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The ever-growing US military
footprint
By David Isenberg
The war in Iraq is over, so that means that the
troops are coming home and the United States is reducing
its presence - what military planners like to call its
"footprint" in the region, right? Well, wrong, actually.
Contrary to much of the recent news coverage
about Pentagon pronouncements on the US seeking to
reduce its presence in Saudi Arabia, the fact of the
matter is that when one looks at the big picture, the US
has a huge military presence in the region. And it is
not going anywhere. Considering the rhetoric that has
come out in the past month from the neoconservative camp
and administration officials about their unhappiness
with countries such as Syria and Iran, the US military
ability to reach out and touch someone must be taken
very seriously.
A report by the Pacific Life
Research Center, "Understanding the War On Terrorism":
Preemptive Force - A Sequel" by Bob Aldridge details the
bases that are now under the control of the US Central
Command (CENTCOM).
Contrary to US policy during
the Cold War when the US stationed hundreds of thousands
of troops in Europe, the current Pentagon strategy is to
have "long-term access" to bases, rather than a
permanent presence. Thus, forces can be shifted among
numerous accessible points to meet various "threats",
rather than have a full complement of troops at a few
permanent locations.
Some bases are reasonably
well known, due to their use in the war against Iraq.
For example, in Qatar the army base at Camp As-Sayliyah
served as CENTCOM's forward headquarters and command
center. Similarly, al-Udeid Air Base serves as the
headquarters for CENTAF, CENTCOM's air component. There
is also a base for pre-positioned army equipment at Doha
airport, dubbed Camp Snoopy. This equipment is
officially known as War Reserve Materiel (WRM) and
provides support to bare base systems, medical,
munitions, fuels mobility support equipment, vehicles,
rations, aerospace ground equipment, air base
operability equipment and associated spares and other
consumables at designated locations.
Kuwait
sponsors four US military bases - Camp Doha, Camp
Arifjan, Ali al-Salem Air Base and Ahmad al-Jaber Air
Base - and is also the headquarters for CENTCOM's army
component.
The port of Manama in Bahrain is
headquarters for the US Navy's 5th Fleet and hosts the
headquarters of CENTCOM's navy and marine corps leaders.
The Naval Support Activity occupies 79 acres of land in
the center of downtown Manama. Also in Bahrain is Sheik
Isa Air Base.
In Saudi Arabia the main US Air
Force control center for air operations was moved from
Prince Sultan Air Base to Qatar prior to the start of
the war. It is unclear if another base, the Eskan
Village Air Base, home for air force and other military
people deployed to Riyadh Air Base, is available for US
use.
Oman allows the use of three bases by the
US military; the Masirah Air Base, the Thumrait Naval
Air Base for anti-submarine patrol planes, and the US
Air Force use of Seeb International Airport, which is
Oman's largest airport.
According to the
Washington-DC based group Global Security, the transfer
of Seeb International Airport to private sector
management signaled the end of the airport's role as a
base for the Royal Air Force of Oman. As of early-2002,
Oman's Air Force was in search of new facilities, and
contractors were bidding for the contract to build one
of the first of these air bases at al-Masanah (Masana),
northwest of Muscat. Completion of the project, which
was first proposed a decade ago, was expected within 18
months of a contract award. Oman has worked with the US
Air Force to ensure the base is built to American
standards and can be used by American warplanes without
further upgrades. Oman has long been a strong supporter
of a US military presence in the Gulf. It signed an
access agreement with Washington in 1981.
And in
Iraq there are four bases to which the US plans access:
Baghdad International Airport, an airport at Tallil near
Nasiriya in the south; the Bashur airfield in the
northern Kurdish area, and a small airstrip in the
western desert called H-1. The Baghdad airport is an
army base, Talil and Bashur are air force bases and the
H-1 airstrip was a foothold for special forces for rapid
conquest. Use of the Bashur airfield means that the US
will not have to rely on using Turkey's Incirlik air
base
Some dozen bases in Central Asia have also
been made available to US forces since the war against
Afghanistan. In Georgia, the Vaziani base will be the
home for special forces instructors for a current
mandate of two years, until May 2004.
Turkmenistan has given permission for flyover
and refueling of US military planes. This would be
particularly important in allowing US aircraft based in
Uzbekistan to reach Iran with munitions and special
forces troops.
According to Global Security, in
November 2001 Tajikistan agreed to allow the US to
evaluate three former Soviet airbases for potential use
by US aircraft to support Operation Enduring Freedom.
The agreement was announced after a meeting in Dushanbe
between US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Tajik
Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov. The agreement followed
an inspection of several airports in southern
Tajikistan.
In Uzbekistan, 1,500 to 1,800
special forces troops can be stationed at a former
Soviet base in Khanabad. During the war against
Afghanistan about 1,000 US troops worked at the facility
handling tons of supplies for the war.
In
Kazakhstan, US military activities are shrouded in
secrecy. But it is known that the government there
allows military overflights, refueling and landing
rights in emergencies.
In Kyrgystan the base at
Manas Airport near Bishek will eventually accommodate
3,000 troops and an unspecified number of aircraft.
Manas has a 13,800-foot runway, built for Soviet
bombers. There is room for four C-17 or C-5 cargo planes
to park along the taxiway. The facility covers 37 acres.
And in Afghanistan there are five airfields that
could be used by US forces; at Bagram, Kandahar, Khost,
Lwara, Mazar-e-Sharif and Pul-i-Kandahar.
Also,
sites outside the region are being considered as staging
bases in order to deploy forces into the region.
Consider that on June 3 Associated Press reported that
US troops may soon use Balkans bases for training sites
and staging points for possible interventions in the
Middle East as the Pentagon weighs withdrawing 15,000
soldiers from Germany. Reportedly, the Pentagon wants to
use big Romanian and Bulgarian training grounds in
year-round programs that would have up to 3,000
battle-ready US soldiers at any time.
In
Romania, the Americans are interested in the Mihail
Kogalniceanu air base, the Babadag training range and
the Black Sea military port of Mangalia. In Bulgaria,
talks are focusing on the use of the Sarafovo and Graf
Ignatievo military airports and the Koren and Novo Selo
training areas.
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