Since its decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, Washington looks for alternatives and plans to establish new military bases in neighboring countries

Since US President Joe Biden’s decision in April to pull out all US troops from Afghanistan before September 11th, 2021, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have started to look for alternatives for a direct US military presence in Afghanistan through establishing new military bases in neighboring countries such as Pakistan whose Prime Minister Imran Khan rejected using the Pakistani territories by the US forces for this purpose.

In an interview with the US Axios website two days ago, Khan said that “Pakistan will absolutely not allow the CIA to use bases on its soil for cross-border counterterrorism missions after American forces withdraw from Afghanistan.”

Several US media reports have affirmed that the CIA officials are considering Central Asia for establishing military bases near Afghanistan and they are, as the New York Times reported, looking for alternatives that help it continue collecting intelligence information through maintaining a network of agents.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal talked about Washington’s hoped-for military expansion after its withdrawal from Afghanistan and about options for establishing new military bases that accommodate US personnel, drones, bombers and artillery.

 Commenting on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, military experts considered this step as just a political show or a new attempt by Washington to transfer its military hegemony to other locations in Asia without having a real intention to end the war that led to the killing and displacement of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians.

The US administration’s decision to withdraw forces from Afghanistan has raised many questions and doubts about its true purpose and its seriousness, given the fact that the withdrawal will not include contractors with the Pentagon, the US intelligence agents and other mercenaries working for Washington.

In this context, American writer and analyst Bill Van Auken believes that the United States aims at preparing new bases to extend its hegemony since it seeks expanding its presence in Asia while continuing the war in Afghanistan through its arms or drone airstrikes.

In a report published by the American World Socialist website, Auken said that the officially recognized number of the American soldiers in Afghanistan is estimated at 3300, but in fact, the number is far more than this, pointing out that there is four times that number of American contractors, including those directly involved in military and security operations.  

According to Auken, Washington’s intention to withdraw from Afghanistan is not sincere at all. He stressed that the United States does not intend to end its longest war, but rather plans to complete it through other means.

On his part, American writer and analyst Jeremy Kuzmarov said that Biden will not end the war on Afghanistan; rather he is only “privatizing” it.

In an article published by the Canadian website Global Research, Kuzmarov said that even if it withdraws its previously announced soldiers, the United States will keep American Special Forces and contractors with the Pentagon who number 18,000 and it will keep intelligence agents, mercenaries and engineers operating the drones whose strikes kill mostly civilians.

According to Kuzmarov, Biden’s withdrawal announcement is meaningless, because the maintaining of thousands of contractors with the Pentagon means that the US administration is adopting a strategy of diverting the war in favor of private companies that employ mercenaries, most of whom are former American soldiers, in order to achieve two goals, the first, is to hide American interference in Afghanistan from the public opinion, and the second is to suppress US opposition voices inside the United States.

Hamda Mustafa