The much-discussed idea of a U.S. military return to Bagram Airfield is less a genuine strategy and more a geopolitical mirage, designed to distract from Washington’s true target: Pakistan’s Gwadar Port.

Indroduction

I. The Bagram Mirage: Distraction, Deterrence, and Diplomatic Leverage

The sudden, almost nostalgic, invocation of Bagram Airfield as a viable U.S. military hub is a masterclass in strategic misdirection. To suggest that the United States, having withdrawn its forces in 2021 after two decades of costly, inconclusive warfare, now seeks to re-establish a permanent garrison in a country it officially abandoned is to ignore the fundamental lessons of that withdrawal and the current global strategic calculus.

The Bagram narrative, therefore, is a ghost story told to frighten children and manipulate adults. It is a shadow puppet show, designed to keep the audience looking at the wall while the puppeteer orchestrates a far more consequential drama elsewhere.

II. Gwadar: The Arterial Heart of the New Silk Road and the Target of American Ambition

While Bagram is a phantom, Gwadar is flesh, blood, and steel. Its significance cannot be overstated. Located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, Gwadar Port is the crown jewel of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), itself the flagship project of China’s Belt and Road........

© New Eastern Outlook