Word: sovietize
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...Bagram--a modest airstrip expanded by the Soviets in the 1980s and currently used as the main in-country base for coalition forces--an air of permanence is taking hold. Soviet-era military debris--from MiG fighters to helmets--is being bulldozed into piles. The runway apron has been extended. Offices and a gym are under construction. The Post Exchange supply shop has begun to accept credit cards. There are even efforts to control the ever-present dust, a fine gray chalk that infiltrates everything--seams, food, mouths--and turns to slime at the slightest hint of rain. And while...
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's sleek blue-and-white jet touched down late last week on the 13,000-foot, Soviet-built runway at Manas International Airport here, bringing him for the first time to his key base in the war on terror. The base is well on is way to becoming the central staging area for U.S. military operations in this part of the globe. Hammers clatter and saws whine across the post, dubbed Ganci Air Base after New York City Fire Chief Peter Ganci Jr., who died at the World Trade Center. Engineers are busy putting up housing...
...Even as the Afghan war winds down, U.S. bases are spreading like a rash across the soft Islamic underbelly of the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials say the new bases are "expeditionary," meaning their U.S. presence won't be constant or permanent. Some support only small contingents of special forces troops, while others - like this one just outside Kyrgyzstan's capital of Bishkek - are substantial. The steppes of central Asia - a no-go zone for the U.S. military until last year - could become home to U.S. troops for years to come. Minutes after Rumsfeld arrived here last Friday, an impatient...
...military cargo planes have been off-loading tractors, cargo loaders and other gear as engineers patch runways and refurbish rusty lighting and communications deep inside the tiny republic of Kyrgyzstan, tucked amid the mountains in what used to be the Soviet Union's southeast corner. Two weeks ago, the first U.S. warplanes - six Marine F-18 fighter-bombers - moved in, relieving the strain on Navy pilots stretching 600 miles from carriers in the Arabian...
...tides of history slosh following defeats. The U.S. rushed in to East Asia in the wake of Japan's World War II surrender and - among other things - harvested wars in Korea and Vietnam. Following the Soviet Union's loss in the Cold War, Washington - with help from al-Qaeda - is now setting up shop in central Asia. Whether there will be any bitter harvests here remains to be seen...