Cancelling Port Deal Could Mean END of Military Bases In UAE

[kpete]

Cancelling Port Deal Could Mean END of Military Bases In UAE

Found something interesting

StrategyUnit on Wed Feb 22 at 3:04 AM EST
Besides Oil: There Are Military Bases

I find it amazing that the most obvious thing UAE has is being ignored in this thread and by this blog: Military Bases for Force Projection.

Spook86 at "In from the Cold" has already written up on this, so I'll quote the Spook:

"Cancelling the port deal could mean the end of U.S. basing rights in the UAE, strained relations with other regional partners, and the potential loss of a key defense contract, all viewed as critical in fighting the War on Terror. Collectively, those factors probably explain why the deal hasn't already been nixed, and why the Bush Administration may put up a fight-even with political allies. ... Cancellation of the contract would be viewed as an insult to the UAE and its leadership; regional critics would accuse the U.S. of hypocrisy-anxious to utilize UAE bases and sell its defense hardware to the Dubai, but unwilling to let a UAE company manage operations in U.S. ports. Such criticism, in turn, would cause other Gulf allies to question Washington's long-term committment to the region, and make it more difficult for the U.S. to sustain basing rights in such countries as Qatar and Bahrain."

More on US bases in UAE here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/uae.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/mi...acility/ uae.htm
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/2/21/191151/369#more
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