Ace of Base

New at Reason: Jeff Taylor explains the new built-to-last strategy for basing in Iraq.

Comments

[Jean Bart]

Jeff Taylor,

A government run through an embassy was the way the U.S. acted in Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia.

[Kraorh]

Insert "all your base" joke here.

[shanep]

I thought this war on terror would be fought differently than previous wars?

Is Bush following the foreign legion strategy?

All they need now are the white hats.

[PapayaSF]

Shanep, there are limits to how much you can change the ways you fight wars. Alas, all of our high-tech advances still don't eliminate the need to have physical bases close to the action.

[Hydroman]

Jean Bart
Exactly,everything was run from MAC V Hq., Saigon
in the embassy.

[Ruthless]

"Alas, all of our high-tech advances still don't eliminate the need to have physical bases close to the action."
Posted by PapayaSF at March 29, 2004 04:22 PM

PapayaSF, which comes first: the action or the physical bases?

[Andrew]

Building the bases now to secure an option makes some sense. Business makes decisions like this all the time-- most options expire unexercised. We can certainly scuttle them, as needed...we made short work of Saddam's installations.

[zorel]

I think we should follow the French foreign legion model - then may be we could have the support of the EU folks. //hope//

[PapayaSF]

Ruthless, by "action" I meant the war on terror, so the action came before our Iraq bases, but I have little doubt that there is yet more action to come in the region.

[M. Simon]

If it was good enough for Germany it is good enough for Iraq.

[dj of raleigh]

WE can't have bases in Israel.

The biggest enemy of the US is the venomous US-akin-them
domestic political system of Carter Democrats
hating Reagan Republicans hating Clinton democrats hating Dubya.

Would anyone wish for the nation to fail
so one party can win one on the other?

[dj of raleigh]

Well, this is NOT the public face you want to wear.
Worse come to worse, the US hunkers down on the secure bases,
and when the terrorists rise up and show themselves
the army does an Israeli attack on them,
and then go back in the hole of the base.
The Iraqis run the Iraq day to day,
but the calvary is just over the ridge.

[zorel]

Jean Bart,

I was thinking about the French bases you mentioned. I did not say/think they were run by EU. When I said we would have EU approval, I was kind of meaning we wouldn't have France's disapproval. If France doesn't disapprove, they won't veto in the UNSC - as for the rest of the EU I am not too concerned about what they think as a collective entity.

Case in point - Haiti. US and French troops provided transportation out of the country to the dictator. Later, he bitched. But nobody gave a damn (except some black politicians on the left in the US).

[George Hamid]

So, I guess we should put an asterisk next to the sovereignty of Germany, Spain, Britain, the Philippines, Kuwait, South Korea, Okinawa, Japan, and so on, and so on.

I don't think those nations would be too happy about that.

[Jean Bart]

zorel,

Are you thinking of current overseas bases France has? Those are foreign legion and French Marine Corps (FMC) bases; and they aren't run by the EU, but by France (generally under mutual defense treaties or because the land is part of an overseas department of France).