Many American bases across the Gulf states are uninhabitable due to extensive damage caused by Iranian counter strikes against us colonial infrastructure in the region.
In a rare divergence from the official imperial line, the New York Times (NYT) reported that various US military installations had been all but destroyed.
The US-Israel attacked Iran first on 28 February without provocation. Iran was offering unprecedented concessions in negotiations at the time. The Pentagon has since stated there was no imminent threat from Iran. And the UN’s atomic watchdog, the IAEA, has said there is no evidence Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.
A month into the war, the NYT finally reported the extent of the damage to a key theatre of US imperial power projection.
Many of the 13 military bases in the region used by American troops are all but uninhabitable, with the ones in Kuwait, which is next door to Iran, suffering perhaps the most damage.
Adding:
Six U.S. service members were killed in a strike on Port Shuaiba that destroyed an Army tactical operations center. Iranian drones and missiles also targeted Ali Al Salem Air Base, damaging aircraft structures and injuring personnel, and Camp Buehring, damaging maintenance and fuel facilities.
US bases in Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia also took serious damage:
In Qatar, Iran struck Al Udeid Air Base, the regional air headquarters of U.S. Central Command, damaging an early-warning radar system. In Bahrain, a one-way Iranian attack drone struck communications equipment at the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. At Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Iranian missiles and drones damaged communications equipment and several refueling tankers.
A complete lack of planning
Historically speaking, the bases America maintains in the Gulf were built to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But their proximity to Iran left them exposed when Trump, under Israeli influence, pulled the trigger on a new war. In one telling line, the NYT captures the shortsightedness of US foreign policy planning.
Part of the problem for the Pentagon is that two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan — war zones where the United States quickly established air superiority — left the military with facilities and headquarters close to the current front lines.
This has forced the US to relocate personnel and equipment—in some cases to Europe—leading to serious questions about its lack of planning:
The lack of better planning, some military officials said, also reflects a miscalculation on the part of the administration about how Iran would respond.
Censoring the war
The levels of destruction might also explain why spy satellite firms have restricted access to imagery, as we previously reported. On 11 March several firms insisted they had not be told to do so “by any government”.
This claim has since turned out to be false.
Military sources told journalist Ken Klippenstein that the Pentagon had threatened to withdraw lucrative contracts to ensure satellite imagery providers played ball.
US military document leaked to me shows how the Pentagon is working with private companies to manipulate the information you see about the Iran warhttps://t.co/w9G5bz8QZy
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 24, 2026
It may not have been an order, but the Pentagon’s ‘guidance’—paired with the reported threat—had the same end effect.
As Klippenstein explained:
While the Pentagon “guidance” to the commercial companies is framed as an advisory, the companies comply because their contracting relationships with the government make them afraid to bite the hand that feeds them.
The failures of the past are making America’s latest war fantasies untenable. And, as the US empire implodes from within, and across the Arabian gulf, the Pentagon is no longer able to mop up the mess.
Now even the NYT, the paper of the liberal wing of US empire, is reporting critically on the misplanning and poorly executed was trump claims to be winning.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
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