The Bases Are Loaded

by Drima on July 21, 2007

There won’t be a complete withdrawal.

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Craig 07.21.07 at 6:32 pm: I don’t think it’s wise to listen to experts who don’t even known that the US doesn’t have bases in Saudi Arabia anymore, Drima.
2 Drima 07.21.07 at 11:09 pm: I was wondering about that point too Craig. Some sources say there still are bases in Saudi Arabia, others say no. But the main thing that caught my attention about this documentary was the info on the US embassy in Iraq which will cost half a billion dollars. That’s one huge embassy!
3 Craig 07.22.07 at 5:18 pm: That’s one huge embassy!

It is, Drima. I read about that some time ago when somebody was explaining it. It’s apparently much more than an embassy…. more like an enclave. I don’t really get it either.

In any case, I think the argument that the US won’t abandon bases, once built, is a deliberate fraud. The US has abandoned bases all over the world, due to US strategic considerations or due to being asked to vacate by the host government. The largest and most important US bases in the Pacific used to be in the Phillipines, for instance, and those were closed in the late 1980s.

The Iraqi military will be able to use those bases, if they can hold them after US troops are gone. They won’t go to waste.
4 lirun 07.23.07 at 3:27 pm: ever see the embassy in frighteningly dangerous.. shh.. umm.. hmm.. canada (ottawa) looks like something intergalactic with hermetic forcefields around it..

my memory tells me it was next to the mint but that it had like a mote with crocodiles and that was just canada
5 nominally challenged 07.23.07 at 9:16 pm: Did he say that one of the bases has an underground railway?

Shoot, Tel Aviv hasn’t even got an underground railway yet, though they’ve been talking about it for almost 100 years …

No fair.
6 Finnpundit 07.24.07 at 4:12 am: In any case, I think the argument that the US won’t abandon bases, once built, is a deliberate fraud. The US has abandoned bases all over the world, due to US strategic considerations or due to being asked to vacate by the host government. The largest and most important US bases in the Pacific used to be in the Phillipines, for instance, and those were closed in the late 1980s.

Craig is right. The US has left many bases; ironically, most of the local population often supported the presence of the bases (in Germany, and in the Philippines) and regretted the immense loss of economic benefits due to the closings.

A half a billion dollars for an embassy in Iraq seems a rather small sum to me. Most embassies built from scratch are usually a few hundred million, if situated in a world trouble spot. It might be prudent to point out that the majority of that investment goes straight back to American consumers, as all the major contractors for such constructions are American corporations. Even much of the key labor is done by Americans.

All indications from Iraq point to a continued willingness from Iraqi leaders and people to have a US presence. The surge is working, and there are positive signs that Iraqis are realizing a US presence is preferable to an Al Qaeda “Caliphate”. American domestic opposition to US deployments may have had a significant beneficial effect, though certainly not exactly with the results the Democrats were expecting.

In fact, that would be the Democrats worst nightmare: the Iraqi government and parliament asking for US troops to stay. That might very well happen in the summer of 2008.

The big wild card is the upcoming war between Syria and Israel, due in the next six months, which might change everything. Israel will have the final chance to fly over US-controlled Iraqi airspace and “neutralize” Iranian nuclear facilities. The clock is ticking….

If that happens, the first thing I will do is… by more stocks and mutual funds. The resulting fall in the markets will be an artificial dip in an otherwise consistently booming globalized market. It will be a perfect buying opportunity!
7 jonah84 07.24.07 at 6:23 am: Hi Drima. That is an interesting video. I had an opportunity to see this guy Chalmer Johnson in Berkeley California a few months ago… I am reading one of his books.. He definitely gives a different perspective on American empire.. I just like the way Bush tries to dance around the question… if not direct, the guy Gates seem to be more forward about the question..

Anyway, I am not if you have seeing clips below- you have provided me with a few educational material on Darfur before… might be an interesting perspective..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFXiQ8vxSUE&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55b4gapB4k&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNlzqrCPhb4&mode=related&search=
8 lirun 07.24.07 at 10:22 am: poor iraqis - what a mess