America Still Has Hundreds of Military Bases Worldwide. Have They Made Us Any Safer?

Since 1980, the United States has engaged in military action in 13 countries in the Greater Middle East, with every American president launching invasions, occupations, bombings, drone assassination campaigns, and cruise missile attacks. The US military has garrisoned the region, with a concentration rivaled only by the Cold War garrisoning of Western Europe, or the bases built to wage past wars in Korea and Vietnam. 

In the Persian Gulf, the US has major bases in every country except Iran, and an increasingly large base in Djibouti, just miles across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula. There are also bases in Pakistan, the Balkans, Diego Garcia, and the Seychelles. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US once had as many as 800 and 505 bases, respectively. The Obama administration recently agreed to maintain around 10,000 troops and at least nine major bases in Afghanistan beyond the official end of combat operations. US forces, which never fully departed Iraq after 2011, have returned to a growing number of bases there in larger numbers.

The US military now has an extensive presence in the Middle East, with bases and troops covering the region. This infrastructure of war has been in place for so long that it is rarely discussed, and Congress routinely approves billions of dollars for its construction and maintenance without asking questions about its purpose. It is estimated that the US has spent $10 trillion protecting Persian Gulf oil supplies over the past four decades.

This strategy, now in its 35th year, has had disastrous consequences for American foreign policy. The ease with which the US can launch wars in the region has led to cycles of blowback and further conflict. The presence of these bases has also contributed to anti-American sentiment and radicalism, and has been linked to attacks on US citizens. Furthermore, the cost of maintaining these bases has diverted funds away from alternative energy sources and other domestic needs, while also propping up dictators and oppressive regimes.

After more than three decades of military presence in the Greater Middle East, it is essential to evaluate the consequences of Washington’s garrisoning of the region for the US, the region, and the world.

“Vast Oil Reserves”

Since the end of World War II, the United States has been steadily increasing its military presence in the Middle East. In 1945, the US pushed for the completion of a partially built base in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, in order to strengthen the political integrity of the country and protect its vast oil reserves. By 1949, the Pentagon had established a small, permanent Middle East naval force (MIDEASTFOR) in Bahrain. In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy’s administration began the first buildup of naval forces in the Indian Ocean just off the Persian Gulf. This was followed by the creation of the first major US base in the region on the British-controlled island of Diego Garcia.

Prior to the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan and Iran’s 1979 revolution, the US had generally sought to increase its influence in the Middle East by backing and arming regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran under the Shah, and Israel. However, this approach was abandoned in 1980, when Washington began to use military force to control the resource-rich Eurasia and, with it, the global economy. As Chalmers Johnson, an expert on US basing strategy, explained in 2004, “the United States has been inexorably acquiring permanent military enclaves whose sole purpose appears to be the domination of one of the most strategically important areas of the world.”

Base Buildup

In January 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared a new policy in his State of the Union address, warning of the potential loss of the Middle East region, which contained more than two-thirds of the world’s exportable oil, and was threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan. He declared that any outside force attempting to gain control of the Persian Gulf region would be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States and would be repelled by any means necessary, including military force. 

This marked the beginning of one of the most expansive base construction efforts in history. Under Carter and his successor Ronald Reagan, bases were established in Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in the region to host a Rapid Deployment Force. Diego Garcia, in particular, was expanded at a rate faster than any base since the Vietnam War, and by 1986, more than $500 million had been invested. 

The Rapid Deployment Force eventually became the US Central Command, which has since overseen numerous military operations in the Middle East, including three wars in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, intervention in Lebanon, and a series of smaller-scale attacks on Libya, Afghanistan, and Sudan. The US also established bases in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. 

The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 led to a further expansion of bases in the region. By the height of the wars, there were over 1,000 US checkpoints, outposts, and major bases in the two countries alone. The Obama administration signed an agreement with Afghanistan permitting US troops to stay in the country until 2024, and maintain access to Bagram Air Base and at least eight more major installations. 

The US military presence in the Middle East has had a significant impact on the region, and the money spent on it could be better used to develop alternative energy sources, so that the US and the world are no longer dependent on Middle Eastern oil. This would free us from the cycle of war that our military bases have fed.

An Infrastructure for War

The US military has a variety of options when it comes to waging its new war against the Islamic State (IS). In Iraq, at least 1,600 troops are operating from a Joint Operations Center in Baghdad and a base in Erbil. Last week, the White House announced plans to send an additional 1,500 personnel to two new bases in Baghdad and Anbar Province. Special operations and other forces are likely operating from undisclosed locations. The Combined Air Operations Center at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base is of major importance, as it is the Central Command’s air operations center for the entire Middle East. Kuwait has been an important hub for Washington’s operations since the first Gulf War, hosting an estimated 15,000 troops and providing a staging area and logistical center for ground troops. The US military is also using aircraft from Kuwait’s Ali al-Salem Air Base. Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates has launched more attack aircraft in the present bombing campaign than any other base, and the country hosts around 3,500 troops and the Navy’s busiest overseas port. The US military has 17 bases in Turkey, and up to seven bases in Oman may also be in use. Bahrain is the headquarters for the Navy’s Middle Eastern operations, including the Fifth Fleet, and there is always at least one aircraft carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf. In Israel, there are as many as six secret US bases, and a “de facto US base” for the Navy’s Mediterranean fleet is suspected. In Egypt, US troops have occupied at least two bases on the Sinai Peninsula since 1982. The military has also established a collection of at least five drone bases in Pakistan, expanded a critical base in Djibouti, created or gained access to bases in Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Seychelles, and set up new bases in Bulgaria and Romania. 

The US military has a wide range of options available to them in its new war against the Islamic State. In Iraq, at least 1,600 troops are operating from two bases, with the White House announcing plans to send an additional 1,500 personnel to two more. The Combined Air Operations Center at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base is of major importance, and Kuwait has been an important hub for Washington’s operations since the first Gulf War. Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates has launched more attack aircraft in the present bombing campaign than any other base, and Bahrain is the headquarters for the Navy’s Middle Eastern operations. In Israel, there are as many as six secret US bases, and in Egypt, US troops have occupied at least two bases on the Sinai Peninsula since 1982. The military has also established a collection of at least five drone bases in Pakistan, expanded a critical base in Djibouti, and created or gained access to bases in Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Seychelles. The US military has a wide array of options available to them in the region, from bases in Iraq and Kuwait to those in Israel, Egypt, and Pakistan.

The United States has maintained a small military presence in Saudi Arabia, despite public withdrawal, to train Saudi personnel and keep bases “warm” as potential backups for regional or domestic conflicts. In recent years, the US has even established a secret drone base in the country, despite the negative reception this has received. 

The US presence in Saudi Arabia should remind us of the risks of maintaining bases in the region. Osama bin Laden used the US presence in the Muslim holy land as a major recruitment tool for al-Qaeda, and US bases and troops in the Middle East have been a “major catalyst for anti-Americanism and radicalization” since the 1983 bombing of 241 marines in Lebanon. Other attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia in 1996, Yemen in 2000, and during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

The US has also offered support to a number of authoritarian regimes in the Greater Middle East, including Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Yemen. This has made the US complicit in their human rights abuses, and undermined efforts to spread democracy and improve the wellbeing of people around the world. The US air campaign against the Islamic State has also led to an increase in foreign militants joining the movement, according to a recent U.N. report. This cycle of warfare, which began in 1980, is likely to continue. The infrastructure of US bases in the Greater Middle East has enabled wars of choice and an interventionist foreign policy that has caused repeated disasters for the region, the US, and the world. 

The US military spending in the region could be better used to develop alternative energy sources, so that the US and the world are no longer dependent on Middle Eastern oil. This would free us from the cycle of war that our military bases have fed.

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