That was one of only three times I'd seen anything about it since coming across an obscure article from Melbourne Indymedia from November of '03: Secret Washington plan to establish six permanent US, UK military bases in Iraq.
The subject is coming up again.
Mar. 23, 2004: Expansion of military bases overseas fuels suspicions of U.S. motives
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has dramatically expanded its military presence in the Middle East and Central Asia, building a vast network of bases designed to counter what military officials call an "arc of instability."
..."No one could have anticipated in the summer of 2001 that the United States would be basing forces at Karshi Khanabad, Uzbekistan, or conducting a major military operation in Afghanistan," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress last year.
...Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has rejected the notion that the United States is interested in a permanent, large-scale presence in the Middle East and Central Asia and has stated that once the Taliban and al-Qaida have been defeated, the United States will have no bases in Afghanistan.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has dramatically expanded its military presence in the Middle East and Central Asia, building a vast network of bases designed to counter what military officials call an "arc of instability."
..."No one could have anticipated in the summer of 2001 that the United States would be basing forces at Karshi Khanabad, Uzbekistan, or conducting a major military operation in Afghanistan," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress last year.
...Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has rejected the notion that the United States is interested in a permanent, large-scale presence in the Middle East and Central Asia and has stated that once the Taliban and al-Qaida have been defeated, the United States will have no bases in Afghanistan.
But, the Oaf of Office and CIA director Tenet have specifically told us that the "war on terror" is going to go on for years.
[T]he United States now has bases or shares military installations in Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Rumsfeld and Pentagon officials are soon expected to unveil plans for a new U.S. military "footprint" on the rest of the world. The plan is expected to include a shift of resources from the huge Cold War-era bases in Western Europe to new and smaller ones in Poland and other Eastern Europe nations as well as a relocation of U.S. troops in South Korea.
Rumsfeld and Pentagon officials are soon expected to unveil plans for a new U.S. military "footprint" on the rest of the world. The plan is expected to include a shift of resources from the huge Cold War-era bases in Western Europe to new and smaller ones in Poland and other Eastern Europe nations as well as a relocation of U.S. troops in South Korea.
Bootprint, I think would be more accurate.
Pursuing a strategy of "places, not bases," the administration wants to strengthen its alliances with friendly countries in the region - and its access to their military facilities. But it doesn't want to engage in extensive base building, as it did in Western Europe after World War II and in northeast Asia after the Korean War.
And they all should be falling all over themselves for the opportunity to bear the expense of maintaining permanent bases while we "access" them.
On the other hand, according to a Chicago Tribune March 23 article, we're building 14 bases in Iraq. Fourteen!
That may be in question, but there are at least some.
[Camp Victory] is to be one of eight long-term bases American troops plan to use on Baghdad's outskirts in a move out of the city center to coincide with the return of sovereignty to the nation on June 30.
March 14 Quad City Dispatch article
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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