Members of the Marine Air Traffic Control Mobile Team, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit prepare equipment to lay down a landing zone at Chabelley Airfield, Djibouti, October 21, 2011. REUTERS/Michelle C. Lawrence/U.S. Army/Handout
Joseph Trevithick, Reuters: This small airstrip is the future of America’s way of war
The Pentagon is quietly building up a small airstrip in a remote region of east Africa as part of its war against Islamic militants. More importantly, the airfield is a complex microcosm of how Washington runs military operations overseas — and how America’s way of war will probably look for the foreseeable future.
Chabelley Airfield is less than 10 miles from the capital of the small African nation of Djibouti. The small airport is the hub for America’s drone operations in the nearby hotspots of Somalia and Yemen.
But in spite of all of this, Chabelley isn’t what it might otherwise seem – at least not officially. You see, the site is not technically an American base.
WNU Editor: Black ops, special forces, secret bases, secret agreements with foreign countries, secret drones strikes, etc., .... in short .... doing what was done under the previous Bush administration but having our allies do most of the "dirty work" and using their bases when it is convenient.