GovCon Expert McAleese on US Departure From Key Afghan Military Base

A new McAleese & Associates report says the U.S. has reached a “point of no return” in the retrograde from Afghanistan following the handover of Bagram airfield to Afghan national security forces.

Jim McAleese, founder of McAleese & Associates and three-time Wash100 winner, reported the U.S. military is close to fully withdrawing troops ahead of President Biden’s Sept. 11 drawdown deadline and will not provide close air support to the Afghan government if the Taliban overruns Kabul.

Bagram AF Base has served as the focal point of U.S. combat missions in the landlocked country for almost two decades.

“We have worked out an over-the-horizon capacity, that we can be ‘value-added’. But the Afghans are going to have to be able to do it themselves, with the Air Force that they have, which we are helping to maintain,” Biden told reporters Friday, according to the McAleese report.

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