For years, the sprawling military base at Bagram, just north of Kabul, was a potent symbol of the United States' two decades of war in Afghanistan. But weeks before Washington officially ended its military presence in Afghanistan on August 31 last year, all US troops left the base in the middle of the night, bringing the town's economy to a grinding halt and impacting the lives of its 80,000 residents. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES