Hello and As-Salaam-Alaikum to each of you. We are now the #2 trending news platform on all of Substack, but we are ranked 13th in paid members. To continue our work, please consider chipping in and becoming a monthly or annual member, OK? Dear Afghanistan. Do not give Trump your air base. You will regret it forever. The United States government only means you harm. For 20 years the U.S. used Bagram to occupy, torture, and destroy Afghanistan. Now Trump says America wants it back. This is empire talking — and it must be refused. Shaun King Sep 18 Family, I need to tell you about something that reveals the heart of empire. Donald Trump has been quietly pushing his national security team for months to find a way to retake Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. He stood in the UK this week and said it plainly: “We want that base back.” Think about the arrogance of that. An American president, speaking of Afghan land as if it were U.S. property to be repossessed. This is colonialism in the year 2025. And it’s why I need you with me to keep telling this truth without fear. Please become a monthly, annual, or founding member. The North Star with Shaun King is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. What Bagram Is Bagram sits about an hour north of Kabul. It was once a Soviet base, then the Americans took it over after 2001. For nearly two decades, it became the beating heart of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. From Bagram, the U.S. launched airstrikes, drone operations, and night raids. Its two-mile runway carried bombers, fighter jets, and cargo planes. Every Afghan knew that Bagram was not just a military hub — it was also infamous as a site of torture, interrogation, and indefinite detention. For Afghans, Bagram meant fear. It meant humiliation. It meant the power of empire overhead and at the gate. When the U.S. finally left Afghanistan in July 2021, they abandoned Bagram. They stripped equipment, destroyed what they could not take, and left. And in that moment, Bagram returned to Afghan hands — as it should. Empire Wants It Back Now, Donald Trump says the U.S. wants Bagram again. He claims it is needed to surveil China, to access rare earth elements, to target ISIS, to plant an outpost of American power. He even claimed — falsely — that Bagram is near where China makes nuclear missiles. Family, this is how empire speaks. Not of Afghans. Not of sovereignty. Not of homes and families. But of land as asset, as leverage, as real estate to be repossessed. Not ONCE did Trump mention how this base would help Afghanistan - because it won’t. This is the same mindset Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed when he called Gaza a “real estate bonanza.” Empire sees no people, only property. Colonial Continuity Few books have shaped me like Dr. Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Rodney explained that underdevelopment was never an accident. It was engineered. Colonial powers extracted wealth while leaving nations broken. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, European powers sat around a table — with not a single African present — and carved Africa into territories. They called it the “Scramble for Africa.” Land was divided like spoils. People were reduced to obstacles. Trump saying “we want Bagram back” is the same colonial logic. A table full of outsiders deciding Afghan land belongs to them. It is the Berlin Conference in modern form. And remember: Rodney himself was assassinated at just 38, killed for telling these truths about colonialism. His warning still echoes: colonial profiteering always ends in blood. A Message to Afghanistan Let me say this directly to Afghanistan’s leaders, to the Taliban who now govern, and to every Afghan who hears my voice: do not allow the United States to retake Bagram. Do not trust their words. Do not believe their promises. For twenty years, Bagram was the launchpad of drones and death. It was the warehouse of prisoners and torture. It was the foundation of permanent occupation. If America returns, it will not be for peace. It will not be to help Afghanistan. It will be for rare earth minerals, for surveillance of China, for strategic power in the region. It will be for control. The U.S. has nothing but ill intentions for Afghanistan, for the region, for the Ummah. The Pattern of Lies Notice the consistency. Lies always accompany empire. Lies about Gaza to excuse genocide. Lies about Bagram’s proximity to Chinese missiles to excuse occupation. Lies about why empire needs to be everywhere, always. Empire invents stories, repeats them, and plants them in the mouths of presidents and generals. They justify theft with words. They cloak land grabs as security. They call occupation a gift. But Afghans know what Bagram was. They lived it. They do not need to be told what another American return would mean. Family, Pause With Me Here If you see the pattern — from Berlin to Kabul, from Gaza to Bagram — share this truth. Do not let silence harden into complicity. Why It Matters Afghanistan and Palestine are not separate struggles. They are both chapters in the story of empire treating Muslim land as disposable. Both peoples have been told their homes are assets, their nations are projects, their futures are bargaining chips. This is not geopolitics. It is colonialism. The same system that carved up Africa, the same system that starved India, the same system that enslaved and dispossessed — alive and unashamed in 2025. When Trump says “we want Bagram back,” he is not speaking for Americans. He is speaking for empire. And it must be refused. Stand With Me Against Silence Mainstream outlets will frame this as strategy. They will call it leverage. But family, we must call it plainly: this is empire trying to recolonize Afghanistan. And I need you with me to keep naming it. Please become a monthly, annual, or founding member. The only reason I can say this without censorship is because this space is powered by you. The North Star with Shaun King is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Empire will never stop hungering. It is never satisfied. It will always want more. Unless we stop it. Silence is complicity. Silence is complicity. Silence is complicity. Love and appreciate each of you. Your friend and brother, Shaun Keep Reading, Keep Fighting Family, keep learning, keep sharing, and keep fighting with me. Here are three free posts I wrote recently that connect directly to this struggle: That's a sweet girl in Gaza, with her guts hanging out, burned, bloodied, breathing her last breaths before she passes from time back to eternity Shaun King · 12:21 PM Read full story 💣 Israeli Government Calls Gaza a “Real Estate Bonanza” and Admits It Is Dividing the Land Up with the United States Shaun King · Sep 17 Why I Need You Today Read full story 🚨 One Day After My Open Letter, Bernie Sanders Calls Gaza a Genocide — the Only US Senator to Do So Shaun King · Sep 17 Why I Need You Today Read full story