Anne Applebaum hits the nail on the head with this one:
Indeed, there could be no more eloquent condemnation of the Bush administration’s torture and detention policies than the deafening silence that followed [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed’s confession: Who could have imagined, in September of 2001, that one of the deadliest terrorists in history would admit to the destruction of the World Trade Center — and that the world would shrug its shoulders?
It’s worse that merely shrugging their shoulders. His confession isn’t even believed and it is certainly worthless considering the torture he endured.
Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concluded that “the Bush administration has nobody but itself to blame for the fact that the actions and motives of the perpetrator are now playing second fiddle to the practices used by the Americans in fighting terrorism.”
We’ve lost the moral highground to the 9/11 hijackers. Nothing our administration says is believed. Here’s how E.J. Dionne puts it this morning:
Foreign policy hawks fear an “Iraq Syndrome” involving a pathological wariness about the use of American force and an unhealthy mistrust of every word coming out of the White House.
If we could put the Iraq War in its proper context, not as a grotesque aberration and departure from well considered American foreign policy, but as the (hopefully) last in a serious of disastrous and unwinnable land wars in Asia…then we might not see the ‘Iraq Syndrome’ as ‘pathological’. We might see it as the definition of sanity. And, if we are honest about the track record of our White Houses in explaining our decisions to launch disastrous and unwinnable land wars in Asia, we’d see a ‘mistrust of every word’ they say as a sign of maturity and realism.
The difficulty in drawing the correct conclusions from the Iraq War lies in the Democrats unwillingness to assign blame to Kennedy, LBJ, Carter, and Clinton for the debacle in Iraq. We want to spin a narrative that everything was fine until Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rice hijacked our foreign policy apparatus and took it off course. But things were not hunky-dory.
Kennedy and LBJ made the same mistakes in taking us into Vietnam. Carter’s policy towards Iran was disastrous. And Clinton spun out as much, if not more, disinformation about Saddam Hussein as the Bush administration. Admittedly, Clinton inherited a containment policy for Iraq that required public support. But they knew Saddam had totally disarmed and they carefully hid that fact.
This was then used by the Bushes to say, “See Clinton said he had weapons, too.” It was Clinton that decided to keep pushing NATO eastward, and it was Clinton that encouraged our petrochemical internationals to push into Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and other areas of the former Soviet Union. It was Clinton that decided to garrison the entire Persian Gulf with air and naval bases in the name of ‘containing Saddam’. And let’s look where that led.
This list was compiled by William D. Hartung, Frida Berrigan & Michelle Ciarrocca on October 21, 2002. Skim it if you like. You’ll get the idea.
Growing US Military Presence Since 9/11/01
Qatar: With 600 war planners from the US Central Command scheduled to arrive in November for an “exercise” that could turn into a long-term deployment, it is widely believed that Qatar will serve as the principal base for coordinating US intervention in Iraq. The Pentagon began pouring additional personnel and funding into Qatar’s Al Udeid air base in November 2001 in hopes of using it as an alternative to Saudi bases in the event of military action against Iraq. The facility now has a command center with satellite links that will enable it to coordinate thousands of airstrikes daily. The base, which has one of the longest runways in the Middle East, is currently home to roughly 3,000 US personnel and fifty aircraft, including fighters, bombers and reconnaissance and refueling aircraft. There are also 600 US personnel stationed at an air logistics base in Qatar–referred to by Army officials as “Camp Snoopy”–at which C-5 and C-17 cargo planes routinely come and go, bringing supplies for US forces in Afghanistan and the Gulf. Qatar and Kuwait (see below) are also host to more than three dozen 60,000-square-foot warehouses that contain hundreds of US military vehicles, ranging from M-1 tanks and armored personnel carriers to 155-millimeter howitzers.
Jordan: Despite public pronouncements by Jordanian officials that their nation will not serve as a launching pad for a US attack on Iraq, US-Jordanian military cooperation has been increasing. During August, 2,200 personnel of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit were in Jordan for “Operation Infinite Moonlight,” which several analysts believe was used as a cover to pre-position additional US military equipment in the Persian Gulf in preparation for war with Iraq. Recent press reports indicate that US forces also have regular access to Jordanian air bases at Ruwayshid and Wadi-al Murbah, both of which are close to the Iraqi border.
Kuwait: Camp Doha is home to 5,000 US Army personnel, plus thousands more that come for regular military exercises in Kuwait. Counting troops in-country for extended exercises and air crews involved in flying F-16 and F-15 aircraft on surveillance missions over southern Iraq, there are now estimated to be more than 9,000 US military personnel in Kuwait. As of the first week of September, 2,000 US troops were en route to Kuwait for “Operation Desert Spring,” an exercise slated to last several months. More than sixty military vehicles are being shipped to Kuwait as part of the exercise, apparently in an effort to bulk up the US arsenal there in anticipation of a war against Iraq.
Saudi Arabia: As a tacit side agreement to the controversial 1981 sale of AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia, US contractors built an unparalleled network of air, naval and communications bases in Saudi Arabia that served as the main base of operations for US forces in the Gulf War. The most important of these facilities is the Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh, which has served as the coordinating center for air operations over Iraq and Afghanistan. After initially stating that Saudi bases could not be used for a US strike against Iraq, Saudi officials have now stated that the facilities will be available, provided that the intervention is sanctioned by the UN Security Council. There are currently more than 6,000 US Air Force and Army personnel in Saudi Arabia.
Oman: The United States is upgrading an airfield at Musnana for use as an air base that will house everything from fighter aircraft to B-52 bombers. According to GlobalSecurity.org, the United States has used three other bases in Oman to launch airstrikes against Afghanistan. A base at Masirah hosts US P-3 Orion antisubmarine aircraft and AC-130 gunships. Oman is also a major pre-positioning site for the US Air Force, with enough equipment and fuel stored to support three bases and 26,000 support personnel.
Bahrain: The US Fifth Fleet, which coordinates all US combat ships in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean areas, has its headquarters at Manama, Bahrain. Twenty miles south of Manama, Shaikh Isa Air Base hosts US bomber and fighter aircraft, and is expected to serve as the home for a US Air Force expeditionary wing of forty-two aircraft in the near future. Total US personnel in Bahrain number 4,000 or more, most of them in the Navy or Marines.
United Arab Emirates: The United States has no ongoing military presence in the UAE, but the government allows US reconnaissance and refueling aircraft to use its air bases, and there is some US equipment pre-positioned there for use in contingencies like the Bush Administration’s planned intervention in Iraq.
Diego Garcia: In August the Pentagon awarded a contract to a Norfolk, Virginia, shipping company to operate eight large “roll-on, roll-off” cargo ships in and around the US base at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. B-52s based there are likely to come into play in any air war against Iraq; the island may also serve as a stopover point and distribution center for US personnel and equipment headed to the Gulf.
Yemen: The Pentagon is exploring the possibility of building a signals intelligence base on the Yemeni island of Socotra that would be used to conduct surveillance on Somalia and the Horn of Africa. This past June, a US team arrived in Yemen to begin installation of a computerized surveillance system designed to link the capital of Sanaa with data flowing from major seas, airports and border crossings.
Djibouti: In mid-September it was revealed that 800 US personnel, most of them Special Operations forces, have been deployed in the East African nation of Djibouti, poised for deployment in Yemen, Somalia or Sudan in pursuit of alleged Al Qaeda operatives. The Special Forces deployment is backed up by the stationing nearby of the Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship with helicopters and Harrier jump jets that can be used to transport US personnel in Djibouti into battle in neighboring nations.
Turkey: Turkey’s Incirlik air base, which has served as the launching ground for US airstrikes and surveillance missions over northern Iraq for more than a decade, is home to an estimated four dozen US surveillance and strike aircraft (the exact number is classified). The Pentagon hopes to use Incirlik as a major staging ground in its planned air war against Iraq, and has been courting Ankara with major arms sales, including transfers of Seahawk antisubmarine helicopters, two fully outfitted combat frigates and a pledge to cancel a substantial portion of Turkey’s multibillion-dollar military debt to the United States.
Georgia: As part of a two-year, $64 million “train and equip” mission, US Special Forces will be deployed to Georgia to train a 2,000-person antiterrorist force designed to patrol the Pankisi Gorge, an alleged refuge for Chechen rebels and Al Qaeda fighters. Barracks and other facilities for the US trainers will be built in cooperation with the Kellogg Brown & Root division of Halliburton industries.
Afghanistan: The two main US bases in Afghanistan are at Bagram, where the headquarters for US military operations in the country is based, along with roughly 5,000 US personnel; and in Kandahar, where 3,000-4,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division are based, along with a detention facility for Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners.
Pakistan: Pursuant to an agreement struck with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last December, US forces have taken over an air base at Jacobabad, in southwestern Pakistan, and are building air-conditioned barracks and a higher security wall. American forces will also continue to use airfields at Pasni and Dalbandin for the foreseeable future, as part of what one Pakistani source predicts will become a “semipermanent presence” of US forces in Pakistan.
Uzbekistan: Roughly 1,500 US troops are stationed at Khanabad, a former Soviet facility that is the largest air base in Central Asia. The US Air Force is scouting sites to set up a more permanent facility in Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan: The Manas air base, also known as the Peter J. Ganci base in honor of a New York City fireman who died in the World Trade Center rescue effort, is home to 2,000 troops–1,000 American and 1,000 from coalition partners Australia, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and Spain. American officials claim that the base will be closed after the war in Afghanistan is over, but sources familiar with the extensive infrastructure that has been built, including a central power plant, a hospital and two industrial-size kitchens, expect US forces to be stationed there for years to come.
Kazakhstan: This past July the United States and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to allow US military aircraft to make emergency landings–for a fee–at Kazakhstan’s largest civilian airport, in Almaty. In addition, the Bush Administration has requested $5 million in military aid in the fiscal-year 2003 budget to refurbish an air base in order to establish “a US-interoperable base along the oil-rich Caspian.”
Tajikistan: After the September 11 attacks, Tajikistan was one of the first Central Asian states to offer the Pentagon access to bases, overflight rights and the use of its territory by US military personnel. Bases at Khujand, Kulyab and Kurgan-Tyube are available to US forces as needed, but unlike the larger bases in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, they have yet to become a major focus of activity.
Philippines: More than 1,300 US troops were involved in “counterterrorism training” in the Philippines from February through July of this year, assisting local military forces in their efforts to wipe out the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla movement, which Philippine security officials claim forged ties with Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s. In parallel to the training mission, US military aid to the Philippines was increased tenfold, from $1.9 million to $19 million. A cadre of 100 US military personnel remained in the Philippines after the larger contingent withdrew in July. The Pentagon plans several other major training missions in the Philippines in the next year.
All of this because of the 9/11 attacks? Do you really believe that? And we can’t even get the world to care about the confessions of the 9/11 mastermind? Do you think maybe the world has a little more sophisticated view about America’s foreign policy over the years?
Ordinary Americans never signed on to be the world’s policeman and to garrison Asia. It’s about time we developed a syndrome about it. But, since we didn’t remember the lessons of Vietnam, the possibility remains that we won’t remember the lessons of Iraq. The stronger the Iraq syndrome the better.
