much earlier.
During the final days of the US withdrawal, crews loaded shipping boxes onto cargo planes, carrying the last thing deemed valuable enough to get out of the country.
On Tuesday, the US Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan, said it had removed the equivalent of nearly 900 loads of C-17 jets from Afghanistan and destroyed nearly 16,000 pieces of equipment.
CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
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