In "The Pentagon's New Map," I told the story about a speech I gave at an defense industry conference at the Reagan building where I ended up being quoted by the press as saying something to the effect of "we'll be in Central Asia for decades, just like in Europe, and some of our bases there will end being as well known to service personnel as Ramstein, the huge Air Force base in Germany."
Well, that quote, as I relate in the book, got me called onto the carpet by some OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) mid-lings who wondered who the hell I was and where did I get off saying stuff like that. So I gave them the brief and they were cool with the whole thing.
Still, the original press report had Rumsfeld replying that the administration had absolutely no intention of being in Central Asia many years into the future.
Here, I cite a WAPO report of America building a $10m training base for counter-terror ops.
Think it'll still be there, say, 20 years from now? I would bet on it.
And this is the classic SysAdmin footprint: not many troops, and those who are there primarily do training of the locals. That's how a networked force operates in an increasingly networked world that features super-empowered individuals.
More of our "over-reaction" to 9/11? Not exactly.