Defense Department officials are lobbying the White House to build or expand a series of military bases in the Middle East, Africa, and Southwest Asia in order to create an “enduring” counter-Islamic State (ISIL) presence.
The proposal is aimed at specifically boosting intelligence and attack capabilities against ISIL, according to a report by the New York Times.
Although the White House refused to comment on the scheme, Pentagon officials described it to The Times as including central “hubs,” housing each between 500 and 5,000 US troops.
The contingencies would be located primarily in countries where there are already American forces on the ground. Iraq and Afghanistan are among the Defense Department’s plans; as are places with a smaller Pentagon footprint, including Niger, Ehtiopia, Burkina Faso, and Djibouti. The US routinely runs surveillance flights in many of the latter countries to keep an eye on militant groups.
“The new approach would try to bring an ad hoc series of existing bases into one coherent system,” The Times explained.
Pentagon officials said the basing plan is still in its early stages, but claimed it would only cost “several million dollars” annually to operate; expenses, they said, consist mostly of personnel costs.
The proposal, however, is being met with resistance by the State Department. The Times noted that “career diplomats have long warned about the creeping militarization of American foreign policy as the Pentagon has forged new relationships with foreign governments eager for military aid.”
The US military maintains roughly 800 bases around the world already, and has troops stationed in nearly 150 different countries.
The increasing reliance on military force as a centerpiece of foreign policy has also attracted criticism on Capitol Hill in recent months.
In a June hearing, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said he was “growing more concerned about the potential for militarization of US foreign policy in Africa.” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), in the same hearing, pressed administration witnesses to explain how Americans can be confident that US security assistance on the continent will “foster civility rather than aid to the problem.”
“We’ve long provided security assistance on the continent under the premise that exposure to US best practices and our civilian led military will lead to greater security in the region,” he said. “Yet in Mali, Burkina Faso, and possible Burundi, US trained actors were involved in—shall we say—extra democratic transitions.”
