Of Course We Have a Base There
Day 213. One of the places helping sustain America’s war against Iran is this dot in the Indian Ocean.
South of the Maldives, surrounded by an enormous amount of water, there’s an American military base on British-controlled territory.
Of course there is. A country that expects to fight almost anywhere has to spend a great deal of time arranging how to get there.
Britain acquired control of Diego Garcia from France in 1814. The American foothold came through a 1966 agreement with Britain. A 1970 Navy memorandum described the strategy as “stockpiling of islands for contingency use of the U.S.” (House of Lords; Navy memorandum)
Stockpiling islands. Securing useful places before the occasion to use them arrived.
The island’s position mattered to planners concerned about Soviet naval activity and continued access to countries around the Indian Ocean. By 1977, a National Security Council assessment explicitly described its expansion as preparation for circumstances in which coastal facilities became unavailable. (NSC assessment)
Over time, the preparation took physical form.
This war has supplied one of those contingencies. After Iranian attacks badly damaged the Navy’s logistics hub in Bahrain (Navy 5th Fleet HQ), the fleet turned to Diego Garcia, more than 2,000 miles from the carrier forces it was supplying. The distance complicated replenishment, but the alternative hub already existed. (Navy Times)
A 2025 inventory by World BEYOND War counted 877 U.S. foreign military bases and sites. Diego Garcia is one of them.
Presidents inherit all that preparation. Long before a particular crisis arrives, someone has secured access, built the runway and arranged the fuel. Using force becomes an option with an enormous amount of work already behind it.
That readiness can shape the choices we consider. Bombing a distant country starts to feel like an ordinary instrument of policy. The danger is a foreign policy with a hair trigger, because we’ve spent generations making sure the weapon can reach.