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...carnage at Bagram Air Force Base is still being assessed. One report had two Americans and a South Korean killed, with eyewitnesses saying anywhere from four to eight foreigners and at least a score of Afghans were among the dead or wounded. The bomber did not get too far into the Bagram facility: the explosion occurred at the first gate. He would have had to get past at least three other checkpoints before actually being on the base. It is, nevertheless, the latest in a string of violent attacks throughout the country that may herald the start of an anticipated...
...bloodiest for the foreign troops. It is not just a threat, we will prove it." He says he will soon be able to field some 10,000 soldiers, of which 2,000 are trained suicide bombers like the one who blew himself up at Bagram Air Force Base this morning. While his numbers may be large exaggerations, the Taliban have managed to briefly take two towns already this year, a chilling warning of things to come...
Helicopters, it turns out, do not fly upside down. I know this by hard, albeit simulated, experience. I was on the stick of an 21-ton MH-53 helicopter, one of the largest crafts of its type in the world, at the Iwakuni Air Base in western Japan. My co-pilot and instructor - an officer in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) - guided me as I lifted the copter off the ground and pointed it toward the virtual Akinada Sea. A little spin over the water, no problem, and then my instructor asked me to turn around for home...
...That change is slowly playing out at Iwakuni. The seaside MSDF facility not far from Hiroshima was a main Japanese air force base through World War II, before it was eventually taken over by the Americans, and the grounds are now shared with the U.S. Marines. It's in the midst of a $1.9 billion expansion program, paid for by the Japanese government, and its contingent of U.S. planes will eventually double to over 100 as part of an American force realignment. There's a reason for the move - Iwakuni is within striking distance of every potential hot spot...
...specter of a rearming and aggressive Japan gives the rest of Asia flashbacks to WWII, but the truth is that Iwakuni, like all Japanese military facilities, is far more defensive than offensive. While missile-armed FA-18 Hornets launch daily from the American side of the base, Japan's hangars are filled with craft like the MH-53, which sweep for mines, and the US-1A, a giant propeller-powered flying boat that has participated in hundreds of sea rescues...