Kabul , Afghanistan ( CNN ) It is a strangely detached scene for the close of America 's longest war : military trainers bouncing between multi-million dollar , high security bases , on Black Hawks , miles from the front line . But it is how Washington wants this to be . And even though the departure of American troops will be fractionally slower , they will all be inside the U.S. Embassy by the end of next year , making these some of their last weeks outside of the wire . We are near Jalalabad , at a regional logistics hub for the Afghan police force -- a generous facility that was originally intended to resupply the entire east of the country with uniforms , ammunition , even fuel for vehicles . The intentions , first hatched in 2011 when the U.S. had tens of thousands of troops and still large ambitions for their war here , were large in scale . But the project has been handed between rotations of U.S. officers and is perhaps a little distant from its first conception . We are taken on a proud tour of a series of clean and newly painted blocks . Dozens of Afghan police gather there , and mill around , waiting for their commanders to arrive . Nick Paton Walsh 's Afghanistan series : Afghan forced to marry her rapist . Yet a few problems are immediately visible . There are no doorhandles on the outer doors -- we 're told they 've been removed while a new master key is being sought . There seem to be few supplies in the actual hub . We ask the Afghan policemen how many of them get resupplied there , at this stage , four months since it opened , and they say : none . About 20 units a month file paperwork for resupply in the base , but supplies often still come from where they did before -- Kabul . U.S. officials told us they are optimistic the logistical road ahead can be smoothed -- that in the 18 plus months they have left they can get the Afghan army and police up to furnishing themselves with the supply lines they need . But here , now , that seems far away . As does the base , incidentally . It 's quite a rough drive from the main road , surrounded by hills , and with at best patchy cellphone coverage -- far from ideal for a transit hub . Nick Paton Walsh 's Afghanistan series : ISIS recruits in Taliban territory . And it is far away in terms of its cost . Like so much in the most costly of wars , its price tag may have made sense in briefings on Capitol Hill , where effectiveness is gauged in millions , but here in dusty eastern Afghanistan , it seems exorbitant . This as-yet , partially functional resupply hub cost $ 21 million , a price that presumably includes new doorhandles . There are about fifty Afghan police currently on the base -- meaning each one has so far cost $ 400,000 to the US taxpayer . But this is an unfair way of representing the challenge the U.S. trainers here face : working , as they are , against a clock , with diminishing resources and public interest , in an endlessly complex and often corrupt land where , when the Taliban are n't thriving , ISIS are waiting in the wings to fill the gap . With the clock ticking in the background , U.S. officer Colonel JB Vowell remains upbeat : `` It 's going to be a challenge , to get all those little hubs and spokes -- logistics to maintenance , supplies , resupply . I 'm optimistic though ; much of this did n't exist in November . '' On the outskirts of the base are the relics of the U.S. 's military involvement in a conflict that still continues to kill Afghan security forces at an accelerated rate . SUVs , even old American Humvees -- now gifted to Afghan police to drive around -- lie disabled by mine strikes . The Americans were hoping the police could stack the vehicles here , assess their resupply needs , or cannibalize the damaged vehicles for spare parts . Throughout , the surreal changes in how this war was , and continues to be , fought are omnipresent . Years ago , the threat would have mostly been from insurgents taking potshots at an American base . Now we are far from the threat , but another has taken its place . Surrounding our crew at all times are `` Guardian Angels '' -- U.S. soldiers on guard duty , protecting their own from rogue Afghan police or soldiers , trying to prevent the newest and most serious scourge -- `` green on blue '' attacks , in which Afghan security forces turn their guns on Americans . It is a strange experience to be protected from those who America seeks to hand the country over to . But this is how the war ended . Not with ideological victories , or dramatic withdrawals , just the slow and deliberate stepping to one side .
Final troop pullout oddly detached as U.S. military operations die down in Afghanistan . Ambitious projects , like a police logistics center in Jalalabad , may not live up to their potential .