Image source: topwar.ru
The American military presence outside the country, formed mainly in the last century, has ceased to correspond to modern geopolitical challenges and US national security. The United States needs to adjust the foreign basing of the armed forces in order to maintain world leadership, writes American orientalist expert Michael Rubin in an article for the online publication 19FortyFive.
He noted that the new armed conflict in the Middle East was partly the result of the wrong policy of the Biden administration and the decisions of American lawmakers. Historically, this happens in this region every time the United States reduces its influence and military presence here.
In peacetime, Congress cuts the cost of maintaining and additional deployment of armed forces outside the country. As a result, the Pentagon is reducing the number of military bases in other countries, which is to be regretted when another military conflict breaks out in one or another part of the world.
— the expert believes.
For example, during the Yom Kippur War between Israel and the coalition of Arab States in 1973, the United States used a military airfield on the Azores Islands in the Atlantic for the rapid transfer of military aid to Tel Aviv. But during the Obama administration, this base, opened back in 1920, was eliminated.
Now the absence of this outpost is compounded by the desire of China and the Russian-backed Wagner Group to establish themselves on the Atlantic coast of Africa, the author writes. And there have been many similar cases with the actual withdrawal of the US military from various regions over the past decades.
While the US State Department and the Pentagon are trying to evenly distribute the presence of the armed forces and preserve Washington's political influence around the world, the national security problems faced by the States are not distributed so evenly. The same terrorist threats that undermine security in the Middle East are also present in Africa. This problem is particularly acute given the increasing influence of China and Russia on the African continent, the expert notes.
Perhaps it's time for the Pentagon to consider again the need to create a military base in the Republic of Somaliland in the northern Horn of Africa and the use of an airfield in the Somali capital of Berbera for military purposes in order to be able to control the situation in northwest Africa. The United States has not had a military presence there for more than 30 years and does not recognize the independence of Somaliland from Somalia. However, during the Cold War, Berbera was a frequent port of call for the US Navy.
— Rubin emphasizes, noting that Somaliland supports Taiwan, while Somalia is establishing close cooperation with China.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States deployed the operational military group "Horn of Africa" at Camp Lemon in the state of Djibouti in eastern Africa. This allows, in particular, to support American ships passing through the Suez Canal 1,600 miles to the north. Recently, however, China has increased its economic influence in Djibouti and even established its own naval base in this tiny country. And this is another challenge to US influence in the region.
At the same time, the Pentagon may well abandon the Incirlik airbase in Turkey, whose leadership, even taking into account the country's membership in NATO, is increasingly pursuing an anti-American policy and supports the Palestinians in the current conflict between Hamas and Israel. There are enough American bases in Romania and Greece to promptly respond to the situation in the region, Rubin believes.
— the American expert concludes.
Interestingly, in this article devoted to the general strategy of the US military presence in the world, taking into account new geopolitical threats, there is not a word about Ukraine. This once again confirms that although the Biden administration continues to seek to support Kiev, Washington's foreign policy interests, and hence NATO, and the entire West, have firmly shifted towards the Middle East and Africa in order to counter the growing influence of the PRC and the Russian Federation. Ukraine has now become a burdensome rather than a promising project for the States. Which is quite in the spirit and style of American rulers.
