<html>
<body>
<h2><b>Tom
Dispatch</b></h2><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175135/nick_turse_in_afghanistan_the_pentagon_digs_in" eudora="autourl">
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175135/nick_turse_in_afghanistan_the_pentagon_digs_in<br>
</a>posted 2009-11-05 11:08:25<br><br>
</font><h1><b>Tomgram: Nick Turse, In Afghanistan, the Pentagon Digs
in</b></h1><font size=3>In our day, the American way of war, especially
against lightly armed guerrillas, insurgents, and terrorists, has proved
remarkably heavy. Elephantine might be the appropriate word. The Pentagon
likes to talk about its "footprint" on the geopolitical
landscape. In terms of the infrastructure it's built in Iraq and
Afghanistan, perhaps "crater" would be a more reasonable image.
<br><br>
American wars are now gargantuan undertakings. The prospective withdrawal
of significant numbers/most/all American forces from Iraq, for instance,
will -- in terms of time and effort -- make the 2003 invasion look like
the vaunted "cakewalk" it was supposed to be. According to
Pentagon estimates, more than
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8448762">1.5
million</a> (yes, that <i>is</i> "million") pieces of U.S.
equipment need to be removed from the country. Just stop and take that in
for a second. <br><br>
Of course, it's a less surprising figure when you realize that the
Pentagon managed to build, furnish, and supply almost 300 bases, macro to
micro, in Iraq alone in the war years. And some of those bases were --
and still are -- the size of small American towns with tens of thousands
of troops, private contractors, and others, as well as massive
perimeters, multiple bus routes, full-scale PX's, fast-food outlets,
movie theaters, and the like. <br><br>
In many ways, Iraq-style war has now become the gargantuan template for
the Afghan War build-up that Nick Turse describes below. (His is the sort
of summary picture of a less-than-adequately-covered situation that
TomDispatch specializes in, based in part on investigative Internet
reporting and the mining of Pentagon contracts, government and corporate
websites, and military publications.) In fact, some percentage of those
1.5 million pieces of equipment will undoubtedly simply be sent
Afghanistan-wards. As the Bush administration built the world's largest
-- and
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2009-10-23-embassy_N.htm">
shoddiest</a> -- embassy in Baghdad, our own
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174789/the_mother_ship_lands_in_iraq">
mother ship</a>, mission control center for the region, and modern
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174944">ziggurat</a>, so now,
the Obama administration is about to do the same (at approximately the
same startling
<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0528/p90s01-wosc.html">cost</a>)
in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a monstrous mission control center for the
Af/Pak theater of operations. <br><br>
In Iraq, structures like
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302994_pf.html">
Balad Air Base</a> or the ill-named
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Victory">Camp Victory</a> just
on the edge of Baghdad are so massive, so
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174807/">permanent-looking</a>
-- so clearly built for long-term occupation -- that it's still hard to
imagine how the Pentagon will abandon them to the Iraqis. <br><br>
Now, as Turse reports, the U.S. military seems intent on beefing up
another network of bases for another surging war, involving another heavy
presence in another distant land -- and these bases, too, the Pentagon
will undoubtedly be loath to turn over or evacuate. Every army carries a
version of its society on its back into battle. We emphasize poundage.
Like our culture, our wars are spendthrift and consumption-oriented. If
continued, they will someday bust us. <i>Tom</i> <br><br>
<br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd><h2><b>2014 or Bust</b></h2>
<dd><font size=3>The Pentagon's Building Boom in Afghanistan Indicates a
Long War Ahead<br>
</b>
<dd>By Nick Turse <br><br>
<dd>In recent weeks, President Obama has been contemplating the future of
U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. He has also been
<a href="http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ci_13628903">touting the
effects</a> of his policies at home, reporting that this year's Recovery
Act not only saved jobs, but also was "the largest investment in
infrastructure since [President Dwight] Eisenhower built the Interstate
Highway System in the 1950s." At the same time, another much less
publicized U.S.-taxpayer-funded infrastructure boom has been underway.
This one in Afghanistan. <br><br>
<dd>While Washington has put modest funding into civilian projects in
Afghanistan this year -- ranging from small-scale
<a href="http://afghanistan.usaid.gov/en/Article.853.aspx">power
plants</a> to "public latrines" to a
<a href="http://afghanistan.usaid.gov//en/Article.734.aspx">meat
market</a> -- the real construction boom is military in nature. The
Pentagon has been funneling stimulus-sized sums of money to defense
contractors to markedly boost its military infrastructure in that
country. <br><br>
<dd>In fiscal year 2009, for example, the civilian U.S. Agency for
International Development awarded $20 million in contracts for work in
Afghanistan, while the U.S. Army alone awarded $2.2 billion -- $834
million of it for construction projects. In fact,
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/17/AR2009101701695.html">
according to</a> Walter Pincus of the Washington Post</i>, the Pentagon
has spent "roughly $2.7 billion on construction over the past three
fiscal years" in that country and, "if its request is approved
as part of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, it would spend
another $1.3 billion on more than 100 projects at 40 sites across the
country, according to a Senate report on the legislation." <br><br>
<dd>Bogged Down at Bagram</b> <br><br>
<dd>Nowhere has the building boom been more apparent than Bagram Air
Base, a key military site used by the Soviet Union during its occupation
of Afghanistan in the 1980s. In its American incarnation, the base has
significantly expanded from its old Soviet days and, in just the last two
years, the population of the more than 5,000 acre compound has doubled to
20,000 troops, in addition to thousands of coalition forces and civilian
contractors. To keep up with its exponential growth rate, more than $200
million in construction projects are planned or in-progress at this
moment on just the Air Force section of the base. "Seven days a
week, concrete trucks rumble along the dusty perimeter road of this air
base as bulldozers and backhoes reshape the rocky earth," Chuck
Crumbo of The State</i>
<a href="http://www.thestate.com/local/story/989515.html">reported
recently</a>. "Hundreds of laborers slap mortar onto bricks as they
build barracks and offices. Four concrete plants on the base have
operated around the clock for 18 months to keep up with the construction
needs." <br><br>
<dd>The base already
<a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/danger-room-in-afghanistan-have-it-your-way-at-bagram/">
boasts</a> fast food favorites Burger King, a combination Pizza
Hut/Bojangles, and Popeyes as well as a day spa and shops selling
jewelry, cell phones and, of course, Afghan rugs. In the near future,
notes Pincus, "the military is planning to build a $30 million
passenger terminal and adjacent cargo facility to handle the flow of
troops, many of whom arrive at the base north of Kabul before moving on
to other sites." In addition,
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091101/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_growing_bagram">
according to the Associated Press</a>, the base command is
"acquiring more land next year on the east side to expand" even
further. <br><br>
<dd>To handle the influx of troops already being dispatched by the Obama
administration (with more expected once the president decides on his
long-term war plans) "new dormitories" are going up at Bagram,
<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/challenges-dog-afghan-war//print/">
according to</a> David Axe of the Washington Times</i>. The base's
population will also increase in the near future, thanks to a
project-in-progress recently profiled in The Freedom Builder</i>, an Army
Corps of Engineers publication: the MILCON Bagram Theatre Internment
Facility (TIF) currently being built at a cost of $60 million by a team
of more than 1,000 Filipinos, Indians, Sri Lankans, and Afghans. When
completed, it will consist of 19 buildings and 16 guard towers designed
to hold more than 1,000 detainees on the sprawling base which has long
been
<a href="http://tomdispatch.com/post/175042/karen_greenberg_the_missing_prison">
notorious</a> for the torture and even murder of prisoners within its
confines. <br><br>
<dd>While the United States officially insists that it is not setting up
permanent bases in Afghanistan, the scale and permanency of the
construction underway at Bagram seems to suggest, at the least, a very
long stay. According to published reports, in fact, the new terminal
facilities for the complex aren't even slated to be operational until
2011. <br><br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805089195/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20">
<img src="http://www.nationinstitute.org/pdf/tursepbk.gif" width=130 height=232 alt="[]">
</a>One of the private companies involved in hardening and building up
Bagram's facilities is <a href="http://www.contrack.com/">Contrack
International</a>, an international engineering and construction firm
which, according to U.S. government records, received more than $120
million in contracts in 2009 for work in Afghanistan. According to
Contrack's website, it is, among other things, currently designing and
constructing a new "entry control point" -- a fortified
entrance -- as well as a new "ammunition supply point" facility
at the base. It is also responsible for "the design and construction
of taxiways and aprons; airfield lighting and navigation aid
improvements; and new apron construction" for the base's massive and
expanding air operations infrastructure. The building boom at Bagram
(which has received at least a modest amount of attention in the American
mainstream press) is, however, just a fraction of the story of the way
the U.S. military -- and Contrack International -- are digging in
throughout Afghanistan. <br><br>
<dd>Rave Reviews for Kandahar</b> <br><br>
<dd>In March, according to Pentagon documents, Contrack was awarded a $23
million contract for "the design and construction of [an]
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ramp, Kandahar Airfield,
Afghanistan." Last year, in the Washington Post</i>, Pincus reported
that a planned expansion at the airfield, also once used by the Soviets
and now a major U.S. and NATO base, was to accommodate aircraft working
for a Task Force ODIN -- an Afghanistan-based version of the Army unit
which used drones and helicopters to
<a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/01/drone-copter-te/">target
insurgents</a> planting IEDs in Iraq. Today, Task Force ODIN-Afghanistan
-- the acronym stands for "observe, detect, identify and
neutralize," with a nod to the chief Norse god -- is up and running,
and still
<a href="http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/ODIN101209.xml&headline=U.S.%20Army%20Enlisted%20Personnel%20Run%20Task%20Force%20ODIN&channel=awst">
reportedly piloted</a> out of "Bagram in one of two small,
nondescript ground control stations." Whether ODIN aircraft are also
operating out of Kandahar Airfield is -- like so much information about
the U.S. military in Afghanistan -- unclear. Certainly, though, many more
NATO and U.S. aircraft will be flying out of the base once Contrack, as
it notes on its website, completes its "[d]esign and construction of
replacement runways with asphalt and touch down areas with concrete
pavement" and "rehabilitation of 6 existing taxiways,"
among other projects. <br><br>
<dd>Contrack's Kandahar contract is set to be fulfilled by late December,
but like Bagram, the base already gives every appearance of permanence.
"It's one of the busiest single runways in the world," Captain
Max Hanlin from the 2nd U.S. Army Division's 5th Stryker Brigade
<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3tIXP9zQa372Lgd9OGQhrgVsCqw">
told</a> Agence France-Presse recently. Originally built to house 12,000
troops, Kandahar Air Base now supports 30,000 or more NATO and U.S.
personnel. Some do battle in the inhospitable terrain of the surrounding
region, while others have never been outside the wire and wile away their
time in the base's cafes and small shops (where troops reportedly can
buy, among other items, belly dancer costumes), party in the "Dutch
corner," play roller hockey in the base's central square, or dance
the night away at a Saturday rave. "They are shaking glowsticks as
if they have no concept of the mines and the war outside," said one
U.S. officer, watching troops on the dance floor. <br><br>
<dd>In recent days, U.S. forces
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102900540_pf.html">
announced</a> a decrease in recreational perks and an imposition of more
austere circumstances -- salsa and karaoke nights have already been cut
at Kandahar -- prompting worries by NATO allies that their recreational
facilities will be overrun by entertainment-starved U.S. troops.
<br><br>
<dd>A Mob of FOBs</b> <br><br>
<dd>It seems that no one outside the Pentagon knows just exactly how many
U.S. camps, forward operating bases, combat outposts, patrol bases and
other fortified sites the U.S. military is currently using or
constructing in Afghanistan. And while the Americans have recently
abandoned a few of their
<a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KJ29Df04.html">
installations</a>, effectively ceding the northeastern province of
Nuristan to Taliban forces, elsewhere a base-building boom has been
underway. <br><br>
<dd>In April, Contrack was awarded another $28 million contract for work
on airfields -- to be performed at unspecified sites in Afghanistan. In
June, Florida-based IAP Worldwide Services was awarded a $21 million
contract to enhance electrical power distribution at the U.S. Marines'
still-growing Forward Operating Base (FOB) Leatherneck in Helmand
Province, a Taliban stronghold. Scheduled for completion in June 2010,
that project is only part of IAP's work, which has involved "almost
two dozen power plants at U.S. Army bases in Afghanistan and Iraq"
that, according to the company's promotional literature, its teams have
"delivered, installed, operated and maintained." <br><br>
<dd>FOB Dwyer, also in Helmand Province, is fast becoming a
"hub" for air support in southern Afghanistan,
<a href="http://www.centaf.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123168015">according
to Captain Vincent Rea</a> of the Air Force's 809th Expeditionary Red
Horse Squadron. To that end, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel are
building runways and helipads to accommodate ever more fixed-wing and
rotary aircraft on the base. The two services collaborated on the
construction of a 4,300-foot airstrip capable of accommodating giant
C-130 Hercules transport aircraft that increase the U.S. capability to
support more troops on more bases in more remote areas. <br><br>
<dd>"With the C-130s coming in more frequently, more Marines can
travel at a given time and will definitely help Camp Dwyer and other FOBs
and COPs (Combat Outposts) to build up,"
<a href="http://www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/__852571150047CCBC.nsf/rssNews/A3FB2D209A18E8B68525763C003FBFB4?OpenDocument">
says</a> Capt. Alexander Lugo-Velazquez of Marine Light/Attack Helicopter
Squadron 169. In September, the Air Force reported the completion of the
first phase of a six-phase construction project at FOB Dwyer which will
eventually include additional fuel pits and taxiways, increased tarmac
space, and the lengthening of the runway to 6,000 feet. In October,
according to government documents, the Army also began soliciting bids --
in the $10-$25 million range -- for construction of fuel storage and
distribution facilities at FOB Dwyer. These, like the infrastructure
upgrades at Bagram, are not scheduled to be completed until sometime in
2011. <br><br>
<dd>In Helmand, as well as Farah, Kandahar, and Nimruz provinces, between
June and September the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan alone
<a href="http://www.mnfwest.usmc.mil/public/InfolineMarines.nsf/ArticlesListingReadCurrent/B8B62C4E9F73ED118525762B0060FA3C?OpenDocument">
established</a> four new forward operating bases, "10 combat
outposts, six patrol bases, and four ancillary operating positions,
helicopter landing zones and an expeditionary airfield." In October,
defense contractor AECOM Technology
<a href="http://pr.aecom.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=211994&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1343808&highlight=">
signed a $78 million</a>, 6-month extension contract with the Army to
"provide general-support maintenance as well as the operation of
maintenance facilities, living quarters and offices at two U.S. military
bases as well as forward operating bases and satellite locations" in
Afghanistan. <br><br>
<dd>Defense contracting giant
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/21843/the_reconstruction_of_new_oraq">
Fluor</a> has also been hard at work landing lucrative deals in
Afghanistan. In March, the Army
<a href="http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/03/27/18864-army-segues-from-logcap-iii-to-iv/index.html">
reported</a> that, in accordance with President Obama's spring surge of
troops, Regional Command East in Afghanistan had tasked Fluor to expand
four existing forward operating bases and, if need be, build another
eight new ones. <br><br>
<dd>In Regional Command South, it was reported that "[e]mergency
work to expand eight FOBs [wa]s underway after being competitively
awarded to Fluor under LOGCAP IV." This is the current version of a
military program first instituted by the Pentagon in 1985. It has been
the key means by which military logistics and supply functions have been
turned over to private contractors. (The previous version of the program,
LOGCAP III, was awarded solely to Kellogg, Brown and Root Services or
KBR, then a division of the oil services giant
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175036/pratap_chatterjee_inheriting_halliburton_s_army">
Halliburton</a>, primarily in support of U.S. operations in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Kuwait and was plagued by
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-kbr-war-profiteers-feb21,0,3494273.story">
scandals</a>.) <br><br>
<dd>In Afghanistan, companies like Fluor are clearly digging in. Fluor,
in fact,
<a href="http://www.fluor.com/projects/Pages/ProjectInfoPage.aspx?PrjID=16&updateMeta=0">
describes</a> itself as "co-located with the U.S. Army in
Afghanistan, where the team coordinates, provides oversight, and
implements Fluor's execution plan to provide the necessary resources and
labor to accomplish this mission" of "providing
multi-functional base life support and combat services support (CSS) to
the U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan." <br><br>
<dd>The company is "simultaneously constructing and managing the
expansion of eight Forward Operating Bases[...] in Southern Afghanistan.
This includes the construction of an FOB to accommodate 17,000 to 20,000
U.S. Military personnel." Fluor, no doubt, expects to be
"co-located with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan" for a long time.
In July 2009, the defense giant was awarded a $1.5 billion contract for
LOGCAP IV services in Afghanistan; in October, the Army
<a href="http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/10/02/28263-logcap-highlights-support-in-southwest-asia/">
reported</a> that the LOGCAP program was responsible for erecting 6,020
units of containerized housing known as relocatable buildings or RLBs in
Regional Command South. <br><br>
<dd>In July, under an existing LOGCAP IV contract,
<a href="http://dir.salon.com/news/feature/2002/06/26/bosnia/index.html">
scandal-tainted defense contractor</a> DynCorp International, along with
partners
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/21843/the_reconstruction_of_new_oraq">
CH2M Hill</a> and Taos Industries,
<a href="http://www.dyn-intl.com/news2009/news070809.aspx">received</a> a
one year $643.5 million order to "provide existing bases within the
Afghanistan South AOR [area of responsibility] with operations and
maintenance support, including but not limited to: facilities management,
electrical power, water, sewage and waste management, laundry operations,
food services and transportation motor pool operations," as well as
"construction services for additional sites." With an eye to
the future, the Pentagon has included four one-year options in the
contract which, if taken up, would be worth an estimated $5.8 billion.
<br><br>
<dd>Just recently, the Australian military indicated it was also digging
in for a long stay,
<a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26245305-31477,00.html">
announcing</a> a $37 million upgrade of its main base near Tarin Kowt in
Oruzgan province, to be completed by mid-2011. As at other NATO
facilities, increasing numbers of U.S. troops have been operating out of
Tarin Kowt recently and, in late September, the U.S.-based company
Kandahar Constructors signed a $25 million deal with the Pentagon for
runway upgrades there, also to be completed in 2011. <br><br>
<dd>Speaking the Language of Occupation</b> <br><br>
<dd>In 2009 alone, after many billions of dollars had already gone into
the construction, expansion, and maintenance of U.S. bases in
Afghanistan, American taxpayers were called upon to pay for more than $1
billion in construction contracts -- and based on the evidence at hand,
including those future options, this may prove just a drop in the
proverbial bucket. <br><br>
<dd>All of this has been happening without a clear plan laid out in
Washington for the future of U.S. military operations in that country,
without a legitimate national government in Kabul, and of course with no
shortage of
<a href="http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/">infrastructural
repairs</a> needed at home. Americans curious to know much of anything
about the Pentagon's Afghan building boom beyond Bagram would have found
little on the nightly news or in major newspapers. It has essentially
been carried out in the dark, far away, and with only the most modest
reportorial interest. <br><br>
<dd>Forget for a moment the "debates" in Washington over Afghan
War policy and, if you just focus on the construction activity and the
flow of money into Afghanistan, what you see is a war that, from the
point of view of the Pentagon, isn't going to end any time soon. In fact,
the U.S. military's building boom in that country suggests that, in the
ninth year of the Afghan War, the Pentagon has plans for a far
longer-term, if not near-permanent, garrisoning of the country, no matter
what course Washington may decide upon. Alternatively, it suggests that
the Pentagon is willing to waste taxpayer money (which might have shored
up sagging infrastructure in the U.S. and created a plethora of jobs) on
what will sooner or later be abandoned runways, landing zones and forward
operating bases. <br><br>
<dd>The building and fortifying of bases in Afghanistan isn't the only
sign that the U.S. military is digging in for an even longer haul.
Another key indicator can be found in a Pentagon contract awarded in late
September to <a href="http://www.sosiltd.com/default.htm">SOS
International, Ltd.</a>, a privately owned "operations support
company" that provides everything from "cultural advisory
services" to "intelligence and counterintelligence analysis and
training" to numerous federal agencies. That contract, primarily for
linguistic services in support of military operations in Afghanistan, has
an estimated completion date of September 2014. <br><br>
<dd>Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and the winner
of a 2009 Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction as well as a James
Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. His work has appeared in the
Los Angeles Times,
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/turse/single">the
Nation</a>, In These Times, and regularly at TomDispatch. Turse is
currently a fellow at New York University's Center for the United States
and the Cold War. A paperback edition of his book
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805089195/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20">
The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives</a>
(Metropolitan Books) was published earlier this year. His website is
<a href="http://www.nickturse.com/">NickTurse.com</a>.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Copyright 2009 Nick Turse <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>