MOSCOW, 2 june 2021, RUSSTRAT Institute. “Here is not for you,” Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the Americans. Of course, officially, his words sounded a little different, but the essence was exactly this: “There will be no more flights of American aircraft from this air force base. If any aircraft will take off from it, it will be only Pakistani ones.”
With the final decision to withdraw the American expeditionary force from Afghanistan, Washington found itself in a difficult position. America formally thinks of itself as a world hegemon, but there is nowhere to relocate its contingent except at home. And it’s not that it’s particularly large, something like 8,700 soldiers and officers.
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