America retools military to rule oil and Muslims

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> a

> 12:45

> America retools military to rule oil and

Muslims

>

 

 

> Sunday Edition, Edmonton Journal, August 22, 2004

>

> America retools military to rule oil and Muslims

> by Eric Margolis

>

> Paris - Last week's announcement that 70,000 U.S.

> troops would be withdrawn from Germany and South

> Korea is an event of major geopolitical importance.

>

> However, far from reducing the 257,000 troops

> overseas in over 100 foreign bases, the Bush

> administration intends to intensify global military

> operations even though under-manned, over-committed

> U.S. armed forces are stretched to the breaking

> point.

>

> The largest withdrawals will be from Germany. Two

> heavy divisions, the 1st Armored and 1st Mechanized

> (with 100,000 staff and civilians) will be

> repatriated back to the U.S. The sharp decline of

> Russia's armed forces has removed any rationale for

> maintaining U.S. divisions stationed in Germany

> since 1945. This makes military sense and is long

> overdue. The heavy divisions will be replaced by a

> mobile 3,500-man brigade and some new air units.

>

> America's smartest, most outspoken foreign policy

> thinker, Zbigniew Brezinski, bluntly describes the

> U.S.-Europe post-war relationship as a " hegemon and

> its vassals " with NATO as the principal instrument

> through which the U.S. controls Western Europe. The

> U.S. exercises similar control of Japan, " an

> American protectorate " in Brezinski's words, through

> the U.S.-Japanese Security Treaty.

>

> Military power underpins both vital strategic

> relationships. Removal of U.S. forces from Germany,

> with the inevitable reduction of power, even raison

> d'etre, of NATO, means declining U.S. political

> influence over Europe. This, in turn, will allow a

> united Europe to develop what is a full-scale

> partner, not a vassal, of the United States - a most

> welcome geopolitical development. One wonders if the

> Bush administration's limited thinkers understand

> this vitally important point.

>

> The planned withdrawl of 12,500 of the 37,500 U.S.

> troops in South Korea (3,500 will go to Iraq) is

> also logical, though the announcement's timing is

> poor. So, too, the reduction of 20,000 Marines in

> Okinawa, a major irritant to Japanese public

> opinion.

>

> South Korea's powerful armed forces are well able to

> hold off North Korea's larger but obsolescent

> military. The U.S. 2nd Division's deployment in

> static defences along the Demilitarized Zone makes

> it - as this writer has seen first-hand - vulnerable

> and hostage to North Korea's massive artillery.

> Pulling the 2nd back south of Seoul makes good

> military sense, as does thinning U.S. troops in the

> south but not when the U.S. and its allies are

> locked in vitally important nuclear negotiations

> with hostile North Korea.

>

> Meanwhile, the U.S. will open new bases in Bulgaria

> and Romania as part of America's new " imperial

> lifeline. " They will link to new U.S. bases being

> built across Central Asia, Pakistan, Iraq, and the

> Gulf, designed to cement Washington's hold on the

> Muslim world and its natural resources.

>

> As a result, the entire armed forces are being

> restructured for " expeditionary warfare " (the

> British used it call it " the imperial mission " ).

> This process began a decade ago, but accelerated

> under the Bush administration, which has

> relentlessly militarized foreign policy.

>

> Army heavy tankers and artillery are being replaced

> by light, Canadian-made wheeled armoured vehicles.

> Troops are being trained in counter-insurgency

> operations and urban warfare. A " lilypad " concept of

> austere, rapidly created mini-bases will allow U.S.

> forces to leapfrog around the globe.

>

> The navy is developing " littoral warfare " ships for

> coastal operations that can project fire and troops

> deep inland. Fleets of prepositioned supply ships

> deployed around the globe will keep entire brigades

> in the field for months.

>

> The U.S. Air Force has developed " barebase "

> operations allowing it to deploy " strike packages "

> of attack, bomber and recon aircraft across the

> globe on short notice that can deliver devastating

> firepower. New cargo transports are being built.

> Constellations of spy satellites, listening devices

> and swarms of drones give Washington eyes and ears

> everywhere.

>

> These dramatic new deployments signal further

> expansion of military operations around the globe as

> America comes ever closer to resembling its forbear,

> the British Empire. Most Americans, however, remain

> unaware of their government's new imperial plans to

> rule oil and the Muslim world, and of the unexpected

> conflicts that lie in wait for America's

> increasingly far-flung expeditionary forces.

>

> margolis