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How Permanent Are America’s Afghan Bases? Digging in for the Long Haul in Afghanistan
Some go by names steeped in military tradition like Leatherneck and Geronimo. Many sound fake-tough, like Ramrod, Lightning, Cobra, and Wolverine. Some display a local flavor, like Orgun-E, Howz-e-Madad, and Kunduz. All, however, have one thing in common: they are U.S. and allied forward operating bases, also known as FOBs. They are part of a base-building surge that has left the countryside of Afghanistan dotted with military posts, themselves expanding all the time, despite the drawdown of forces promised by President Obama beginning in July 2011. 
The U.S. military does not count the exact number of FOBs it has built in Afghanistan, but forward operating bases and other facilities of similar or smaller size make up the bulk of U.S. outposts there. Of the hundreds of U.S. bases in the country, according to Gary Younger, a U.S. public affairs officer with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), 77% house units of battalion size (approximately 500 to 1,000 troops) or smaller; 20% are occupied by units smaller than a Brigade Combat Team (about 3,000 troops); and 3% are huge bases, occupied by units larger than a Brigade Combat Team, that generally boast large-scale military command-and-control capabilities and all the amenities of Anytown, USA. Younger tells TomDispatch that ISAF does not centrally track its base construction and up-grading work, nor the money spent on such projects.
However, Major General Kenneth S. Dowd -- the Director of Logistics for U.S. Central Command for three years before leaving the post in June -- offered this partial account of the ongoing Afghan base build-up in the September/October issue of Army Sustainment, the official logistics journal of the Army:
“Military construction projects scheduled for completion over the next 12 months will deliver 4 new runways, ramp space for 8 C−17 transports, and parking for 50 helicopters and 24 close air support and 26 intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. This represents roughly one-third of the airfield paving projects currently funded in the Afghanistan theater of operations. Additional minor construction plans called for the construction of over 12 new FOBs and expansion of 18 existing FOBs.”
If Dowd offered the barest sketch of some of the projects planned or underway, a TomDispatch analysis of little-noticed U.S. government records and publications, including U.S. Army and Army Corps of Engineers contracting documents and construction-bid solicitations issued over the last five months, fills in the picture. The documents reveal plans for large-scale, expensive Afghan base expansions of every sort and a military that is expecting to pursue its building boom without letup well into the future. These facts-on-the-ground indicate that, whatever timelines for phased withdrawal may be issued in Washington, the U.S. military is focused on building up, not drawing down, in Afghanistan.
Jobs on FOBs
A typical forward operating base set to undergo expansion is FOB Salerno, a post located near the Afghan city of Khost, not far from the Pakistani border. According to documents from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, plans are in the works for an expansion of that base’s fuel facilities. Estimated to cost $10 million to $25 million, these upgrades will increase fuel storage capacity to one million gallons to enhance land and air operations, and may not be completed for a year and a half; that is, until well into 2012.
In June, work was completed on a new, nearly $12 million runway at Forward Operating Base Shank, near the city of Puli Alam in Logar Province, south of Kabul. The base was formerly accessible only by road and helicopter, but its new 1.4-mile-long airstrip can now accommodate large Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft, enabling ever larger numbers of personnel to be deployed to the site.
Not surprisingly, government documents released in August show that FOB Shank is also set for a major boost in troop housing. Already home to approximately 4,500 military personnel, it will be adding a new two-story barracks, constructed of containerized housing units known as “relocatable buildings” or RLBs, to accommodate 1,100 more troops. Support facilities, access roads, parking areas, new utilities, and other infrastructure required to sustain the housing complex will also be installed for an estimated $5 million to $10 million. In addition, the Army Corps of Engineers just began seeking contractors to add 452,000 square feet of airfield parking space at the base. It’s meant for Special Operations Forces’ helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. New aircraft maintenance facilities and 80,000 square feet more of taxiways will also be built at the cost of another $10 million to $25 million.
Documents reveal that this sort of expansion is now going on at a remarkably rapid pace all over the country. For instance, major expansions of infrastructure to support helicopter operations, including increased apron space, taxiways, and tarmac for parking, servicing, loading, and unloading are planned for facilities like FOB Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province, FOB Dwyer, a Marine base in Helmand Province, and FOB Sharana, a Paktika Province base near the Pakistani border, where the Army also announced plans for the construction of an ammunition supply facility, with storage space for one million pounds of munitions, and related infrastructure.
In late August, Walter Pincus of the Washington Post reported that construction was slated to begin on at least three $100 million base projects, including FOB Dwyer, that were not “expected to be completed until the latter half of 2011.” In addition to enhancing helicopter operations infrastructure, plans were also announced for the construction of a new, large-scale wastewater treatment facility at Dwyer, a project estimated to cost another $10 million to $25 million and, like so much of what is now being built by the U.S. military in the backlands of Afghanistan, it is not expected to be completed and put fully into use until well into the second half of 2011, if not later -- that is, after President Obama’s theoretical due date for beginning to lessen the mission in that country.
And whenever you stumble upon a document indicating that work of a certain sort is taking place at one FOB, you can be sure that, sooner or later, you will find similar work at other FOBs. In this case, for example, FOB Frontenac in Kandahar Province and Tarin Kowt, north of Kandahar, are, like Dwyer, slated to receive new wastewater plants.
Much of this work may sound mundane, but the scale of it isn’t. Typical is another of the bases identified by Pincus, FOB Shindand in western Afghanistan, which is to receive, among other things, new security fencing, new guard towers, and new underground electrical lines. And that’s just to begin the list of enhancements at Shindand, including earthen berms for four 200,000-gallon “expeditionary fuel bladders and a concrete pad suitable for parking and operating fourteen R-11 refueling vehicles” -- tanker trucks with a 6,000-gallon capacity -- as well as new passenger processing and cargo handling facilities (an $18 million contract) and an expansion of helicopter facilities (another $25 million to $50 million).
Multiply this, FOB by FOB, the length and breadth of Afghanistan, and you have a building program fit for a long war.
Permanent Bases?
This building boom has hardly been confined to FOBs. Construction and expansion work at bases far larger than FOBs, including the mega-bases at Bagram and Kandahar, is ongoing, often at a startling pace. The Army, for example, has indicated it plans to build a 24,000 square-foot, $10-million command-and-control facility as well as a “Joint Defense Operations Center” with supporting amenities -- from water storage tanks to outdoor landscaping -- at Bagram Air Base. At bustling Kandahar Air Field, the military has offered contracts for a variety of upgrades, including a $28.5 million deal for the construction of an outdoor shelter for fighter aircraft, as well as new operations and maintenance facilities and more apron space, among a host of other improvements.
In June, Noah Shachtman of Wired.com’s Danger Room reported on the Army’s plans to expand its Special Operations headquarters at Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and cited documents indicating that construction would include a “communications building, Tactical Operations Center, training facility, medical aid station, Vehicle Maintenance Facility... dining facility, laundry facility, and a kennel to support working dogs.” A contract for that work, worth $30 million, was awarded at the end of September.
Similarly, according to a recent article in the Marine Corps Times, Camp Leatherneck, which expanded in late 2009 from a 660-acre facility to 1,550 acres, or approximately 2.4 square miles, is slated to add three new gyms to the one already there, as well as a chapel complex with three separate buildings (one big enough to accommodate up to 200 people), a second mess hall (capable of serving 4,000 Marines at a time), a new PX housed in a big-top tent, with 10,000 square feet of sales space -- the current base facility only has 3,000 square feet -- and the installation of a $200 million runway that can accommodate C-5 cargo planes and 747 passenger jets.
Despite a pledge from the Obama administration to begin its troop drawdowns next July, this ongoing base-construction splurge, when put together with recent signals from the White House, civilians at the Pentagon, and top military commanders, including Afghan war chief General David Petraeus, suggests that the process may be drawn out over many years. During a recent interview with ABC News Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, for instance, Petraeus affirmed the president’s July 2011 timeline, but added a crucial caveat. “It will be a pace that is determined by conditions,” he said.
Almost a decade into the Afghan War, he claimed, the U.S. military had “finally gotten the inputs right in Afghanistan.” Raddatz then asked if the “counterinsurgency clock” had just restarted -- if, that is, it could be another nine or ten years to achieve success. “Yeah,” replied Petraeus, hastening to add that American soldiers killed there over the previous nine years had not simply died for nothing. “But it is just at this point that we feel that we do have the organizations that we learned in Iraq and from history are necessary for the conduct that this kind of campaign.”
The building boom occurring on U.S. bases across Afghanistan and the contracts for future construction being awarded at the moment seem to confirm that, whatever the White House has in mind, the military is operating on something closer to the Petraeus timeline. The new Special Operations base at Mazar-e-Sharif, to take but one of many examples, may not be completed and fully occupied for at least a year and a half. Other construction contracts, not yet even awarded, are expected to take a year or more to complete. And military timelines suggest that, if the Pentagon gets its way, American troop levels may not dip below the numbers present when Obama took office, approximately 36,000 troops, until 2016 or beyond.
At the moment, the American people are being offered one story about how the American war in Afghanistan is to proceed, while in Afghanistan their tax dollars are being invested in another trajectory entirely. The question is: How permanent are U.S. bases in Afghanistan? And if they are not meant to be used for a decade or more to come, why is the Pentagon still building as if they were?
Recently, the Army sought bids from contractors willing to supply power plants and supporting fuel systems at forward operating bases in Afghanistan for up to five years. Power plants, fuel systems, and the bases on which they are being built are facts on the ground. Such facts carry a weight of their own, and offer a window into U.S. designs in Afghanistan that may be at least as relevant as anything Barack Obama or his aides have been saying about draw-downs, deadlines, or future withdrawal plans.
If you want to ask hard questions about America’s Afghan War, start with those bases.
Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com. His latest book is Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. He is the author/editor of several other books, including The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyber Warfare, Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050 (with Tom Engelhardt), The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives and The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Turse is currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute. His website is Nick Turse.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NickTurse, on Tumblr, or Facebook.
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36 Comments so far
Show Allnot gonna be that long before something's gotta give.
There is not now and never was ANY plan or intention to "withdraw" from Afghanistan, or Iraq, for that matter. The July 2011 bait is only meant for MSM and gullible voters. No one else is even expected to believe it.
Petraeus told his puppet Obama that this is not a war he can expect to ever win. The purpose, he said, is to just stay basically forever, slugging it out, for whatever political purposes seem most expedient and plausible. Obama accepts and embraces this deceitful rationale, as he does in countless other instances of foreign and domestic policy fashioned to benefit no one but corporate elites.
Turse gives a vivid and chilling account of US tax dollars at work, advancing imperialism and capitalism for the good of our billionaire class. The kind of and degree of "development" he itemizes here clearly indicates that we have stolen yet another country for our greedy demands, and we are never leaving. You don't sink trillions of dollars and innumerable man hours into a gargantuan project like this, involving the loss of thousands of lives, the destruction of a culture, the occupation of a country, only to "leave". This is meant for the Long Haul, and always was.
So long as we have the current crop of criminals in "Warshington" (as Mordechai Shiblikov calls it), there only to do the bidding of war profiteers, we are stuck on this nightmare ride until we all croak under the weight of lies we're forced to swallow to keep the evil machinery in motion. No more Republicans, no more Democrats, making decisions, starting wars that never end for no reason but the enhancement of THEIR power. If we keep voting these sonsofbitches into office, over and over, we are the suckers of the fucking universe.
"The kind of and degree of "development" he itemizes here clearly indicates that we have stolen yet another country for our greedy demands, and we are never leaving."
We did precisely the same thing in Vietnam. We're not there any longer. The Vietnamese finally drove the foreigners out. The Afghans and the Iraqis will eventually do the same. The Middle East is not Japan, Korea or Western Europe. Unlike the days of Vietnam, the United States now suffers Stage IV political, economic, intellectual, social and spiritual cancer. The Iraqis and Afghans will inherit what we imperialists leave behind which, materially speaking, will be considerable - unless whatever brain dead jackass who happens to be president at the time orders it all razed to the ground.
Mordechai: You may be right, they may eventually drive us out, as they certainly want to, but we aren't going quietly. In Vietnam, we were already at the end of our imperial rope, at least in that time frame, and the writing had been on the wall for some time. But we have over 700 bases in over 200 countries now, virtually the entire world is a series of US military outposts, fully locked and loaded to "protect our interests," which include all the world's resources.
You're also right that we suffer from every form of cancer known to a dying imperial power, but we still have all this weaponry and mountains of munitions, along with a growing underclass that has no other recourse than joining up with the serial killers we call Our Military. Your last clause, "unless whatever brain dead jackass who happens to be president at the time orders it all razed to the ground," captures what I think lies ahead. I think we're seeing the same thing (I always agree with your comments), just maybe have a different longer view of it all.
"If we keep voting these sonsofbitches into office, over and over, we are the suckers of the fucking universe." –(Ephraim)
Agreed.
But here it must be understood unequivocally that 'Voting' these people into or out of office has little, or more explicitly, nothing to do with it; finding better candidates, regrettably, even less. It will persist unabated, irrespective who assumes office in America.
Electoral 'solutions'– which can never address the malaise of America- have gone by the wayside. They have no efficacy whatsoever; they persist like a reflex reaction persists in a dying animal, from memory or habit. They have been obviated by events and obdurate realities– far more pernicious than can be rectified by a dysfunctional politics– which for practical purposes, is illusory. The right already knows this; the left remains blinded by hope, where there is none. To wit:
"In the midst of the most complete blindness, perspicacity subsists in the form of tenderness and predilection. So that it is a mistake to speak of an evil choice in love, since the very fact that there has been choice, implies that it has been an evil one." –(Marcel Proust)
Any 'choice' expressed or delivered through American politics is an 'evil one.'
Certain matters, like the existence of the bases in Afghanistan, are not matters of whose existence depends on 'choice.' They must be razed to the ground. Similarly, America itself is now beyond the niceties of 'choice' to effect change upon itself, homeopathic or other. To wit:
"The dictatorship is necessary because it is a case, not of partial changes, but of the very existence of the bourgeoisie. No agreement is possible on this ground. Only force can be the deciding factor"
–(Leon Trotsky)
That has nothing to do in the least with voting for elected officials.
EPRHAIM: Good post, especially your 3rd paragraph.
Anyone else pick up on the deja vu of this Nick Turse piece? He could have used his previous article on base-building efforts in Iraq, also underway while the top brass was pretending to negotiate a time line for withdrawal. Exact same M.O and basic rationale; only the time-lines, names, and price structures have altered.
That 1% that owns so much of the U.S. economy wants to ensure that it will have energy access well into the future.
Obama is merely the place-holder doing what his predecessors began. It's all for and about empire! And empires require lots of fuel to retain their hold on other lands, base by base.
As H.L. Mencken declared "the ignorance of the America people can never be overestimated". The voters are presented with War Party candidates to perform Kabuki theater whom treat he American populace with disdain, contempt and lies and the populace expects change from those who continue the same insane policies over and over expecting a different result.Doing the same disastrous thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is a definition of insanity.Americans like to be lied to, the rest of the world knows it, all except the American populace.
Beg to differ. Obama doesn't 'accept' anything. He is IN on it. With the whole world now facing global money problems and cutting social services for the poor and down trodden, the MASTERS of whatever the plan is have put it in motion. How else to explain all countries doing this. I would love to know what their end game is. First it seems to rip us all off. Keep us poor. Keep the L & R fighting each other. Keep us so poor so we don't dare strike or risk losing our jobs.
Countrywide's CEO paid a fine for fraud. The banks have yet to have anyone go to jail for their fraud. BP and Massive Energy and all the other corporations that have murdered people by disregarding safety have not gone to jail.
I guess the next step is to kill all of those that stand in their way of profits. Finally, making the earth uninhabitle. The sooner humans are wiped off this rock the better for the animals and plants that they are hell bent on killing.
Would be nice to see some nation building done here in the US. but no money is left over. Remember the article yesterday calling Obama a slick politician?
However, that was an excellent comment.
Excellent my precious, 100s of billions MORE can be siphoned off the taxpayer for wealthy corporate interests. Imperialism is about transferring huge amounts of money from the public into the hands of private corporate interests.
Smashing success baby!
Just remember the words of the current Secretary of War: "We're never getting out of Afghanistan." We'll be thrown out of there eventually, despite what he says. It's just a matter of time.
I suppose this can be looked upon as a full employment policy for the construction industry. Who are the people that are being hired for these jobs? This whole process follows the script of old westerns like "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". We wont really win until we have all these insurgents back on the reservation. McCrystal is probably thankful he didn't do the "Custer" thing.
Somehow, though, they are able to con most people into believing that something was learned in Iraq (which we are told is so over but any casual perusal of world news shows it's as bad as ever and more unstable than ever) which they can now apply to success in Afghanistan. I don't like to include most of us here on CD and other "thinking" sites, but Ephraim said it right that we are the suckers of the fucking universe.
Not only is there a base building boom in Afghanistan, but American military bases exist in surrounding countries. Our tax dollars are funding the militarization of Central for the benefit of private corporations seeking to exploit the resources of this region.
And if the TAP (trans Afghanistan pipeline) is ever built it will be providing energy to the billion+ people in India and Pakistan. But any corporate pipeline built in Afghanistan will require bases all along the route to guard the pipeline. Yet after nearly a decade of occupation, not even main roads are safe.
And of course huge profits are being made from the invasion and occupation by military industrial complex corporations regardless of the outcome. And all of this is funded with $Trillions in deficit spending while our domestic economy is in decline.
GONZO: I see it the way you do. I wonder why the exposes shared by Smedley Butler and John Perkins never managed to bring forth legislation to thwart war profiteers?
Seems the really big corporations, now having gone global, can turn their back on America and its corroding infrastructure, while still benefiting from its military. Nothing like the idea of a fist in one's commercial glove, the financial equivalent of "democracy" at bayonet point.
We end up with a 3rd world nation while the corporations get our citizens to pay for the armed guards necessary to expand their financial empire. Some trade on value!
We are not given a choice to vote no on war if we are not able to vote for candidates that oppose it like Kucinish, he ran for president before why we don't hear from him is probably due to Oboma. The local level is the same you can vote for Evil R or Evil D both are willing to pay the Military infiniti to wage worthless immoral aggression.
"If you want to ask hard questions about America’s Afghan War, start with those bases."
Why is the US gov't building more military bases and occupying Afghanistan?
Here is one good reason...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html
"The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe."
------------------------------------------
These bases are being built to protect the US gov'ts 'heavy investment' from the corrupted Afghan oligarchs and China - who both would love to 'gain control of the resources'.
From the NYT article:
"The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources."
"At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said."
-------------------------------------------
This article also explains why the US gov't continues to bomb the Afghanistan/Pakistan border...
"The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency."
----------------------------------
This NYT article is an amazing read... it pretty much gives the imperialist game away, and gives one concrete example as to why they are building massive amounts of military bases throughout the country.
Yes and the nations that are not building bases and killing the resistance to the war bases will be the nations in a position to exploit those resources.
The USA will just crumble quicker for all this "digging in for the long haul".
Things will get so bad that as Donald Trump predicts more and more USA billionaires will be moving closer to their off shore tax haven's soon.
I say good riddance to our billionaires, and these forward operating bases will be as good for the people of the USA as the castles built during the Crusades were for the good of Europe.
JIM: If they move to places like Dubai, some kick-ass desert storm, in earnest, may "gift" them with the DU version of blowback. One wonders if these exploiters really don't believe in global warming/climate change, or only assume that posture to make sure that their business practices centered around resource extraction, don't have to slow down (on account of critical public perception, or Goddess forbid, conscience).
Please get involved with your local chapter of the Green Party, which, in contrast to the "Tea Party" actually exists and has a populist platform and candidates who call for the right things, such as Duane Roberts, Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate from California, who recently called for ending all U.S. military and economic support to Israel.
info@voteforduane.org
www.voteforduane.org
Afghanistan is on the far side of the world from the U.S., as far away as you can get, twelve time zones different. It is a landlocked area of extremely high and rugged mountains and desperately dry deserts with an extremely harsh climate. The people who have evolved there over time are well adapted and are among the toughest humans on the planet.
We would be much better off to be spending money on converting to a green economy here in the U.S. so we don't need foreign oil, even if climate change from carbon emissions didn't make burning all that oil suicidal, which it is.
I think we are supposed to believe that we are there because some goof in a cave triggered controlled demolition of the skyscrapers in New York on 9/11/2001 and also managed to get the entire U.S. air defenses, including the missile batteries around the Pentagon to stand down on that day.
I don't believe that far fetched, impossible tale. I have been in the big mountains of central Asia. Control of attacks here in the U.S. and ordering a stand down of the U.S. continental air defenses is not possible from there.
Since we can't find any money to repair our crumbling infrastructure here at home the only solution lies in declaring war on our own country, then hire the contractors to rebuild everything we blow up. Somehow the money is always available for that. Total insanity.
There is no real reason to be there or there is infinite reasons to be there. For the pipeline, for Afghan women's rights, for the terrorists, for Obama's War, for the MIC's escalation, for the race for riches, for taxpayer dollars, forever......
We need to find the reason again to be peaceful and stop war.
Get out of Afghanistan? Yeah, just like we got out of Korea 50 years ago. Not!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, ...
__
Statement of Islamic Emirate regarding the latest organized enemy propaganda
Source: Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
October 21, 2010 13:41
The NATO forces in Afghanistan, in collaboration with their Afghan puppets and western media outlets under the leadership of the U.S have been trying by diplomatic maneuver and organized propaganda to make it appear as though Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate were ready for negotiations and that they have made progress in this regard.
Although the Islamic Emirate has previously issued a number of statements regarding this subject, in which it clearly rejects such false claims and calls it a failed last ditch effort by the enemy but the impudent enemy persistently keeps putting forward such mind boggling lies through its propaganda channels and through the bought out leaders of the so called Peace Council without presenting any kind of credible proof whatsoever.
Once again, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants to remind the world and its countrymen its stance on the issue. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan refutes outright these false claims neither has it sent any delegations for talks and neither does it intend to negotiate at a time when the country is under occupation.
In this regard, we must say to Burhanuddin Rabbani and the other degraded faces not to revive old enmities by promoting these false allegations nor should they run the propaganda campaigns to please America. As Afghans, they should not aid General Petraeus’s strategy (bullets and negotiations) developed by the Pentagon because the General wants to have this strategy worked through your hands in such a wicked way that Afghanistan may permanently become a colony of America.
From our point of view, another reason for this intense fabricated propaganda by Karzai and General Petraeus is also likely to win the confidence of the people by making it seem as if the Kabul administration (the crooked and corrupt regime) could bring forth a solution to the problems of Afghanistan.
The Islamic Emirate irrefutably believes that in the presence of foreign invaders, peace talks and any kinds of negotiation deals will be futile as they will not yield a positive outcome for the Momin people and nation. For this reason, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again calls on the invaders to stop wasting their time on failed propaganda and military campaigns [and] instead leave Afghanistan so it can enjoy a few years in peace and independence.
Insisting on continuing your crimes may get you nothing but lose political and economical credibility in the eyes of the world which is likely to end up bringing about far more fatal casualties on your part.
__
The concise Nick Turse article and spoton CD readers reaction to it is nothing less than brilliantly awesome!
It is to our terminal peril not to recognize the deadly ruthless seriousnessness by the out-of-rational-control real rulers of this country(see: Project of the New American Century) in their addiction to wage permanent war as the ultimate ECONOMIC product brand to be foremostly produced by the United States of America in the foreseeable future ---the disasterous irrational blowback of which--- appears to be less than a serious consideration within an ongoing Insane Master Plan IMP) that may by now have an irreversible(?) life of its own?
Curiously, and a bit disingenuously, the title of Nick Turse's book, "The Case for Withdrawal in Afghanistan" is contradicted by the 'realities on the ground' which he himself documents.
Who on earth is he appealing his 'case' to? The God of Dark Laughter? The case is closed.
Turse assiduously states and catalogs the complete absurdity of applying rational arguments that America has no intention of submitting to, much less even considering under any circumstances, save military defeat.
No one will be making 'a case' for such a thing as if it were to be adjudicated in a court of law, much less the U.S. Congress. The matter is not subject to rational or moral arguments or fallacious 'diplomatic' initiatives meant to function as a fig leaf for American hegemony. No 'verdicts' will be enforced, since none will be tendered under any circumstances except by force.
There will be no 'arguments' or 'cases made.'
That is what fascism is about. Let us not pretend otherwise.
America has no qualms about making the world a coffin if it cannot bludgeon it into absolute submission to its dictates. That is all but implicit. Force is the only thing it can or will understand.
That and time.
If you want to be really, really cynical about all this, consider the Afghan campaign as a business model. The 'great game' stuff about encircling Russia and intimidating China is blather. It's just a low grade fringe benefit. The mark here is the American tax paying public as well as enlisted men. The people profiting like the officer corps, weapons manufacturers and contractors making permanent bases could care less about stability and have everything to gain by more caos. Let's say a couple of our bases are overrun and a thousand soldiers massacred. That just feeds more money into the business model from you and me. The added PR benefit for the war pig CEOs of our intense anger at seeing so many grunts killed just plays into this sick con. And even if we were tossed out from lack of money, the fly wing pullers at the pentagon would be quite happy that they have real juicy targets composed of giant bases constructed by our contractors to BOMB. Remember when Rumsfield said there were no good targets in Afghanistan? Well, they're taking care of that!
Win, win proposition for predators.
This is what pirates do. They board the ship, take possession and hold possession until it sinks. Then they attack another using the treasure trove and arms they have stolen to do so. They care nothing for the ship; nothing for their 'fellow' pirates; care for nothing but a pathetically childish sentimental token such as a flag, which they strenuously insist is their family or countrymen or nation.
It is a stupid game of pirate kill pirate that once started cannot be stopped by the participants. It is mad, even for dogs.
This is not just another angry insult. The USA is out of control; sub-human. Humanity will survive, even unto death, but the USA as a nation of humans is already defunct. It is worse than a pack of dogs. It is a Zombie nation.
Wise up US'ns. The time is come.
t_g
G'Day!
Our Parliament is debating (or more likely wasting time on some empty rhetoric) if the diggers (Aussie troops) should stay in Afghanistan and if so, for how long.
Well, predictably one independent (an ex-soldier, who resigned from his ASIO/spying job just before the Iraq invasion started, out of moral principles) and a Greenie have made an emotional speech arguing for bringing our diggers home. Everyone else argues vehemently along the lines of sending more troops, more weaponry, etc.
What the hell is wrong with this picture?
In the name of the ANZUS alliance we are always all-the-way with our US brothers (A stands for Australia, NZ= New Zealand). But where are the Kiwis? If any New Zealanders on the forum: what's up with you guys? Why aren't you towing the line???
Anyway, our newly minted minority Labor government, with Julia Gillard at the helm (our first lady PM ever!) is all for staying "however long it takes to finish the job". We have heard something about 10 years...
I have however not heard yet, what the job REALLY is. Yes, we do get b******t: training the troops, helping Karzai to govern, hunt Al Quaida, and who-knows-whom and who-knows-what.
Lies, lies, lies...
Can anybody guess why is Australia involved in this mess, apart from the alliance?? Do we have any real benefit from this?
No, the Australian people only get bills and misery from the butchery. But your leaders make out like, well, what they are (bandits).
t_g
You know, a lot of ordinary people say that they distrust a Chinese, no matter what, they prefer the US Americans. Anglo-Saxon brotherhood??
We have a lot of Asians in Australia - lamentably, only in big cities. We live in Far North Queensland, redneck wonderland... you won't find anyone wanting to even critisize the US. Maybe some aspects, but not really. They hate Arabs and Muslims. All terrorists, no? I would bet anything, they've never met one. We are Jewish and when I've mentioned it, some people have distanced themselves from us. And we are not even observant. They say that the Muslims are evil. Why? They say the Koran is evil. Why? Have they read the Bible? I say, it is pure violence. I've read it out of curiosity at uni. Awful...
So, I think as long as we have a ruling Anglo-Saxon majority, there will always be a pro-US, pro-UK policy, no matter what.
It is equally uncomprehendable and sad, and maybe a losing strategy in the long run for us
Australian leaders just love the military hardware,
Managers of large open pit mines do need strong guards.
The two party system has many flunkies and floosies,
to carry the American Flag around our gum tree yards.
The new American Century to us brings no change.
Trillions of dollars go to military each year.
Afghanistan is to become a US shooting range.
and Pakistan is a test ground for bombing gear.
Those arrested tortured natives allowed to live,
disprove American superiority in every way.
Holding hostages is a terrorists game,
bases are the homes of the guards at play.
More airfields protect from convoy blockade.
No expense is spared for a fighting soldier.
Luxuries are shipped at great cost to the field.
Natives can be killed anytime they prove a bother.
A gas pipeline is still not near to built
The Taliban still control the critical zones,
not the CIA fossil fuel appointed president.
not even after negotiation by carpet bombs.
If the Americans fail their Crusades for fuel.
They will fail to enforce orders and dominate.
Their superorganism will then splutter out of gas.
Their only other weapon is shout and fulminate.
Mere loudness of decibels does not make truth.
just as superior funds does not make moral worth.
Numbers of bombs are no indication of the rights,
of nation, religion or fitness to rule the earth.
Taliban, no matter how much maligned
must kill this growing host of foreign vampires.
The worlds richest army of murder, deceit and waste
must be staked and buried in the graveyard of empires.
Australia must pull itself away from its American Curse,
From support of deseased desires to do the world its worst.
The Neocon addiction to power at all cost
In the end will lead to many friendships lost
t_g
How right you are! I wish we could de-couple from our US brothers in arms and of course the British. I wish we could just announce that from now on we follow our own path, like the New Zealanders. Or we really have to have a brown nose all the time, why not put it into the Chinese' behind? They seem to be pretty peaceful. Their weapon of choice is money - for the time being. Looks like they buy up everything, while the Anglo-Saxon hordes are killing everything.
I am quite sure that most of our resources are partially Chinese-owned already.
Australian-New Zealand comments carefully read with well-thought out wisdom, rationality duly noted.
"...The U.S. military does not count the exact number of FOBs it has built in Afghanistan, ..."
This one statement, if true, is indictment enough of the Pentagon and their policies.
If Americans don't care that their children are being arbitrarily sacrificed on the altar of corporatism, then they MIGHT be pissed that their representatives are freakin' incompetent.