From the newsroom of the Washington Post.

Hi, this is Vanessa Williams from the Washington Post.

Hey, it's Philip Rucker at the Washington Post.

Do you have a minute?

Hi, this is Dan Zang.

This is Post Reports.

I'm Martine Powers.

It's Thursday, July 8.

Today, as U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, the Taliban gains ground, and artificial intelligence and weapons.

I'm now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan, two Republicans, two Democrats.

I will not pass this responsibility onto a fifth.

After consulting closely with our allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence personnel, with our diplomats, and our development experts, with the Congress and the Vice President, as well as with Mr. Ghani and many others around the world, I've concluded that it's time to end America's longest war.

It's time for American troops to come home.

Since last April, the U.S. has been preparing to fully withdraw from Afghanistan and bring an end to America's longest war.

Now, that withdrawal is reaching a critical stage.

On Friday, the United States officially vacated Bagram Airbase and transferred its facilities over to Afghan forces.

Yashan Therore is a foreign affairs columnist at the post.

If you remember, Bagram Airbase is this pretty vast compound, an hour north of Kabul, that the United States has used over these past two decades.

As essentially, it's kind of nerve center in the country.

It's where all the major operations against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, in Afghanistan were coordinated from.

It's where major deliveries of cargo and other goods arrived.

It's where every single president has come and landed and spoken to the troops.

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