Totally Occupied: 700 Military Bases Spread Across Afghanistan

Totally Occupied: 700 Military Bases Spread Across Afghanistan
Tomdispatch.com / By Nick Turse
February 10, 2010

In the nineteenth century, it was a fort used by British forces. In the twentieth century, Soviet troops moved into the crumbling facilities. In December 2009, at this site in the Shinwar district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, U.S. troops joined members of the Afghan National Army in preparing the way for the next round of foreign occupation. On its grounds, a new military base is expected to rise, one of hundreds of camps and outposts scattered across the country.

Nearly a decade after the Bush administration launched its invasion of Afghanistan, TomDispatch offers the first actual count of American, NATO, and other coalition bases there, as well as facilities used by the Afghan security forces. Such bases range from relatively small sites like Shinwar to mega-bases that resemble small American towns. Today, according to official sources, approximately 700 bases of every size dot the Afghan countryside, and more, like the one in Shinwar, are under construction or soon will be as part of a base-building boom that began last year.

Existing in the shadows, rarely reported on and little talked about, this base-building program is nonetheless staggering in size and scope, and heavily dependent on supplies imported from abroad, which means that it is also extraordinarily expensive. It has added significantly to the already long secret list of Pentagon property overseas and raises questions about just how long, after the planned beginning of a drawdown of American forces in 2011, the U.S. will still be garrisoning Afghanistan.

Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), tells TomDispatch that there are, at present, nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan, including camps, forward operating bases, and combat outposts. In addition, there are at least 300 Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) bases, most of them built, maintained, or supported by the U.S. A small number of the coalition sites are mega-bases like Kandahar Airfield, which boasts one of the busiest runways in the world, and Bagram Air Base, a former Soviet facility that received a makeover, complete with Burger King and Popeyes outlets, and now serves more than 20,000 U.S. troops, in addition to thousands of coalition forces and civilian contractors.

In fact, Kandahar, which housed 9,000 coalition troops as recently as 2007, is expected to have a population of as many as 35,000 troops by the time President Obama's surge is complete, according to Colonel Kevin Wilson who oversees building efforts in the southern half of Afghanistan for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On the other hand, the Shinwar site, according to Sgt. Tracy J. Smith of the U.S. 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, will be a small forward operating base (FOB) that will host both Afghan troops and foreign forces.


Rest of article at: http://www.alternet.org/world/145631/totally_occupied%3A_700_military_bases_spread_across_afghanistan



unhappycamper comment: The Soviets lasted ten years in Afghanistan, but I think we'll do 'better'. After all, The United States lasted 14 years in Viet Nam before we got our collective asses handed to us.

And there were many Native Americans who shouldered weapons as a part of the security apparatus back in that time. America saved those heathens from themselves and we will save the Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranis...any and all from themselves even if we have to kill a few hundred, thousand,.......in order to do so!
Oh the irony of it all.

:sarcasm:

"small forward operating base (FOB) that will host both Afghan troops and foreign forces."

or

"mega-bases like Kandahar Airfield... complete with Burger King.."

Occupation, no matter how you slice it.

I don't want an American Empire, and increasingly won't vote to continue it.

knr

it's my guess that decades from now, there will still be bases there.

we are well on the way down.

dozens of other countries.

" .. this base-building program is nonetheless staggering in size and scope, and heavily dependent on supplies imported from abroad, which means that it is also extraordinarily expensive .."

Welcome to war without end (and it ain't about the Taliban). Nosiree.

Guns or butter? You cannot have both.

making zillions for executives.

hugs

:)

How can Afghan security forces be considered an invader or occupier?:shrug:

And since some, such as Bagram have 20,000 almost all are probably 100 or less.