New York: The United States is planning a long-term military relationship with the
emerging government of Iraq, one that would grant the Pentagon access to military
bases and project American influence into the heart of the unsettled region.
Four bases in Iraq that could be used in the future are: one at the international
airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil, near Nasiriya in the South; the
third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the Western desert, along the old oil
pipeline that runs to Jordan; and the last at the Bashur air field in the Kurdish
North, American military officials said in interviews with the 'New York Times'.
The military is already using these bases to support operations against the remnants
of the old government, to deliver supplies and relief aid and for reconnaissance
patrols. But as the invasion force withdraws in the months ahead and turns over
control to a new Iraqi government, Pentagon officials expect to gain access to the
bases in the event of some future crisis.
Whether that can be arranged depends on relations between Washington and whoever
takes control in Baghdad. If the ties are close enough, the military relationship
could become one of the most striking developments among the revolutions now playing
out across the Middle East and South West Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Indian
Ocean, the 'Times' said.
A military foothold in Iraq would be felt across the border in Syria, and, in
combination with the continuing US presence in Afghanistan, it would virtually
surround Iran with a new web of American influence, the paper said.
These goals do not contradict the administration's official policy of rapid
withdrawal from Iraq, officials were quoted as saying. The US is aware that the
growing American presence in the Middle East and South West Asia invites charges of
empire building and may create new targets for terrorists.
So without fanfare, the Pentagon has also begun to shrink its military footprint in
the region, trying to ease domestic strains in Turkey and Jordan, the report said.
In a particularly important development, officials said the US was likely to reduce
American forces in Saudi Arabia as well, since the main reason for that presence was
to protect the Saudi government from the threat Iraq has posed since its invasion of
Kuwait in 1990, it said.
In Turkey, where a newly elected government bowed to domestic pressure and denied
the Pentagon access to bases and supply lines for the war with Iraq, the US has
withdrawn nearly all of its 50 attack and support airplanes at the Incirlik air
base, from which they flew patrols over Iraq's North for more than a decade.
"These issues will define a new relationship and a new US presence abroad," Faruk
Logoglu, Turkey's Ambassador to the US told the 'Times'.
PTI
