Afghanistan Forever

Washington is currently negotiating with Kabul for permanent military bases in Afghanistan. The activities of U.S. construction battalions there show it’s already fait accompli.

The Obama administration is currently talking to their friendly warlords in Kabul about the United States keeping permanent military bases in Afghanistan. “This is the subject of our negotiations,” America’s puppet Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai confirmed on Tuesday. Representatives of the U.S. government are interested in maintaining military units in the country “over the long term,” and the careful parsing of words shows that they hope to avoid alerting sleeping congressional watchdogs by using such terms as “permanent military bases.” But the enormous Pentagon-funded building program in the Hindu Kush that will expand and improve the many installations there leaves little doubt that the United States plans to keep a permanent military presence in the country.

Obama has often publicly promised that the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will begin in July of this year. Following in his wake, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has made similar statements. In accordance with plans agreed upon at the November 2010 NATO summit in Portugal, Afghanistan’s puppet army is to be trained and ready to permit the major portion of U.S. and NATO combat troops to be withdrawn. That’s the plan to dampen domestic protest over rising U.S. military and Afghan civilian casualty figures. At the same time, however, American and European neocolonialists don’t plan to relinquish political control over the geostrategically important Hindu Kush, which explains the push for permanent military bases there.

An analysis of U.S. military and other government publications, including those published by the military and the Army Corps of Engineers, clearly shows the gigantic construction programs for hundreds of military bases large and small that will ensure a permanent U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Typical of the construction, for example, is the expansion of Camp Leatherneck that was reported in the Marine Corps Times newspaper about six months ago.

According to the article, the Marine Corps installation will be expanded from 2.7 to 6.7 square kilometers (about 1 square mile to 2.5 square miles) in order to make room for a new sports complex to supplement the one already in existence. Further plans call for three additional buildings to be used for religious purposes, among them a church with a capacity for 200 soldiers. Another dining facility capable of feeding 4,000 Marines will also be built, as will a new 11,000-square-foot shopping center.

More important, however, are the construction plans for expansion and improvement of the military infrastructure to enhance combat effectiveness in future operations. That list is too long for this article to enumerate. The activity at Camp Leatherneck is being repeated in bases all across Afghanistan, and much of the new construction will not be finished until long after Obama’s announced departure date for U.S. forces in July. There isn’t the slightest doubt that America plans to keep a permanent military presence in Afghanistan.