By The Blogging Hounds
President Donald Trump has made it clear that the United States wants Bagram Air Base back. Once the largest American installation in Afghanistan, Bagram was abandoned during the disastrous Biden withdrawal and handed over to the Taliban. Now, Trump is signaling that he intends to reclaim it, telling reporters alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer: “We gave it to (the Taliban) for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way.”
At first glance, the push to retake Bagram seems to be about China. The base lies only 500 miles from Xinjiang, within striking distance of Beijing’s western frontier. But the real reason for the sudden urgency is not Beijing—it’s Moscow.
Russia’s Afghan Gambit
In November, Russia quietly removed Afghanistan from its international “blacklist” and began strengthening ties with the Taliban government. At the center of this alliance is the ambitious $6.9 billion, 573-kilometer Trans-Afghan Corridor railway project, a multi-nation venture involving Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Belarus.
The corridor is set to transform Afghanistan into a critical logistics hub. Freight that currently takes more than a month to move from Uzbekistan to Pakistani ports will instead take just 3–5 days. By 2030, traffic along the route is expected to reach 22 million tons annually, with projections of 34 million tons by 2040. Add in the potential for pipelines and future energy infrastructure, and Afghanistan suddenly becomes the heart of Central Asian commerce.
In short, Moscow is maneuvering to control one of the most strategically valuable trade routes in Eurasia—and Bagram, located only an hour away, is the perfect vantage point for Washington to disrupt or dominate that plan.
Why the Taliban Won’t Budge
The Taliban have no incentive to return Bagram to U.S. control. Billions of dollars in trade, along with influence from Moscow and Beijing, make economic “offers” from Washington meaningless. Trump has already warned that “bad things” will happen if the Taliban refuse to give up the base, but short of open confrontation, America has few levers left.
Neocon Pressure and the Endless War Trap
The greater danger is that Washington’s foreign policy establishment—the same neocon clique that orchestrated two decades of Middle Eastern quagmires—will seize on this opportunity to drag America back into Afghanistan. Trump has long resisted this pressure. When I met him in 2020, he made clear that he hated writing letters to grieving mothers, telling them their sons and daughters died in wars “that were never America’s to fight.”
Yet the Beltway war machine has not changed. The Pentagon still views Afghanistan as a keystone in the “Great Game” against Russia and China. Now, with Russia moving to consolidate influence in Kabul, those voices are growing louder.
Prophetic Implications
America’s obsession with controlling foreign lands echoes an ancient pattern: empires overextending themselves until they collapse under their own weight. Scripture warns of wars and rumors of wars in the last days, and the jockeying for control over the crossroads of Afghanistan may be yet another sign that global powers are being drawn into conflicts beyond their control.
Conclusion
Bagram is not just about Afghanistan. It’s not even primarily about China. It’s about Russia—and the battle for control of trade corridors that will define the future balance of power in Eurasia. The question is whether President Trump will resist the neocon drumbeat for another endless war, or whether America will once again spill blood and treasure in the mountains of Afghanistan to block the ambitions of global rivals.
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