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<h1><font size=4><b>The 700 Military Bases of Afghanistan <br><br>
</b></font></h1><h2><b>Black Sites in the Empire of Bases
</b></h2><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/nickturse">Nick
Turse</a><br><br>
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.tomdispatch.com/<br>
</a>Wednesday, February 10, 2010<br><br>
<br><br>
In the nineteenth century, it was a fort used by British forces. In
the twentieth century, Soviet troops moved into the crumbling
facilities. In December 2009, at this site in the Shinwar district
of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, U.S. troops joined members of the
Afghan National Army in preparing the way for the next round of foreign
occupation. On its grounds, a new military base is expected to
rise, one of hundreds of camps and outposts scattered across the country.
<br><br>
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
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175157/tomgram:_nick_turse,_in_afghanistan,_the_pentagon_digs_in">
base-building boom</a> that began last year.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>400 Foreign Bases in Afghanistan<br><br>
</b>A spokesman for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) tells TomDispatch that there are, at present, nearly 400 U.S. and
coalition bases in Afghanistan, including camps, forward operating bases,
and combat outposts. In addition, there are at least 300 Afghan
National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) bases, most of them
built, maintained, or supported by the U.S. A small number of the
coalition sites are mega-bases like Kandahar Airfield, which boasts one
of the busiest runways in the world, and Bagram Air Base, a former Soviet
facility that received a makeover, complete with Burger King and Popeyes
outlets, and now serves more than 20,000 U.S. troops, in addition to
thousands of coalition forces and civilian contractors. <br><br>
In fact, Kandahar, which housed 9,000 coalition troops as recently as
2007, is expected to have a population of as many as 35,000 troops by the
time President Obama's surge is complete, according to Colonel Kevin
Wilson who oversees building efforts in the southern half of Afghanistan
for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On the other hand, the
Shinwar site,
<a href="http://www.isaf.nato.int/en/article/news/afghan-national-army-isaf-hold-contractor-rodeo.html">
according to</a> Sgt. Tracy J. Smith of the U.S. 48th Infantry Brigade
Combat Team, will be a small forward operating base (FOB) that will host
both Afghan troops and foreign forces. <br><br>
Last fall, it was reported that more than $200 million in construction
projects -- from barracks to cargo storage facilities -- were planned for
or in-progress at Bagram. Substantial
<a href="http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/12/airforce_military_construction_122709/">
construction funds</a> have also been set aside by the U.S. Air Force to
upgrade its air power capacity at Kandahar. For example, $65
million has been allocated to build additional apron space (where
aircraft can be parked, serviced, and loaded or unloaded) to accommodate
more close-air support for soldiers in the field and a greater
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability. Another
$61 million has also been earmarked for the construction of a cargo
helicopter apron and a tactical airlift apron there. <br><br>
Kandahar is just one of many sites currently being upgraded. Exact
figures on the number of facilities being enlarged, improved, or hardened
are unavailable but, according a spokesman for ISAF, the military plans
to expand several more bases to accommodate the increase of troops as
part of Afghan War commander Stanley McChrystal's surge strategy.
In addition, at least 12 more bases are slated to be built to help handle
the 30,000 extra American troops and thousands of NATO forces beginning
to arrive in the country. <br><br>
"Currently we have over $3 billion worth of work going on in
Afghanistan," says Colonel Wilson, "and probably by the summer,
when the dust settles from all the uplift, we'll have about $1.3 billion
to $1.4 billion worth of that [in the South]." By comparison,
between 2002 and 2008, the Army Corps of Engineers spent more than $4.5
billion on construction projects, most of it base-building, in
Afghanistan.<br><br>
At the site of the future FOB in Shinwar, more than 135 private
construction contractors attended what was termed an
"Afghan-Coalition contractors rodeo." According to
Lieutenant Fernando Roach, a contracting officer with the U.S. Army's
Task Force Mountain Warrior, the event was designed "to give
potential contractors a walkthrough of the area so they'll have a solid
overview of the scope of work." The construction firms then
bid on three separate projects: the renovation of the more than 30-year
old Soviet facilities, the building of new living quarters for Afghan and
coalition forces, and the construction of a two-kilometer wall for the
base.<br><br>
In the weeks since the "rodeo," the U.S. Army has announced
additional plans to upgrade facilities at other forward operating
bases. At FOB Airborne, located near Kane-Ezzat in Wardak Province,
for instance, the Army intends to put in reinforced concrete bunkers and
blast protection barriers as well as lay concrete foundations for
Re-Locatable Buildings (prefabricated, trailer-like structures used for
living and working quarters). Similar work is also scheduled for
FOB Altimur, an Army camp in Logar Province.<br><br>
<b>The Afghan Base Boom<br><br>
</b>Recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Afghanistan
District-Kabul, announced that it would be seeking bids on "site
assessments" for Afghan National Security Forces District
Headquarters Facilities nationwide. The precise number of Afghan
bases scattered throughout the country is unclear. <br><br>
When asked by TomDispatch, Colonel Radmanish of the Afghan Ministry of
Defense would state only that major bases were located in Kabul, Pakteya,
Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar-e-Sharif, and that ANA units operate all
across Afghanistan. Recent U.S. Army contracts for maintenance
services provided to Afghan army and police bases, however, suggest that
there are no fewer than 300 such facilities that are, according to an
ISAF spokesman, not counted among the coalition base inventory.<br><br>
As opposed to America's fast-food-franchise-filled bases, Afghan ones are
often decidedly more rustic affairs. The police headquarters in
Khost Farang District, Baghlan Province, is a good example.
According to a detailed site assessment conducted by a local contractor
for the Army Corps of Engineers and the Afghan government, the district
headquarters consists of mud and stone buildings surrounded by a mud
wall. The site even lacks a deep well for water. A trench fed
by a nearby spring is the only convenient water source.<br><br>
The U.S. bases that most resemble austere Afghan facilities are combat
outposts, also known as COPs. Environmental Specialist Michael Bell
of the Army Corps of Engineers, Afghanistan Engineer District-South's
Real Estate Division,
<a href="http://www.aed.usace.army.mil/AES/flash/TopRight.swf">recently
described</a> the facilities and life on such a base as he and his
co-worker, Realty Specialist Damian Salazar, saw it in late
2009:<br><br>
"COP Sangar... is a compound surrounded by mud and straw walls.
Tents with cots supplied the sleeping quarters... A medical, pharmacy and
command post tent occupied the center of the COP, complete with a few
computers with internet access and three primitive operating tables.
Showers had just been installed with hot [water]... only available from 8
a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m...<br><br>
"An MWR [Morale, Welfare and Recreation] tent was erected on
Thanksgiving Day with an operating television; however, the tent was
rarely used due to the cold. Most of the troops used a tent with gym
equipment for recreation... A cook trailer provided a hot simple
breakfast and supper. Lunch was MREs [meals ready to eat]. Nights were
pitch black with no outside lighting from the base or the
city."<br><br>
<b>What Makes a Base?<br><br>
</b>According to an official site assessment, future construction at the
Khost Farang District police headquarters will make use of sand, gravel,
and stone, all available on the spot. Additionally, cement, steel,
bricks, lime, and gypsum have been located for purchase in Pol-e Khomri
City, about 85 miles away. <br><br>
Constructing a base for American troops, however, is another
matter. For the far less modest American needs of American troops,
builders rely heavily on goods imported over extremely long, difficult to
traverse, and sometimes embattled supply lines, all of which adds up to
an extraordinarily costly affair. "Our business runs on
materials," Lieutenant General Robert Van Antwerp, commander of the
Army Corps of Engineers,
<a href="http://www.aed.usace.army.mil/AES/flash/TopRight.swf">told
</a>an audience at a town hall meeting in Afghanistan in December
2009. "You have to bring in the lumber, you have to bring in
the steel, you have to bring in the containers and all that. Transport
isn't easy in this country -- number one, the roads themselves, number
two, coming through other countries to get here -- there are just huge
challenges in getting the materials here."<br><br>
To facilitate U.S. base construction projects, a new "virtual
storefront" -- an online shopping portal -- has been launched by the
Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The Maintenance, Repair
and Operations Uzbekistan Virtual Storefront website and a defense
contractor-owned and operated brick-and-mortar warehouse facility that
supports it aim to provide regionally-produced construction materials to
speed surge-accelerated building efforts. <br><br>
From a facility located in Termez, Uzbekistan, cement, concrete,
fencing, roofing, rope, sand, steel, gutters, pipe, and other
construction material manufactured in countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan can be
rushed to nearby Afghanistan to accelerate base-building efforts.
"Having the products closer to the fight will make it easier for
warfighters by reducing logistics response and delivery time,"
<a href="http://www.dla.mil/DLAPublic/DLA_Media_Center/PressRelease/PressReleasePrintable.aspx?ID=572">
says</a> Chet Evanitsky, the DLA's construction and equipment supply
chain division chief.<br><br>
<b>America's Shadowy Base World<br><br>
</b>The Pentagon's most recent inventory of bases lists a total of 716
overseas sites. These include facilities owned and leased all
across the Middle East as well as a significant presence in Europe and
Asia, especially Japan and South Korea. Perhaps even more notable
than the Pentagon's impressive public
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174994/nick_turse_putting_the_pentagon_on_the_auction_block">
foreign property portfolio</a> are the many sites left off the official
inventory. While bases in the
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175159/tomgram:_nick_turse,_out_of_iraq,_into_the_gulf/">
Persian Gulf countries</a> of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab
Emirates are all listed, one conspicuously absent site is Al-Udeid Air
Base, a billion-dollar facility in nearby Qatar, where the U.S. Air Force
<a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/us-military-joins-cias-drone-war-in-pakistan/">
secretly oversees</a> its on-going unmanned drone wars.<br><br>
The count also does not include any sites in Iraq where, as of August
2009, there were still
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8448762">nearly
300 American bases and outposts</a>. Similarly, U.S. bases in
Afghanistan -- a significant percentage of the 400 foreign sites
scattered across the country -- are noticeably absent from the Pentagon
inventory.<br><br>
Counting the remaining bases in Iraq -- as many as 50 are slated to be
operating after President Barack Obama's August 31, 2010, deadline to
remove all U.S. "combat troops" from the country -- and those
in Afghanistan, as well as black sites like Al-Udeid, the total number of
U.S. bases overseas now must significantly exceed 1,000. Just
exactly how many U.S. military bases (and allied facilities used by U.S.
forces) are scattered across the globe may never be publicly known.
What we do know -- from the experience of bases in Germany, Italy, Japan,
and South Korea -- is that, once built, they have a tendency toward
permanency that a cessation of hostilities, or even outright peace, has a
way of not altering. <br><br>
After nearly a decade of war, close to 700 U.S., allied, and Afghan
military bases dot Afghanistan. Until now, however, they have
existed as black sites known to few Americans outside the Pentagon.
It remains to be seen, a decade into the future, how many of these sites
will still be occupied by U.S. and allied troops and whose flag will be
planted on the ever-shifting British-Soviet-U.S./Afghan site at
Shinwar.<br><br>
<br>
<i>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
</i>Los Angeles Times,
<a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081201/turse/single">the
Nation</a>, In These Times,<i> and regularly at TomDispatch. Turse is
currently a fellow at New York University's Center for the United States
and the Cold War. He is the author of
</i>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805089195/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20">
The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives</a><i>
(Metropolitan Books). His website is
<a href="http://www.nickturse.com/">NickTurse.com</a>.<br><br>
</i>[This article first appeared on
<a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/">Tomdispatch.com</a>, a weblog of
the Nation Institute, which offers a steady flow of alternate sources,
news, and opinion from Tom Engelhardt, long time editor in publishing,
co-founder of <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/">the
American Empire Project</a>, author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20">
The End of Victory Culture</a>, and editor of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1844672573/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20">
The World According to Tomdispatch: America in the New Age of
Empire</a>.]<br><br>
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