The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six “enduring” bases in Iraq – raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country. It said it assumed British troops would operate one of the bases.
Almost ever since President Bush claimed an end to “major combat operations” in Iraq on 1 May 2003, debate has focused on how quickly troops could be withdrawn. The US and British governments say troops will remain in Iraq “until the job is done”. Yet while the withdrawal of a substantial number of troops remains an aim, it has become increasingly clear that the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are preparing to retain some forces in Iraq for the longer term. The US currently has around 130,000 troops in Iraq; Britain has 8,000.
Well, that’s just spiffy. So Operation Enduring Freedom morphs into Operation Enduring Bases Paid For With Our Tax Dollars, Indefinitely Manned By The Youth of Our Nations.
I suppose this is the “Minor Combat Operations” that carry on for untold years into the future, long after the “Major Combat Operations” ceased on May 1, 2003.
Criminey, the geographer from Evergreen State (which even I think is a bastion of lefty hippy granola-powered wacky activism) says “After every US military intervention since 1990 the Pentagon has left behind clusters of new bases in areas where it never before had a foothold. The new string of bases stretch from Kosovo and adjacent Balkan states, to Iraq and other Persian Gulf states, into Afghanistan and other central Asian states … The only two obstacles to a geographically contiguous US sphere of influence are Iran and Syria.”
Yikes. I have to think about that statement a little more.