The Bases Basis for the Iran War

The economic impact of this war — through oil, tourism, and otherwise — is likely to continue to rub Gulf nations’ faces in the colossal error of allowing the U.S. military to use their land for its wars.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War

According to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio the U.S. attacked Iran because Israel was going to attack Iran, likely producing Iranian attacks on U.S. bases. This comment suggested that Israel began a U.S. war, but also that U.S. bases began the war. Neither thing is as unusual as perhaps imagined.

The United States has loaded up with bases the area that Iran has the ability to hit with missiles. Not only does the presence of a U.S. base tend to make wars more likely, but the U.S. claim that distant wars are “defensive” is propped up by the bases — imagined as U.S. territory and often treated as such in every way. Iran does not have missiles that can hit the actual United States.

Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry and infrastructure has been destroyed by Iran at U.S. bases — on top of the billions used by the U.S. military. Spent wisely, that funding could have saved many lives. The blowback over the years to come is also not likely to be slight.

The economic impact of this war — through oil, tourism, and otherwise — is likely to continue to rub Gulf nations’ faces in the colossal error of allowing the U.S. military to use their land for its wars. A U.S. embassy is becoming less a coup threat in this part of the world, and more a danger to anyone near it as a target for foreign attack.

Some nations have claimed — with, I think, little credibility — to be denying the United States the use of its bases. Their failure to denounce the crime committed by the United States and Israel in launching another war is revealing of their choice of subservience to the U.S. military and its ludicrous promise to keep them safe from the dangers it is itself creating.

A map of U.S. military bases in Western Asia is often surprising to people in the United States. Over 50,000 troops occupy dozens of bases in some of the world’s most brutal dictatorships — dictatorships propped up in part by these bases.

Of the nations to the west of Iran, these have U.S. bases in them: Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Cyprus, Egypt. These do not: Lebanon, Yemen, and what’s left of Palestine. The U.S.-supported wars on Yemen and Palestine are long-running, while that on Lebanon — renewed this month — is more intermittent.

The deaths that U.S. media has featured the most are six U.S. troops killed in Kuwait and one in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile six more U.S. troops and one French and one Czech have reportedly died in a helicopter crash in Egypt. But reports suggest that 1,255 people have been killed by the United States and Israel in Iran, 394 by Israel in Lebanon, and 57 other people by Iran in Israel, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and Oman. The injuries are many times the deaths. The disrupted, traumatized, and made homeless are many times the injured. U.S. deaths constituting 0.4% of the deaths but occupying a large portion of the U.S. media coverage and speeches in Congress is par for recent U.S. wars, albeit still on a relatively small scale.

Here’s a quick look at what’s happened so far this month in U.S. “host” nations, where Iran has apparently made a priority of attacking U.S. bases and oil infrastructure. This is in addition to major Iranian attacks on Israel.

BAHRAIN

The tiny island nation kingdom of Bahrain is ruled through arbitrary imprisonment and torture by a nasty king educated by the U.S. military in Kansas, whose brutal police force has been trained by the United States. The U.S. Navy bases its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. The U.S. government provides military training and funding to Bahrain, and facilitates the sale of U.S.-made weapons to Bahrain. The United States has almost certainly used its Bahraini bases in its war on Iran. Iran has attacked at least one U.S. base in Bahrain, as well as a water desalination plant, an oil refinery, and residential buildings. Iran has also attacked the USS Eisenhower, as did Venezuela earlier this year.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The United States bases troops in the UAE and provides the UAE military with weapons and training, even though its tyrannical ruler was educated by the British military. The UAE, for its part, tries to outdo Bahrain in the brutality of its endless assaults on human rights, while marketing itself as a happy location for tourism. The United States has no doubt made use of its bases in UAE for its war on Iran. In retaliation, Iran has attacked at least two U.S. bases, that at Jebel Ali Port, and that at Al Dhafra just south of Abu Dhabi, as well as missile sites at Al Ruwais that may belong to the UAE or to the United States, as well as Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, oil infrastructure, and the Palm Hotel and many other sites in Dubai. Will new vacation ads pair waterslides through shark tanks with Iranian missiles as thrills to be enjoyed?

KUWAIT

Moving north along the riviera of U.S.-backed dictatorships, in Kuwait we find another nation ruled by a British-educated, U.S.-armed royal thug, and full of U.S. military bases heavily used for wars on Iraq and now — although Kuwait may deny it — for a war on Iran. At least three U.S. bases have been attacked by Iran: Ali Al-Salem Air Base, Camp Buehring, and Camp Arifjan. Iran has killed six U.S. troops, while the United States has shot down its own planes without U.S. deaths resulting. Iran has also attacked the U.S. embassy and an oil refinery. How does Kuwait think the pay-off for that fable about Iraqis taking babies out of incubators is adding up thus far?

QATAR

Fitting into its neighborhood, Qatar is a brutal dictatorship ruled by a British-educated royal who built infrastructure for the last World Cup using slave labor, and whose forces are trained by the U.S. military which makes use of Al Udeid Air Base, including as a headquarters for its “Central Command.” The United States has used this base for various wars including this latest one. The base has now been attacked by Iran. The idea that the U.S. government has command of every inch of the Earth has suffered as well.

IRAQ

Having been properly “liberated” by a long, bloody slaughter, Iraq is now home to numerous U.S. military bases, at least two of which have been attacked by Iran: Erbil Air Base and Ain al-Asad Air Base. Iran has also attacked Kurds in Iraq. The constitutional government of Iraq is permitted to decide on anything it likes, other than U.S. troops departing Iraq.

JORDAN

Jordan is run by a very respectable, if hideously brutal, U.S.-educated king who plays “host” to many U.S. bases, at least one of which has been attacked by Iran: Muwaffaq al Salti Air Base, which hosts the U.S. Air Force’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing.

SAUDI ARABIA

The United States has certainly used at least some of its bases in the bone saw kingdom, including the Prince Sultan Air Base, in its war on Iran, which in turn has attacked the U.S. Embassy and oil infrastructure.

CYPRUS

Cyprus may be an island divided, but both parts have U.S. military bases. These include bases shared by the UK and U.S. and used in recent wars and genocides. One of these bases has now been attacked by Iran, and some on the island are questioning the wisdom of joining other people’s wars as voluntary targets.

OMAN

Iran has also attacked one of the U.S. bases in Oman, that at the Port of Duqm.

Iran has also been accused of attacking Turkey and Azerbaijan but denies having done so.

A number of regional states made efforts to prevent this war. Oman went to great efforts to inform the U.S. public that a peace deal was well within reach. But if any nations have successfully denied the U.S. military the ability to use its bases within their territory for this particular war (without closing the bases or preempting their future use in other wars) they are probably Spain and Azerbaijan. The UK has given very mixed messages, apparently trying but failing to deny the U.S. military the use of its bases in the UK and at Diego Garcia.

A major role in the war has been played by U.S. bases elsewhere, notably at Ramstein in Germany, and even at civilian airports not widely recognized as U.S. bases but routinely used as such, including Shannon Airport in Limerick, Ireland. U.S. bases make much of the world complicit in U.S. crimes.

Of course, much of the damage done by Iran at some of the U.S. bases near its border has been done by drones. Those of us who warned and warned and warned that creating and deploying and using U.S. drones — and creating more bases because of the drones — would backfire, and who pointed out that Iran could simply shoot down a drone and reverse engineer it, will not be belatedly acknowledged in the U.S. corporate media.

Similarly, those of us who warned and warned and warned that a new war on Iran could spiral out of control if attacked nations were to join in and escalate it are still warning. If there is any silver lining thus far, it is all these nations attacked for acting as U.S. puppets choosing thus far to treat those attacks as attacks on the United States or otherwise as no grounds for joining in the war and making everything even worse.