edited 26 March 2006
Franklin Freeman
copyright © the author 2002-6
You may download the article for your own use,
and reproduce it, as a whole or in part (but include the
full copyright notice), on non-commercial websites
The USA set up the Unified Command Plan (UCP) in 1946, at the beginning of the Cold War. The UCP divided much of the world into arenas of responsibility, each to be attended by a particular Command administration and its assigned military forces.
In 2002, for the first time, the entire world surface, both land and ocean, was divided out among the Commands. (Russia, previously the direct responsibility of the Pentagon, has been allocated to the European Command, EuCom.) The new UCP was effective from 1 October 2002. It includes the new Northern Command (NorthCom), which covers the USA, Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Thus a special Command has been established for North America for the first time.
The other commands are the Southern Command (Southcom), covering South America; EuCom, now expanded from Western Europe to cover Russia and most of Africa; the Central Command (CentCom), covering most of the Middle East plus the former Soviet Central-Asian republics and the horn of Africa; and PaCom, the "Pacific Command", a nebulous entity based on the Pacific Ocean and including China, India, south-east Asia, Australasia and Antarctica in its remit.
(There is also the shadowy but all-important Special Operations Command [SoCom], which is responsible for no particular geographic arena, but directs covert and overt special military operations in any part of the world. SoCom's headquarters are at the same location — Fort McDill, Florida — as those of CentCom. It was announced in autumn 2002 that SoCom was taking over part of CentCom's Middle-Eastern responsibilities.)
The most important Commands for now are arguably NorthCom and CentCom. They (especially CentCom) are restricted, focused and coherent (just as others, especially PaCom, are diffuse and incoherent).
NorthCom is the most important, since it is the instrument for mastering the American nation itself. It is in conjunction with the Homeland Defense Plan. (See its website www.northcom.mil for a self-appraisal.)
CentCom had its present area at least as early as September 1999 (the date of a previous UCP revision). Its area covers most of the key Middle-eastern oil reserves. (It's unlikely to have had "responsibility" for just the Soviet central-Asian republics during the Soviet era.) This suggests that the American political hard-right had decided on its scheme of oil-empire by 1999 (and only needed the staged Sept. 11 attacks to put it into action).
The first province of the American world empire, the Middle Eastern oil region, is now beginning to be formed. CentCom was to move its Florida HQ to Qatar in November 2002, "as an exercise", but was "considering" making the move permanent. This is only a continuation of the move of CentCom's forward (logistics) base from Saudi Arabia to Qatar in spring 2002 (see "The Three Centres ..." on this website). With the completion of this move, the essential central military-administrative apparatus of the prospective province will be in place.
-------------------------
More generally,
1944 — 2001 (mainly the time of Cold War struggle) can be seen as the era of the American pre-empire, of America's widespread political and economic influence. 2002 — (say) c.2050 will be the era of proto-empire, of transformation from influence to full administrative empire. Followed by the third era, of however-many hundred years, of this empire.
The commands may be the general grand-regional receptacles into which the empire condenses. If CentCom is seen as paramount now, in the future other commands may become more coherent and important, in line with the ascendency of other factions and their particular interests.
-------------------------
References (in chronological order):-
"Military Favors a Homeland Command: Forces May Shift To Patrolling U.S.", Washington Post, 21 Nov. 2001, p.A01
"Pentagon Debates Homeland Defense Role: Sept. 11 Attacks Challenge Reluctance to Use Troops for Civil Law", Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2002, p.A06
"Unified Command Plan", US Dept. of Defense News Release no.188-02, 17 April 2002
"Northern Command to Debut in October", American Forces Information Service, news articles, 17 April 2002
"Unified Command Plan", US Dept. of Defense (as updated 16 July 2002)
Addendum
U.S. Military Bases: Iraq and Beyond
Dahr Jamail, Zoltan Grossman, Joseph Gerson, Institute for Public Accuracy, 22 March 2006
"... Less than two weeks after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, U.S. military officials announced the intention to maintain at least four large bases in Iraq that could be used in the future [for further expansion]. These are located near Baghdad International Airport, Tallil (near Nasiriyah, in the south), one in the Kurdish north at either Irbil or Qayyarah (they are only 80 kilometers apart), and one in western al-Anbar province at Al-Asad. ..."
"... [More generally,] After every U.S. military intervention since 1990 ... the Pentagon has left behind clusters of new bases in areas where it never before had a foothold. The new string of bases stretch from Kosovo and adjacent Balkan states, to Iraq and other Persian Gulf states, into Afghanistan and other Central Asian states. ... The only two obstacles left [in this belt] are Iran and Syria. ..."
"... With most U.S. troops and bases having been forced out of Saudi Arabia in the wake of the September 11 [2001] attacks, the Bush administration sees Iraq as an unsinkable aircraft carrier for its troops and bases for decades to come.
"President Bush's praise for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld includes the global "reconfiguration" of U.S. military bases, which reflects Washington's strategic priorities: China and oil. The U.S. military continues its military encirclement of China with its redeployment of forces within South Korea and Japan, the transformation of Guam into a major U.S. military hub, the reintroduction of U.S. forces to the Philippines ... and the new U.S. bases in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. The U.S. bases in Iraq and central Asia can also be used to implement the threatened military attacks against Iran. ..."