Karzai says no to US Permanent military bases

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Nation

Karzai says no to US Permanent military bases
Submitted 42 mins ago

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to accept establishment of US permanent military bases in Afghanistan, Tolo News quoted Interior Minister as saying.

After the Afghan House of Representatives summoned security officials to brief the house on security situation which is being unprecedentedly worse in recent weeks. Interior Minister and Deputy Defence Minister appeared before parliamentarians to answer some security questions.

Speaking in the commission of domestic security affairs of parliament, Interior Minister Bismellah Mohammadi said currently the focus is more on strategic partnership between Kabul and Washington.

"Nobody accepts the discussion of US permanent military bases and the government also rejects it," Interior Minister Bismellah Mohammadi said.


Read more: http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/25-Apr-2011/Karzai-says-no-to-US-Permanent-military-bases

[ejpoeta]

1. after all we did to you, i mean did for you..... tsk tsk.

somehow i think the powers that be aren't going to take no for an answer. We need to get the hell out of there! but somehow I don't see us ever fucking leaving! I mean, we are still in germany and japan and how long ago was that!! uggh. but we're broke. the deficit is too damn high. yet we can go 'buy' other countries.

[Divernan]

3. MCI is salivating over more building boondoggles, as in Iraq.

And the US Govt. continues to pursue a failed foreign policy of world domination by its military - so passe and out-of-date, as witness the approach of China to buying third world land to extract resources and its war on the dollar as a dominant international currency.


Four Permanent U.S. Superbases Built in Iraq

On April 2, 2006, The Independent of the UK reported that "The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six 'enduring' bases in Iraq --- raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country." Four of the superbases are for US forces, one is for British forces and one for Iraqi troops.
--"US and UK Forces Establish 'Enduring Bases' in Iraq" by Andrew Buncombe. April 2, 2006 issue of The Independent of the UK.

One of four US superbases is at Balad, which, per Newsweek, is nicknamed "Mortaritaville" and has a price tab of $231 million. Superbases now house up to 55,000 soldiers, and the President has asked for $175 million to enlarge the Al Asad air base, Balad, Camp Taji and Tallil air base.

Newsweek reports that the 15-square-mile Balad base resembles a "warrior's country club," and includes:
-- a state-of-the-art rec hall
-- its own bus system
-- a 24/7 cybercafe
-- supermarkets
-- a premium coffee house, Greenbeans, which is "known as the soldier's Starbucks"
-- a pizza restaurant
-- an indoor mini-golf course
-- a movie theater

Newsweek writes, "There is an outdoor and indoor pool left over from Uday Hussein's days training Iraqi Olympians here, but few remaining signs of the Hussein family, or indeed of anything Iraqi at all: to get to the big pool, you head down Texas Avenue, around Victory Loop past David Letterman Boulevard and then down Balad's main drag, called Pennsylvania Avenue."

-- "Stuck in the Hot Zone: Don't dream about full exits. The military is in Iraq for the long haul." by Michael Hirsh. May 1, 2006 issue of Newsweek.



http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/AmerPalace_2.htm

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks for that link. Had no idea there were 4. Unbearable. n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

2. Hamid Karzai is a neocon sleeper cell.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Military bases require a lot of land area

land that can be better used to grow opium poppies to enhance the Karzai wealth.

[Fuddnik]

6. Who does Karzai think he is?

Who appointed him President anyway?

Never mind.

[florida08]

7. I think it's too late

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. (2009)

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.

http://www.alternet.org/world/145631/totally_occupied:_700_military_bases_spread_across_afghanistan

[Judi Lynn]

9. Too bad this never will get the airing it should. What a shame it won't be discussed on tv news,

the only news source of far too many people.

It's too important to not be common knowledge.

Thank you for the article.

[florida08]

13. ur welcome Judi

I hear ya. Was yelling the same thing at Chris Mathews a while ago. All he wants to talk about is the Donald. ;( But that's why I come here daily..because truthseekers like you and so many keep me informed. I try to help when I can.

[Scuba]

8. That won't slow us down...

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Noam-Chomsky-Tom-Engelhard...



<snip>

Military bases R U.S. Or so it seems. After the invasion of 2003, the Pentagon promptly started constructing a series of monster bases in occupied Iraq, the size of small American towns...

Meanwhile, post-2003, the U.S. went on a base-building (or expanding) spree in the Persian Gulf, digging in and enlarging facilities in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, “home” to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. In that island kingdom, an Obama administration preaching “democracy” elsewhere has stood by in the face of a fierce Bahraini-Saudi campaign of repression against a majority Shiite movement for greater freedom. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, the State Department decided to build a modern ziggurat in Iraq and so oversaw the construction of the largest “embassy” on Earth in Baghdad, a regional citadel-cum-command post meant to house thousands of “diplomats” and their armed minders. It is now constructing a similar facility in Islamabad, Pakistan, while expanding a third in Kabul, Afghanistan

<end snip>


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x951108

[trud]

10. let's hope he throws us out

but I suppose then the US would start a war somewhere else. Can't use those dollars saved for something worthwhile, after all.

[Arctic Dave]

11. Two wiggle words "permanent" and "military".

How will they define these?

I never trusted bush on these things and i don't trust Obama any more.

[daleo]

12. Yes, "temporary" can mean decades

And "military" personnel can be called something else, like "advisers".

[eridani]

14. Lambchop keeps biting Ms Shari on the nose, and Ms. Shari keeps ignoring him n/t