US remaking look, locations of bases abroad

[Khephra]

For 21st century life abroad, the US military is going back to basics. Gone will be what one commander called ''small-town USA'' bases in Europe, with every modern convenience from fast-food restaurants and full hospitals to pharmacies, schools, and playgrounds.

Instead, the emerging future of the US military overseas looks more like Camp Lemonier, a collection of tan and white cinder block buildings sitting at one dirty end of Ambouli Airport outside the capital of Djibouti. The medical facility, capable of handling only minor injuries, is a tent. Plumbing is sparse. Recreation comes in the form of a couple of pool tables, video games, and a big-screen television for movies. Troops are limited to three cold beers at the canteen. Family is on another continent.

Pentagon planners have begun to move troops off traditional bases, relying instead on small, stripped-down facilities based near what officials call the ''arc of instability,'' which stretches from North Africa into Southeast Asia, or the ''nonintegrating gap,'' which refers to a swath of countries shut out of global economic prosperity.

The Pentagon is engaged in the most fundamental shift of US armed forces around the globe since America's post-World War II rise to superpower status, according to defense officials and military specialists familiar with the still unfolding plans. The result will be more bases like Camp Lemonier, as planners move US forces away from a Cold War posture of containing a defined threat and toward a focus on speed and overwhelming muscle against emerging crises -- a posture that fits President Bush's policy of preventive war.

more........................

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/188/nation/US_remaking_look_locations_of_bases_abroad+.shtml

[Zech Marquis]

1. that'll do wonders for recruitment

and retention. Have your family back in the US while the GI is stuck on some dirty, isolated hellhole "base" with just 3 beers a day, maybe one big screen tv, and lousy living conditions to boot.

Someone tell me Halliburton and Unca Dick are NOT in the war profitting rackeet! :eyes:

[SoCalDem]

2. This has benefits and problems..

The old style bases presented the US soldier as a family man.. His family interacted with the locals, and the image of the US was enhanced by that interaction..The "little bit of America" that was the base, also provided employment for the locals and gave them an introduction to American life.. Kids of soldiers/airmen/marines/sailors often fell in love with that lifestyle and actually wanted to join up when they were old enough..The bases were actually a recruitment tool..


The stripped down version has benefits from the standpoint that it's easy to set up and easy to remove.. If we are to play Coyote v roadrunner all over the world, mobility makes sense..

The downside is that military people these days tend to be married more often than before (lack of good jobs with benefits) and long deployments in hardship conditions can really do a number on a young man's mind...and can horribly destabilize his family at home who has to make do without him for long periods of time..

[Zech Marquis]

3. exactly

I grew up on military bases all my life, thankfully my dad was in the Air Force, so we had the good stuff like the bx, movie gouese, swimming pools, you name it. Ad helped us and the locals too. Why change or stop a good thing? Oh, it's Rummy calling the shots here, never mind :eyes:

[SoCalDem]

4. They want it CHEAP, and NO maintenance

Kind of like camping.. when the campsite gets all trashed, just MOVE.. You can bet, too, that the locals will get stuck with any cleanup..:(

[Zech Marquis]

5. then why stop there?

Rummy might as well change the title from DoD to War, Incorporated :nuke: no need to hide the corporate types calling the shots now...

[SoCalDem]

6. ooh.. "War, Inc.".. I like that

I bet Rummy would too.. the Inc. means COO's, CFO's, CEO's, Boards of Directors, Accounting firms, Consultants, Advisors,401 201-k's, junkets...

All the things that are dear to republicans' shriveled, blackened little blood pumps..:)

[bpilgrim]

7. "President Bush's policy of preventive war." WAR CRIMMINAL!

great now we have the same policy as nazi germany and imperial japan in the 30's.

:'(

well at least they are being up-front about it.

peace