From the desert to the noisy base, the last US forces said goodbye to Bagram By Reuters By Peter Graff (Reuters) – This was the moment. The sky exploded over Kabul. We were able to see the headlights of Taliban trucks leaving the capital. Fighters from the Northern Alliance danced in a cloud of hashish smoke. Their commander smiled. America went to war. It was the night of October 7, 2001. We were on the front line separated by a desolate strip of concrete that had long since been separated from the Taliban enemy by the forces of the Northern Alliance: an abandoned Soviet air base called Bagram.