New White House plan: Keep US troops in Iraq permanently.

[Mel_and_Daniel 1]

New White House plan: Keep US troops in Iraq permanently.

Fri Jun 8, 4:00 AM ET

Washington -

President Bush used to be fond of saying that American troops would stay in

Iraq as long as needed and not a day longer. He isn't saying that anymore.

The new word from the White House is that American troops would be stationed in Iraq permanently on the "Korean model." The analogy is a little strained. The United States has helped to mend the rift between North and

South Korea since 1953. But South Korea has had no internal insurgency to worry about.

The plan for permanent bases in Iraq must have been long in the making. The president ignored a recommendation of the Baker-Hamilton Commission that he state that America seeks no permanent bases in Iraq. At one point last year, the Senate and House passed an amendment to the military-spending bill banning the establishment of permanent bases in Iraq. The bill went to conference and then the ban on bases, adopted by both chambers, mysteriously disappeared.

The building of four bases along with a gigantic new American embassy in the Green Zone on the Tigris River has been moving along rapidly. The bases will have runways two miles long to accommodate the largest American planes. The Balad base north of Baghdad covers 14 square miles. Another base is planned for the area that was ancient Babylon.

The new embassy, which will be the largest American mission in the world, will be complete with swimming pool and commissary. Retired General Anthony Zinni has said that permanent bases are "a stupid idea." He said that they will damage America's image in the whole region.

These huge installations must be intended for more than Iraqi stabilization. Former President Jimmy Carter said in a speech in February of last year that "the reason we went into Iraq was to establish a permanent military base in the Gulf region." And few are missing the point that bases in Iraq will keep American might on Iran's doorstep

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070608/cm_cs...ikjoIA_A2i7e8UF

Edited June 12, 2007 by Mel_and_Daniel

[Saddle Bronc 124]

The first line in the article said enough:

President Bush ... saying that American troops would stay in Iraq as long as needed

Based on that GWB would be the one deciding how long was "necessary", he has only changed wording not ideology.

[mawilson 2,133]

Wasn't that the plan all along? To have a permanent military base in Iraq?

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Likely that the idea was around during Ike's term.

As evidence, only that Francis Gary Powers (U-2 incident) took off from Peshawar (Ayub Khan had leased several of his airbases to USAF, maybe so as to have implicit support of a "friendly superpower" in event of a war with India--didn't work out that way in 1965 when he actually started such a war, but...).

Now, it's moved to Afghanistan and Iraq--with the unstated excuse of encircling Iran.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Typical...

I guess we need a few more "Guantanamos" to save shipping people to Cuba.