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US Military to Expand Global Operations in 2016
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By Thomas Gaist
Global Research, December 30, 2015
World Socialist WebSite 29 December 2015
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Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-military-to-expand-global-operations-in-2016/5498516
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The year 2015 will be remembered as a year of expanding global
warfare and militarism. It began with discussions of the possibility of
“total war” against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, saw new provocations
against China in the South China Sea, and draws to a close amid the
escalation of the US and European war in Iraq and Syria and the spread
of conflict to Yemen, Libya and other parts of Africa.
The imperialist powers are determined to make 2016 an even bloodier
and more dangerous year. Germany and Japan are openly remilitarizing, as
their governments seek to whitewash and rationalize the crimes of the
World War II era. All of the imperialist powers have seized on the
terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino to place their populations
and economies on a war footing.
The most dangerous factor is the US drive for global domination. The
United States has its hands in virtually every country, employing drone
assassinations, Special Forces operations and a network of military
bases and agreements aimed at establishing unchallenged military
domination over the planet, along with cyberspace and outer space.
More plans are afoot. Washington is preparing to expand its global
basing system through the addition of a “larger network envisioned by
the Pentagon,” which will include at least four new Special Forces hubs
and numerous new “spoke” bases, according to a New York Times article published Monday.
The commando network will be centered on Eurasia and Africa but will
be global in scope, according to Pentagon officials. Among the new bases
will be a permanent establishment in Afghanistan, which will function
as “a hub for Special Operations troops and intelligence operatives
throughout Central and South Asia.”
The record of the US special units, which have emerged as the
spearhead of the so-called “war on terror” since 2001, makes clear the
murderous nature of the escalating commando war. US Special Forces have
been granted a general license to carry out violence and mayhem in every
part of the world with total disregard for international law. Thousands
of US commandos are already operating in between 85 and 130 countries
worldwide, according to varying estimates by US media sources.
The enlarged Special Forces network is only one element of a broader
strategic escalation by Washington. US weapons manufacturers are
collaborating with the government to channel an expanding war chest of
arms to allied governments and proxy forces, with American weapons sales
surging in recent years. In 2014, total US arms sales jumped by $10
billion to a total of $35 billion, giving US corporations control over
50 percent of the world weapons market, according to a congressional
report released last week.
The intensified drive for a redivision affects every region of the world.
Europe
Washington is pre-positioning military equipment and deploying
conventional forces and military “advisors” and trainers throughout
Europe in preparation for war against Russia.
The US Army plans to double the number of tanks it has deployed to
Europe, sending another full armored brigade to the continent,
accompanied by infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons as
well as an additional full Army division dedicated to joint operations
with NATO and European militaries.
In Ukraine, US Army forces are training five battalions of
active-duty forces and US Special Forces are partnering with the
Ukrainian military to develop Ukraine commando units.
Asia Pacific
South Korea, a country that has been tapped to serve as a staging
area for US war preparations against China, was the leading importer of
US arms in 2014, purchasing nearly $8 billion worth of American-made
weaponry.
In December, the Obama administration approved the sale of $1.8
billion worth of weapons to Taiwan, including warships previously used
by the US Navy and several advanced missile systems. The sale was the
first weapons transfer to Taiwan in years and was clearly intended as a
provocation against Beijing.
In the Pacific, the US Army’s “Pacific Pathways” program is
coordinating joint operations with Asia-Pacific militaries. In the
course of 2015, the program saw the US conduct joint drills with units
from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Mongolia,
South Korea and Thailand.
Middle East
Leading purchasers of US weapons in 2014 included the
ultra-reactionary regimes of Saudi Arabia, which purchased $4 billion
worth of TOW missiles, and Qatar, which purchased $9.8 billion worth of
US arms. Qatar has been a major backer of Islamist forces in Syria in
the US-backed civil war against Assad.
The US has spearheaded a new imperialist carve-up of the entire
region, with Britain, France and Germany piling into the wars in Iraq
and Syria toward the end of 2015 and Saudi Arabia leading a US-backed
war in Yemen.
Africa
Total arms sales to Africa—particularly in the oil-rich
regions—increased by 50 percent between 2010 and 2014 over the previous
five-year period. Cameroon and Nigeria, which are collaborating with the
growing US intervention in West Africa in the name of the “fight
against Boko Haram,” were among the leading importers of weapons.
Preparations are underway to relaunch military operations in Libya,
already devastated by the US-NATO war that overthrew and murdered
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Cyber and outer space
Even cyberspace and outer space are not exempt from the US-led
militarization drive. In November, the US was one of only four countries
to vote against a United Nations resolution, “No First Placement of
Weapons in Outer Space,” which was supported by more than 120 member
states. In a presentation earlier this year, US Undersecretary of
Defense Robert Work outlined Pentagon plans to deploy a range of space
weapons, which Work claimed are necessary to ensure military dominance
over Russia.
***
The experience of the Obama administration has underscored the
impossibility of opposing imperialist war outside of a struggle against
the capitalist system and all of its political representatives. Having
won office in 2008 as an antiwar candidate, presenting himself as an
opponent of the war in Iraq and an antidote to the militarism of the
Bush administration, President Obama has presided over an escalation of
the war in Afghanistan, wars for regime change in Libya and Syria, and a
new war in Iraq.
Obama’s talk about ending the war in Afghanistan has been exposed by
his decision to keep thousands of US troops in the country and the plans
to establish permanent US bases there. All of his pledges of “no ground
troops” or “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Syria have been exposed as
lies.
The divisions that exist within the US ruling elite and the state
over foreign and military policy concern the focus and methods of US
efforts to dominate the territory and resources of the world, with the
Obama White House arguing for a concentration on the struggle against
China and his opponents demanding a larger commitment of troops and
weapons to turn the Middle East into a de facto US colony. But there is
no “peace faction” within the corporate and political establishment, or
either of the two big-business parties.
One side of the global crisis is the slide toward a new world war.
The other is the development of revolutionary struggles by the working
class. Vast resources are allocated to destruction and war, while
growing sections of the US population are pushed into poverty and forced
to struggle for basic necessities such as housing, education, nutrition
and health care.
The struggle against war can be conducted only on the basis of the
independent mobilization of the working class in the US and
internationally against imperialism on the basis of a socialist and
internationalist revolutionary program.
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responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.
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