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| Pentagon to abandon Mideast bases in favor of smaller rapid deployment forces |
| 2006-02-17 |
| From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription. WASHINGTON — The United States does not envision a long-term military presence in the Middle East. Officials said the Defense Department and Joint Chiefs of Staff have been planning for short- to medium-term deployment in the Middle East and Gulf region. The deployment would not seek to duplicate the long-term U.S. military presence in such countries as Britain, Germany and Japan. The U.S. Central Command has drafted plans to ensure the use of a range of assets in allied nations throughout the Middle East. Officials said the plans envision rotating U.S. forces in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. "We are today, I think Army-wide, in a larger period of change than any time since the World War II era," said Lt. Gen. James Helmly, head of the Army Reserve Command. In an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld outlined the program for military redeployment in the Middle East. He said the U.S. military would shift from what he termed "garrison forces" to expeditionary forces that can be rapidly deployed anywhere quickly. "The U.S. military has long excelled at engaging targets once they have been identified," Rumsfeld said on Tuesday. "In the future we must better ascertain where the enemy is going next, rather than where the enemy was: to be able to find and fix as well as be able to finish." Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, head of planning at Central Command, said the Army intends to deploy soldiers in the region with an understanding of Arabic language and culture. The command plans to station troops throughout its area of responsibility, which extends from Egypt to Kazakhstan. "We would have sufficient forces to deter and to protect partners and its key national interests,” Kimmitt said. In an address to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London on Feb. 6, Kimmitt acknowledged that the presence of an estimated 200,000 U.S. soldiers in the Middle East contributed to regional instability. He said Central Command would not permanently retain any of the air force bases constructed in Iraq over the last three years. The United States has constructed four such bases in the Baghdad area alone. "Our position is when we leave we will not have any bases there," Kimmitt said. Officials said the U.S. officer corps in the Middle East would be trained to understand the region and interact with Arabs. The Army has drafted programs to instruct thousands of officers and soldiers in Arabic and cultural skills. Central Command plans to retain access to bases and facilities in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Turkey and the UAE. But the military presence in most of those countries would remain small, with special operations and rapid deployment forces ready to arrive in the region from aircraft and ships. Qatar has served as the regional headquarters of Central Command. Officials said the command also has been provided access to a British Air Force base in the Republic of Cyprus. Kimmitt said the U.S. military base in Djibouti would serve as the model for future deployment. The base, located along the Red Sea, was away from populated areas and served Somalia, Yemen and other countries in the Horn of Africa. "Twelve thousand Americans have the ability to maintain a presence with a very small footprint on the ground," Kimmitt said. |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |
| #5 GLOBAL MISSLE DEFENSE + MOBILE OFFSHORE BASING > the USA, once fully operational, will have the ability to destroy at random enemy missles, conventional and nuclear, from space long before any US-Allied ground-tactical milfors arrive on-scene. Ditto for enemy conventional forces and support systems. THE ARMY, USAF, and USDOD are already making LT plans to turn GMD assets outwards toward deep space, for defense against asteroids, or high school time travelers from the distant future trying to land their spacetour buses at Roswell [D **** ALIEN KIDS]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-02-17 23:47 |
| #4 We already have Rota in Spain - looks like if we roll our eyes and make threatening Islamic-type noises we can get as much as we want - call Al-American-Andalucia |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-17 19:56 |
| #3 Given the obvious advantages of having permanent bases in the region, there is only one reason not to: vulnerability to attack. I think that we were planning to have a major permanent command in Iraq, a peer with CENTCOM, but we have decided that it would be just too easy to decapitate it or neutralize major forward operating bases. By splitting resources between countries, an enemy would have to attack most of the Middle Eastern nations simultaneously, a very tricky gambit. As a side note, I notice that they didn't mention Afghanistan in this. Hmmm. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-02-17 19:17 |
| #2 I think the absence of long-term US military presence in the Middle East would contribute even more to regional instability, but what do I know. |
| Posted by: Whutch Threth6418 2006-02-17 18:28 |
| #1 the command also has been provided access to a British Air Force base in the Republic of Cyprus. That slipped under the radar. I've been wondering for a while, why the US doesn't make use of the British sovereign bases in Cyprus. They are an ideal staging point for a lot of the middle east, Syria in particular. To date, there has just been a small USAF reconnaisance unit based there. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-17 18:16 |