[Peace-discuss] Base Motives

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From the interesting blog <billmon.org>, a good selection of
quotations illustrating what the Iraq war is really about. 
(Hint: it's not democracy.)  --CGE] 

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    The United States is planning a long-term military
relationship with the emerging government of Iraq, one that
would grant the Pentagon access to military bases and project
American influence into the heart of the unsettled region,
senior Bush administration officials say.

    New York Times
    Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access
    To Four Key Bases in Iraq
    April 20, 2003


    The impression that's left around the world is that we
plan to occupy the country, we plan to use their bases over
the long period of time, and it's flat false.

    Donald Rumsfeld
    Press Conference
    April 21, 2003


    From the ashes of abandoned Iraqi army bases, U.S.
military engineers are overseeing the building of an enhanced
system of American bases designed to last for years.

    Chicago Tribune
    14 `enduring bases' set in Iraq
    March 23, 2004


    "Is this a swap for the Saudi bases? I don't know . . .
When we talk about enduring bases here, we're talking about
the present operation, not in terms of America's global
strategic base. But this makes sense. It makes a lot of
logical sense."

    Brig. Gen. Robert Pollman,
    chief engineer for base construction in Iraq
    Chicago Tribune interview
    March 23, 2004


    This proposal will allow the Army to provide temporary
facilities, and in some very limited cases, permanent
facilities . . . These facilities include barracks,
administrative space, vehicle maintenance facilities, aviation
facilities, mobilization-demobilization barracks, and
community support facilities.

    U.S. Army
    Supplemental Appropriation Request
    February 14, 2005


    U.S. military commanders have prepared plans to
consolidate American troops in Iraq into four large air bases
. . . The officers said a master plan for the positioning of
U.S. forces in the Middle East, maintained by U.S. Central
Command, did not envision keeping U.S. forces in Iraq permanently.

    Washington Post
    Commanders Plan Eventual Consolidation
    Of U.S. Bases in Iraq
    May 22, 2005


    Initially referred to as "enduring bases" in 2004, these
four bases were redesignated as "Contingency Operating Bases"
in February 2005.

    GlobalSecurity.org
    Iraq Facilities
    Date unknown


    Any attempt to find out whether the US is, or is not,
constructing permanent military bases meets with frustration.
The few who have attempted to get a direct answer to this
question are met with evasion and purposeful confusion over
what is or is not "permanent".

    Former Sen. Gary Hart
    Financial Times op-ed
    January 4, 2006


    We want Iraq to stand on its own feet, we have no goal of
establishing permanent bases here.

    Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to Iraq
    Interview with Iraq television
    March 11, 2006


    The policy on long term presence in Iraq hasn't been
formulated. And I don't imagine that it will emerge until a
government of national unity emerges.

    Centcom Commander Gen. John Abizaid
    House appropriations subcommittee hearing
    March 14, 2006


    The House . . . gave anti-war Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee of
Oakland a rare victory by accepting her proposal to bar
permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. Lee's amendment, which
would bar the use of any funds in the new spending bill to
establish permanent bases, passed on a voice vote, with no one
speaking in opposition.

    San Francisco Chronicle
    House OKs bill to pay for Iraq war
    March 17, 2006


    Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment to
the Iraq supplemental spending bill . . . that would require
the Bush administration not to use any appropriated funds for
the construction of permanent bases in Iraq.

    Think Progress
    Congress Has Spoken:
    No Permanent Military Bases In Iraq
    May 4, 2006


    I've told the American people I'd like to get our troops
out as soon as possible.

    George W. Bush
    Press Conference
    June 9, 2006


    Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq
war funding bill that would have put the United States on
record against the permanent basing of U.S. military
facilities in that country . . . Senate aides said Republican
staffers removed the provisions from the bills before House
and Senate negotiators convened this week in a late-night work
session to write a compromise spending bill.

    Reuters
    Iraq war bill deletes US military base prohibition
    June 10, 2006


    Mr. Bush on Friday made clear that the American commitment
to the country will be long-term. Officials say the
administration has begun to look at the costs of maintaining a
force of roughly 50,000 troops there for years to come,
roughly the size of the American presence maintained in the
Philippines and Korea for decades after those conflicts.

    New York Times
    U.S. Seeking New Strategy
    For Buttressing Iraq's Government
    June 11, 2006


    To achieve lasting peace in Iraq, America will have to
make concessions, including an explicit commitment not to seek
permanent military bases in Iraq. Perhaps no issue in the
coming years will more clearly expose the real purpose of the
Bush administration's postwar mission in Iraq: to build
democracy or to obtain a new, regional military platform in
the heart of the Arab world.

    Larry Diamond
    The seeds of insurgency
    June 30, 2005

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