Extended Presence of U.S. in Iraq Looms Large

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11072377/

Extended presence of U.S. in Iraq looms large
Updated: 9:11 a.m. ET March 21, 2006



BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq - The concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that’s now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a “heli-park” as good as any back in the States.

At another giant base, al-Asad in Iraq’s western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads.

At a third hub down south, Tallil, they’re planning a new mess hall, one that will seat 6,000 hungry airmen and soldiers for chow.
Story continues below. Are the Americans here to stay? Air Force mechanic Josh Remy is sure of it as he looks around Balad.

“I think we’ll be here forever,” the 19-year-old airman from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., told a visitor to his base.




Ruh, roh....looks like the corporate media has let the cat out of the bag.

That sounds very permanent to me. :grr:

Depleted Uranium, mines, grass traps, Saddam hiding holes... etc.

What's up with that, I wonder? Thought it was supposed to be a secret from the Murkin People

The swimming pool at Balad air base, as seen through the window of a Black Hawk helicopter, 44 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 25, 2005.

First Burger Kings and golf courses and olympic swimming pools.

Later, we can do the mundane stuff like electricity and sewers for the brown people.

:sarcasm:

Or we can do what America does so often; leave the little things for the little people for other nations to pay for.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302994_pf.html

The biggest change in buying preferences in the last two years, he said, is that T-shirts advertising service in Iraq no longer sell quickly.

"A lot of people don't want shirts with OIF on it," Burk said, citing the initials for Operation Iraqi Freedom. "They want clothes they can wear when they get home, and OIF has kind of lost its pizazz."

................

:rofl: :rofl:

And yet there's no money for body armor.