LONDON: America’s near-triumph in Iraq has been achieved with astonishing speed. But the likelihood is that US troops will be in Iraq for months, even years, to come. It will join a staggering list of countries where American power is exercised directly through its military might.

Whether engaged in the battle against terrorism, the ‘war on drugs’, in peacekeeping duties or maintaining garrisons where the US has fought battles in the past, the Stars and Stripes flutters over military bases across the globe.

America’s huge military presence cost the taxpayer more than $300 billion last year. But while budgets have risen, the numbers of men and women under arms have declined. A 36 per cent reduction in US forces since the end of the Cold War has led some critics to fear the emergence of ‘imperial overstretch’ with troops spread over vast distances, creating expensive logistical nightmares — a condition that plagued previous dominant powers such as the Roman Empire, Genghis Khan and Napoleon.

One legacy of the Cold War is the 98,000 US personnel remaining in Europe. Once tasked with stopping Soviet tanks at the Fulda Gap, 56,000 US troops and 60 combat aircraft are still based in Germany, while Italy houses 12,400 US personnel. Greenham Common may have closed, but the UK still has 9,200 US personnel, while a further 8,283 sailors, air force staff, soldiers and marines are spread across Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. The sea is not neglected and the Mediterranean is patrolled by the US 6th Fleet; reinforced with 2,000 Marines.

The ethnic strife in the Balkans prompted US intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo. While the peace seems to have settled, America and its allies are taking no chances and 2,000 US troops remain as part of Bosnia’s Stabilization Force, to ensure that the guns stay silent.

Down the road in Kosovo, 5,000 US personnel work to keep the peace. But wars in one country mean deployments elsewhere. The Balkans tragedy also brought 840 army and air force personnel to Hungary and Macedonia.

Decades since Hiroshima and Iwo Jima, Japan hosts 18,000 US personnel and 84 combat aircraft. The islands are also home to the 7th Fleet and 20,000 Marines. Just over the sea in South Korea, 29,100 US troops guard the border with the North, a legacy of the ‘forgotten’ Korean War of the Fifties.

The Pacific is also peppered with several smaller facilities. As well as naval and air bases on Guam and Diego Garcia, the US has an eavesdropping facility in Australia with more than 100 personnel. A further 108 troops are located in Thailand, and even East Timor was supplied by US warships after it gained independence. The ‘war against terrorism’ has also caused US troops to assist operations in the Philippines against Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.

As operations in the Philippines illustrate, it is not just Afghanistan in the frontline of the ‘war on terror’. For long a graveyard of colonial ambitions, this country still hosts 7,500 US troops, ‘cleaning up’ Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. The reports we hear from Bagram airbase and Camp Rhino, Kandahar, eclipse deployments elsewhere. Several countries in Russia’s ‘near abroad’ support Operation Enduring Freedom and facilities in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are used by US troops and aircraft.

Shadowy CIA missions may operate from Uzbekistan’s Tuzel airbase using armed Predator drones to track and kill Taliban and Al Qaeda top brass.

During the Cold War such a deployment was unthinkable, but as one war finished another started and the front lines of the Cold War were replaced by the front lines of terrorism. This conflict has even involved countries such as Cuba. More than 2,200 personnel are based at Guantanamo Bay where alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners are interned.

Meanwhile, the conflict with Iraq is being called Gulf War II. Since Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the American presence in the Middle East has ballooned. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait host thousands of US troops and scores of aircraft.

Ports in Egypt, Oman and Bahrain get frequent visits from US ships. Jordan quietly agreed to allow a ‘limited number’ of American personnel on its soil. Meanwhile, the 5th Fleet navigates the Gulf and the Arabian Sea with more warplanes than the Danish frontline air force.

While the US fights its ‘war against terrorism’ and its war against Iraq, it also fights its war against drugs. There is every chance that this conflict could be just as protracted as the ‘war on terror’.

To this end 370 army, air force and marine personnel assist the Colombian and Honduran authorities in anti-narcotics operations. There are even more obscure facilities; 1,700 personnel are spread throughout Bermuda, Iceland and the Azores. The US agreed to guarantee Iceland’s security during the Cold War because the country has no armed forces of its own — and it has remained there ever since.

Just as US ships patrol the Pacific, a large naval presence sails the Atlantic. This can include up to four aircraft carrier battle groups, 10 strategic nuclear missile submarines and 55 other warships.

If previous conflicts in the Balkans, Korea, the Pacific and Europe are indications, the US might stay longer in Iraq than it plans. Such a stay could prove expensive for the US taxpayer and might halt any new military campaigns for now.

Any future US ‘empire building’ could be rendered unaffordable and Washington may wish to note those before them who stretched too far. History also shows that the war might be quick to fight, but the peace can take longer to flourish.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.