Neocon Sandwich: U.S. Building Military Base Directly Atop Iraqi Oil Platform

From the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. Navy is building a military installation atop this petroleum-export platform as the U.S. establishes a more lasting military mission in the oil-rich north Persian Gulf.

While presidential candidates debate whether to start bringing ground troops home from Iraq, the new construction suggests that one footprint of U.S. military power in Iraq isn't shrinking anytime soon: American officials are girding for an open-ended commitment to protect the country's oil industry.

That is a sea change for the U.S., which has patrolled these waters for decades. In the past, American warships and their allies flexed the West's military might in the Persian Gulf to demonstrate a broad commitment to protect the region, which produces almost a third of the world's oil. President Jimmy Carter codified the doctrine in 1980 in response to a perceived Soviet threat.

Now, amid rising prices -- oil futures finished Friday at $96.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 86 cents -- and new vulnerabilities in the world's stretched oil-supply chain -- from militants in Nigeria to occasional Iranian threats to disrupt Persian Gulf shipping -- the Navy finds itself with an additional, much more specific role: playing security guard to Iraq's offshore oil infrastructure. [...]

The new installation will house U.S., British and Australian officers and sailors. The Pentagon has said it has no intention of building permanent U.S. bases in Iraq, and Navy officials say they intend to turn over the facility to Iraqi forces as soon as they can run it on their own.

But Iraqi forces are a long way from being able to take over the mission, Navy officials say. Iraqi patrol boats are on the water assisting in sector patrols around the terminals. But they are rusting hulks. Iraqi soldiers stationed on the terminals have just recently started training with live ammunition. "They are going to need help for years to come," Adm. Cosgriff says.

So for the time being, the new base will serve as a U.S.-controlled command post straddling a major component of Iraq's creaking oil industry. From a collection of modified shipping containers, coalition officers will monitor ship traffic and coordinate the movement of coalition warships circling "Kaaot" and "Abot," as the military has nicknamed the two terminals.

Read the full story here.

Comments

[eugenegerard]

No Armitage, YOU were not just foolish. YOU like Rove and Cheney and Bush were TRAITORS to the US. You should be tried with the rest of your conspirators in a court of law.

[GhostintheMachine]

God Bless our troops on Veterans Day!

[Gayrove]

The Pentagon "has no intention of building permanent military bases in Iraq?" What about the four huge ones that they've already built? Why is everyone so close-lipped about this? Read 'Army' magazine, or Army, Navy or Air Force "Times" and learn that the plan is for another 50 years in Iraq, at least.
This is the whole point of everything! This is why it was claimed (and the Bush administration meekly agreed) that there was a LACK of a post-conquest plan. What an idea! The plan has ALWAYS BEEN to stay there!
Idiots! They pay people at Wall Street Journal and every place else to cough that stuff up!

[BUSHsurvivor]

Ahhh forget that the Iraqis have no regular clean water or electricity!

[wm1066]

Neocon sandwhich,­.....is that like an exploding cigar?

[Ginzaman]

Of course. After all that investment (human beings being killed), do you really think we're going to let those filthy Communist Chinese have any of that oil? I wonder if Lou Dobbs has any say in this at the White House?

[VivaZapata]

Stop trying to imply, with nothing but facts at your disposal, that the war was to make money for the oil companies, their subsidiaries and other parasites. It can't be true: we're paying twice as much for oil since the war began. Soon it will trickle down to the consumer. :)LOL

[TimeToThink]

Here you all are again commenting.

Just how many of you have marched in the last six months or carried a sign etc.? I have.

How many of you have really given cash to oppose the current administration? I have to my poor limits.

How many have written more than two letters to your representatives, Senators etc? In the last six months? I have written more than a dozen.

How many of you read news all the time? All of you! How many whine and complain almost everyday? All of you!

"We have met the enemy and they are us." - Pogo

[esquire07]

Spreading "Freedom and Democracy" to an Oil Platform near you !!!

DEAD US TROOPS = HALLIBURTON PROFITS = MONEY IN DICK CHENEY'S BLOODY POCKETS.

US Military = Private Security Force for Oil Industry. Funded by US Taxpayers.

This Veterrans day, let us remember the brave young troops that died in Iraq to keep oil profits in Bush/Cheney pockets.

[neoconcriminals]

So weak....
"I vas just following ze orders".

These republicans, they want to rewrite the news and now they're desperately trying to rewrite history.

[Dandy12]

This shows where our heart is really located. Actually it is a practical move... I guess Greenspan's "it's about oil" wasn't too far off base.

[ljsfolly]

Why is this not a surprise? Maybe we should just "build" one or two others on the top of places we might "need" in the future? Or on the other hand maybe we should just build a bomb or two for someone like Bin Laden to blow the hell up! The first thing I thought of was what a weird looking pier, like a bizarro version of a Jersey pier to go on rides. Strnge the mind tricks at play. I am thinking though it all goes back to American blood for oil....

[average joe]

Capt. Hazelwood pull in and fill up. Keep Mate Jack Daniels away from the helm.

[Canukistani]

Hey, it's not about oil! It's about democracy and freedom and apple pie and cuddly kittens and all that stuff.

[horseface]

Nowhere does the article say whether or not this is a WORKING oil platform, whether it was producing oil before the invasion, or put out of service during the war. I seriously doubt that bases would be built on a producing platform, due to high danger of fire or explosions; also space is very tight alotted on a structure like this. IT WOULD BE NICE to get such information in the article.

Also, I just don't see reporting anywhere on the state of Iraq's oil industry. What is left of it, who is operating it, how many wells are shut down, etc.