US bases in Iraq: a costly legacy

[deminks]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0403/p16s02-cogn.html

United States taxpayers have spent an inflation-adjusted $1 trillion to keep military bases in South Korea since the war ended there in 1953. Those bases remain in place, though they are shrinking.

Some military analysts wonder if 20 or so years from now the US will still have costly "enduring" bases in Iraq. ("Permanent" is a term the Pentagon generally avoids in referring to the hundreds of bases it has around the globe.)

So far, though, it seems clear that the Pentagon would prefer to keep its bases in Iraq. It has already spent $1 billion or more on them, outfitting some with underground bunkers and other characteristics of long-term bases. The $67.6 billion emergency bill to cover Iraq and Afghanistan military costs includes $348 million for further base construction.

When President Bush told the press March 21 that it will be decided by "future presidents and future governments of Iraq" when there will be no American forces in Iraq, his words intensified speculation that several of the approximately 75 bases in Iraq will remain occupied by US forces for an extended period.

Maybe not, though.

[EVDebs]

1. Planned since Nixon's '73 Saudi oil field seizures...

Disclosed by the British in Jan 2004
Britain Says U.S. Planned to Seize Oil in '73 Crisis
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0102-01.htm

the plans then 'tweaked' to accomodate Iraq and please the Saudis. Plans now going awry. It would have made more strategic commonsense to go after another fuel source than to continue this charade. This has been going on militarily since Churchill's switching of the British navy from coal to oil at the turn of the 1800-1900's century.

The permanent bases are now well known to be the cause of Iraqi support for attacking US troops, since they view it as an occupation now

WPO Poll: Iraqi Public Wants Timetable for US Withdrawal, But Thinks US Plans Permanent Bases in Iraq
Half of Iraqis Approve of Attacks on US Forces, Including 9 Out of 10 Sunnis
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/165.php?nid=&id=&pnt=165&lb=brme

Furthermore, it is seen here domestically in the US for what it is: the Quakers of all people have been spied upon for having the temerity to show those base sites on their website

"14 'Enduring Bases' Set for Iraq." Chicago Tribune. March 23, 2004. 4 Information on Iraq bases is from GlobalSecurity.org. More information is available ...
www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm

Sadly, with WASTE being the hallmark of any DoD operation, someone will have to aply some reason into the Joint Chiefs of Staff's collective noggin's.