Are We Digging in for the Long Haul in Afghanistan?

Despite Obama's July 1010 promise to draw down forces in Afghanistan, the US military continues to expand its Afghan bases. Today for TomDispatch, Nick Turse, author of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan, analyses little-noticed U.S. government records and publications, including U.S. Army and Army Corps of Engineers contracting documents and construction-bid solicitations issued over the last five months, to reveal continued plans for expansion.

Quoting a September/October issue of Army Sustainment, the official logistics journal of the Army, Turse observes,

"Military construction projects scheduled for completion over the next 12 months will deliver 4 new runways, ramp space for 8 C-17 transports, and parking for 50 helicopters and 24 close air support and 26 intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. This represents roughly one-third of the airfield paving projects currently funded in the Afghanistan theater of operations. Additional minor construction plans called for the construction of over 12 new FOBs and expansion of 18 existing FOBs."

Visit TomDispatch.com to read the article in full.