Trump's recent "madness" is truly perplexing.

On the 21st, Trump once again threatened the Taliban in Afghanistan on social media, saying that the Bagram Airfield should be returned to "its builder, the United States," or "bad things will happen."

Earlier, Trump had said that the United States would "return to Afghanistan" and reclaim the Bagram Airfield from the Taliban, citing that the base was only an hour away by car from China's nuclear weapons manufacturing site.

Trump is at it again

How absurd are Trump's words?

First of all, the builder of the Bagram Airfield is not the United States, but the Soviet Union, which built it in the 1950s. It was only after the United States invaded Afghanistan that the base came under US control.

Secondly, it was the Republican President George W. Bush who launched the war in Afghanistan, while it was the Republican Trump who agreed to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

In 2020, Trump reached a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and repeatedly emphasized that withdrawing from Afghanistan was the "right choice for American interests," but before the withdrawal agreement could be implemented, Trump lost the election.

As for Biden, who is constantly criticized by Trump, he is actually the one who is cleaning up the mess left by the Republicans. However, this mess was further messed up by Biden — under Biden's leadership, the Afghan withdrawal turned into a chaotic and embarrassing retreat for US forces.

From the "Saigon Fist" to the "Kabul Flyer," the US has never changed

Finally, the reason Trump gave for returning to Afghanistan and demanding the Bagram Airfield is to monitor "China's nuclear weapons manufacturing site."

However, even setting aside the military difficulties, such as the need to deploy large numbers of US soldiers and air defense systems to protect the base from rocket attacks, as well as the firm opposition of the Taliban in Afghanistan, in the context of highly developed space reconnaissance technology, Trump's desire to set up a base in Afghanistan to monitor China is nothing more than "losing the big picture for small gains."

It can be said that the story between the United States and Afghanistan is more like a mirror, reflecting the pattern of rise and fall of great powers:

When a country is strong, Afghanistan naturally becomes the "pivot" of that country's access to the heart of Eurasia. From there, it can look north to Russia, east to China, west to Iran, and south to the Indian Ocean.

The one who agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan was Trump himself

However, when a country's national strength is relatively declining and its strategy is overextended, Afghanistan unlocks another attribute, and the curse of the "Imperial Graveyard" manifests itself.

Thus, withdrawal becomes the only option, but the process of withdrawal often involves the collapse of strategic prestige, the loss of both people and resources, and the chaos caused by the vacuum of regional power.

From the absolute superiority of invading Afghanistan in 2001 to the hasty withdrawal in 2021, the United States spent 20 years proving how a bold global hegemon could try to use Afghanistan to manipulate Eurasia, only to end up exhausted and trapped in the "Imperial Graveyard." Now, Trump says he wants to go back, which is truly a plan that no one without a decade of brain blood clots could come up with.

If we have to find a reason to reasonably explain Trump's logic for returning to Afghanistan, then it can only be said that his closed-loop win learning has nowhere else to win, so he just targets "old rivals" like Afghanistan.

Now Trump is saying he wants to return to Afghanistan?

Since taking office, Trump should have realized that as long as he doesn't provoke China and Russia, the world can let him win easily. So, when he cannot make progress on issues like tariffs and the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Trump often brings up other topics to shift the focus.

These topics all have a common point: they are very popular and hot in the United States, and can become hot topics with just a little hype. For example, demanding Greenland and the Panama Canal, annexing Canada, threatening to crack down on drugs in Venezuela, and now talking about returning to Afghanistan.

So, when "returning to Afghanistan" became a trending topic on US social media, naturally, no one cares about Trump's stalled mediation on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, or his demands for Greenland and the Panama Canal.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7552432764973269547/

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