BASE IN YOUR FACE

This February thousands of people will take to the streets of London to protest against war with Iraq. They carry the message that the powers-that-be should not go to war in our name. But the arena of those much trod London streets is like a stall at the fairground that the US/UK hawks bustle past with their heads down, carrying on with their own entertainment. Often, from the streets, we call on these hawks in vain. There are places in the UK though where they will not be able to ignore large-scale opposition - physical spaces that will host the bombers heading for Iraq, that will spy on the Middle East’s communications. These are the US military bases on British soil, for the war isn’t just in our name, it’s in our faces – it’s on our windswept moors, it’s near a railway station, on a bus route.

Fairford in Gloucestershire doesn’t stand out in UK tourist guides – the official website of the British Tourist Authority comments on its 15th century church and Annual Air Show. However, Fairford is big in the US’s war games. As the largest US bomber base in Europe, the first wave of attacks on Iraq may be carried out by B-2 stealth bombers flying from here. The bombers hosted at Fairford are nuclear capable and may, for example, be the planes that drop mini-nukes on Saddam’s bunkers. Local residents aren’t ignorant of their significance in world affairs – the Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors, an informal group of concerned citizens, have visited the base several times, concerned that their town should be playing host to weapons of mass destruction.

Fairford isn’t the only apparently sleepy town playing a key role in any military action. Bases hosting support systems for the US military are at Croughton in Northamptonshire; Barford St. John in Warwickshire; Chelveston in Northamptonshire; Daventry; and north west of London in Uxbridge, to name but a few. Cambridgeshire can boast two of the biggest US airbases outside the US mainland – at Mildenhall and at Lakenheath. Aviators from both these Cambridgeshire bases have seen action in most major conflicts involving the US in recent years.

The UK’s role as Bush’s ‘eastern front’ is most clearly underscored by activities carried out at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales in Yorkshire.

Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, is the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. Run by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States and operating as US sovereign territory it is one of a global network of bases that monitor the world's communications (civil, diplomatic, military and commercial) through a system known as ECHELON. Menwith is responsible for picking up communications from satellites covering the Middle East: in the last Gulf War it even won an award for its listening efforts.

Fylingdales, on the North York moors, will provide the US President with information on US attacks in the Middle East, and will monitor trajectories of surveillance satellites and incoming ballistic missiles.

Both bases are key in the operation of the US’s long-term ‘security’ plans - its Nuclear Missile Defence (NMD) system, commonly referred to as ‘Star Wars’. Fylingdales will act as the ‘eyes and ears’ of Star Wars, and Menwith as a ground relay station. With all his ill-defined talk of terror Bush seems to be whooping up enough hysteria to allow for this massively expensive, technically dubious and politically dangerous scheme. NMD is a radar-controlled, anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, designed to shoot down any long-range nuclear, chemical or biological armed missiles that Bush seems to think his favourite ‘rogue states’ have the ability to develop. Of course, such development is not only unlikely, it would be suicidal given the US’s already huge armoury. And, as we’ve seen on 9/11, the most likely form of attack on the US is one carried out by small groups subverting civilian infrastructure. China and Russia have already said they feel compelled to increase their own arsenals as a counter measure to Star Wars. And Star Wars is designed to protect only mainland US, not western Europe, nor Menwith nor Fylingdales, which the UK government are so keen to see as part of the scheme.

As our governments appear to have a long-term strategy of aggression, so we must keep an eye beyond seemingly separate wars and have a long-term strategy for a world not based in the propagation of fear and mediated by the military machine. In the meantime, our demonstrations need to be visible at the physical components of this machine. And that’s not difficult to achieve – they’re in this very land.



For more on ‘Foil the Base’, a day of creative peaceful direct action on March 22nd at the ‘brains’ of US military planning – Menwith Hill - see www.now-peace.org.uk. For more on a 22nd March action at the ‘body’ - the bomber base at Fairford - see www.gwi.org.uk.

To check whether your town is also a key component in the US military infrastructure see www.caab.org.uk