How many military bases in Afghanistan?

Back in early 2010, I got the military to count up its whole inventory of bases in Afghanistan and was floored by the total — nearly 400!  With talk by the Obama administration of drawdowns, withdrawals, and shifting the fight to special operations forces, I decided to take another look at the state of base building.  Have the numbers dropped?  On the contrary, they’ve risen higher!

For a full accounting of the hundreds of U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan and the story of a new intelligence facility devoted to the drone war that military refuses to talk about (they cancelled an interview when they learned about my line of questioning), see my latest investigative piece on the Pentagon’s Afghan Basing Plans for Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops.

Photo: A Predator drone inside a hangar at Kandahar Airfield. (USAF/David Carbajal)