Mother Jones: Digging In. A look at possible permanent bases in Iraq.

[madfloridian]

Mother Jones March 7 Issue about permanent Iraq Bases. You will need to be a subcriber to view the full article.
"Digging In"
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/03/enduring_bases_iraq.html

"The omnipresence of the giant defense contractor KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root), the shipments of concrete and other construction materials, and the transformation of decrepit Iraqi military bases into fortified American enclaves—complete with Pizza Huts and DVD stores—are just the most obvious signs that the United States has been digging in for the long haul."

Take, for example, Camp Victory North, a sprawling base near Baghdad International Airport, which the U.S. military seized just before the ouster of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Over the past year, KBR contractors have built a small American city where about 14,000 troops are living, many hunkered down inside sturdy, wooden, air-conditioned bungalows called SEA (for Southeast Asia) huts, replicas of those used by troops in Vietnam. There's a Burger King, a gym, the country's biggest PX—and, of course, a separate compound for KBR workers, who handle both construction and logistical support. Although Camp Victory North remains a work in progress today, when complete, the complex will be twice the size of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo—currently one of the largest overseas posts built since the Vietnam War.

Such a heavy footprint seems counterproductive, given the growing antipathy felt by most Iraqis toward the U.S. military occupation. Yet Camp Victory North appears to be a harbinger of America's future in Iraq....."

SNIP..."Does the Department of Defense have a bigger agenda in Iraq? Brig. General Robert Pollman, chief engineer of base construction in Iraq, caused a stir—and forced his superiors to engage in damage control—when he told the Chicago Tribune last spring that the bases could be a "swap" for bases in Saudi Arabia. The United States has been closing bases and drawing down its forces in the kingdom in response to the growing unpopularity of the American presence there and repeated terror attacks. In mid-2003, roughly 4,500 U.S. troops reportedly redeployed from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, leaving only about 500 in the kingdom...."

(They quote Karen Kwiatkowski who says we will be staying whether the Iraqis want us or not.)

And other sources unnamed.
SNIP..."A high-ranking military officer in the Middle East says that the Pentagon envisions a small number of bases in Iraq that "in no way approximates what we have there now." He insists that "we are not planning to occupy the country. We’re talking about a small, unobtrusive presence—it could simply be facilities that give you the capability to come in and out." That version of "Occupation Lite" may eventually come to pass. For the foreseeable future, however, it is difficult to imagine anything other than an enduring status quo: a heavy troop presence, big bases spread across the country, and a steadily rising body count...."

[saltpoint]

1. Mother Jones magazine, it seems to me, has done

a hell of a lot of terrific reporting and coverage over many years.

Many years back there was a cover story in Mother Jones on the Rev. Jimmy Lee Swaggart. Does anybody remember that piece? God it was good.

And they're still at it and they're still terrific.

[Skink]

2. I'm waiting for the Walmarts to move in.

:scared:

[Disturbed]

3. 14 U.S. bases would be...

easy targets for Iranian missles.

[saltpoint]

4. Walmarts and U.S. bases would be targets --

-- for the insurgents, true.

Rego Park just had some luck keeping WalMart out of Queens, NYC, so maybe Zarqawi can persuade them against setting up shop in Baghdad.

The military bases sound like a surer thing, and i expect they'll be on or near the oil lines. "Our" oil has to be protected.

[madfloridian]

5. Reminds me of "Baghdad Year Zero" in Harper's

Baghdad Year Zero
Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia
http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

SNIP...."The problem is that governments, even neoconservative governments, rarely get the chance to prove their sacred theory right: despite their enormous ideological advances, even George Bush’s Republicans are, in their own minds, perennially sabotaged by meddling Democrats, intractable unions, and alarmist environmentalists.

Iraq was going to change all that. In one place on Earth, the theory would finally be put into practice in its most perfect and uncompromised form. A country of 25 million would not be rebuilt as it was before the war; it would be erased, disappeared. In its place would spring forth a gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions. The people of Iraq would, of course, have to endure some short-term pain: assets, previously owned by the state, would have to be given up to create new opportunities for growth and investment. Jobs would have to be lost and, as foreign products flooded across the border, local businesses and family farms would, unfortunately, be unable to compete. But to the authors of this plan, these would be small prices to pay for the economic boom that would surely explode once the proper conditions were in place, a boom so powerful the country would practically rebuild itself."

SNIP..." The fact that the boom never came and Iraq continues to tremble under explosions of a very different sort should never be blamed on the absence of a plan. Rather, the blame rests with the plan itself, and the extraordinarily violent ideology upon which it is based...."

[Hissyspit]

6. That's one of Naomi Klein's best works - at a time when no one else...

seemed to be paying attention to these issues (that I was aware of, at least.) Good of Mother Jones to keep pressing at them.

[madfloridian]

7. To me this is when our country lost its soul.

When we used shock and awe on a country not a threat to us. It has had an impact on our country's youth far beyond what I would have that.

It has given a toughness and hardness inside of our youth, where perhaps understanding compassion used to be.

I can not get over this, and I can not forgive the ones who voted to do this and still stand by it. Some has said they were sorry they voted for it, and I can handle that. They knew what they were voting for.