US military bases in the Persian Gulf

Nick Turse on the many US military bases being built and/or upgraded in the Middle East, which show that even with a withdrawal from Iraq, the US will not have withdrawn from the region.

See also this 2005 article saying that the US military is involved in building or upgrading 16 air bases in the Middle East.

And one by Chalmers Johnson.

And another one about US use of bases in Colombia following the refusal of Ecuador to renew the lease on their base.

Much of the new US strategy was clearly set out in May in an enthusiastic US Air Force (USAF) proposal for its military construction programme for the fiscal year 2010. One Colombian air base, Palanquero, was, the proposal said, unique "in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from... anti-US governments".

The proposal sets out a scheme to develop Palanquero which, the USAF says, offers an opportunity for conducting "full-spectrum operations throughout South America.... It also supports mobility missions by providing access to the entire continent, except the Cape Horn region, if fuel is available, and over half the continent if un-refuelled". ("Full-spectrum operations" is the Pentagon's jargon for its long-established goal of securing crushing military superiority with atomic and conventional weapons across the globe and in space.)