"...it's not the training to be mean but the training to be kind that is used to keep us leashed best." ~ Black Dog Red

"In case you haven't recognized the trend: it proceeds action, dissent, speech." ~ davidly, on how wars get done

"...What sort of meager, unerotic existence must a man live to find himself moved to such ecstatic heights by the mundane sniping of a congressional budget fight. The fate of human existence does not hang in the balance. The gods are not arrayed on either side. Poseiden, earth-shaker, has regrettably set his sights on the poor fishermen of northern Japan and not on Washington, D.C. where his ire might do some good--I can think of no better spot for a little wetland reclamation project, if you know what I mean. The fight is neither revolution nor apocalypse; it is hardly even a fight. A lot of apparatchiks are moving a lot of phony numbers with more zeros than a century of soccer scores around, weaving a brittle chrysalis around a gross worm that, some time hence, will emerge, untransformed, still a worm." ~ IOZ

Jun 3, 2010

Never Leaving, Not Until the Empire Falls, And Probably Not Even Then

"The Army is looking to spend as much as $100 million to expand its Special Operations headquarters in northern Afghanistan.

All around Afghanistan, from Kandahar Airfield to the Bagram jail, the U.S. military is on a building spree, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on wartime encampments. By one count, America and its allies now have 700 bases in Afghanistan. But most of the construction — and most of the extra troops “surging” into the country — are going to the violent south and the dangerous east.

Until recently, northern Afghanistan was considered quiet. Regional hub Mazar-e-Sharif was the first major city in Afghanistan to be taken from the Taliban. But, especially in nearby Kunduz province, violence is bubbling up once again.

The Amy’s expects its expanded Special Operations HQ in Mazar-e-Sharif to occupy 70,000 square meters. It’ll include a 'Joint Operations Center, billeting facilities, communications building, Tactical Operations Center, training facility, medical aid station, Vehicle Maintenance Facility, logistics operations facility, logistics storage facility, dining facility, laundry facility, and a kennel to support working dogs,' according to a request for proposals. 'Supporting facilities include roads, power production system and electrical distribution, water well, non-potable water production, water storage, water distribution, sanitary sewer collection system, communication manhole/duct system, curbs, walkways, drainage and parking. Additionally, the project will include site preparation and compound security measures to include guard towers.'

Construction is supposed to take a year. At which point, the U.S. is allegedly supposed to begin drawing down its forces in Afghanistan. Allegedly."

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/army-plans-100-mil-spec-ops-hq-in-afghanistan/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz0ppKaBXfz


Do you want to know the purpose of perpetual warfare?

More warfare.

And as these wars and occupations continue, so will the encroachments on still legal rights and liberties, here at home. Militarization does not remain contained in war zones.

We cannot separate over there from here.

If we don't want them building $100 million dollar assassination complexes over there, we have to force them to spend it here.

If we don't want $3 billion a year shipping off to the openly fascist Israeli garrison state, make 'em spend it here. 

The "homeland," already militarized, already seized as a means of transforming the Commons into the policed property of the ruling classes, must either become the arena we force them to occupy, control and ultimately over control (yes - real risks obtain, down that path), or they will continue to expand wherever resource extraction can follow the force of arms. 

UPDATE 8:10 PM (h/t Skookum, from the comments):


CENTCOM proconsular AoR.


Global Security: CENTCOM.

3 comments:

Jay Taber said...

CENTCOM http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_b4mStgxHLo0/SlvAuJY0edI/AAAAAAAAAB0/zRqCs4NR-r0/s1600-h/712px-USCENTCOM_Area_of_Responsibility.png is gonna be busy.

JRB said...

That's an excellent conclusion, Mr. Crow. Thanks.

Jack Crow said...

Much obliged.