Iran and the United States may be in the midst of a war of words over Tehran's nuclear plans, but there is little evidence of the tension at a former Soviet base in Afghanistan, now home to US troops. The sprawling air base lies close to the border with Iran and life there is so slow that US troops at times resort to "MiG tipping" -- a game that involves standing on the tail of one of the many wrecked Soviet-era planes and tipping its nose up. "It's a pretty pointless and silly thing to do," said one serviceman. "But there really isn't that much to do around here."
American troops established themselves at the windswept base last August after fighting there between rival Afghan factions.
The United States now has a total of a few hundred troops at or near three former Soviet bases in west Afghanistan -- each just 100 km (60 miles) from the Iranian border.
US President George W. Bush has called Iran a part of an "axis of evil" and accuses it of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Analysts say the troops could prove useful to Washington should the tension with Tehran's boil over.
Influential US Senator John McCain fuelled speculation about American plans last month when he said Washington needed permanent bases in Afghanistan to ensure regional security.
But the Pentagon dismissed such thinking as premature. The US military says it is in western Afghanistan to maintain security and assist in post-war reconstruction.
Lieutenant-Colonel Phil Bookert, the US commander for western Afghanistan, scoffed at a January New Yorker magazine article that said the United States was running secret spy missions into Iran from Afghanistan to help identify nuclear, chemical and missile targets.
"The US presence in western Afghanistan is for reconstruction and economic development," he said. "We have done no operations along the Iranian border and I have no knowledge of operations along the Iranian border. That is not why we are here... We do reconstruction activities between here and Iran, but we certainly don't cross the border."
FEW FACILITIES: Shindand is currently home mainly to US military police, as well as a few army Blackhawk helicopters largely used recently for ferrying supplies and mail and supporting relief operations in snowbound Afghan provinces.
The base has few facilities beyond a recreation tent for troops to watch television and check emails, a tiny shop, a dining area and a gym.
The recreation tent is stacked with cheap thillers, crossword books, jigsaw puzzles, a table-tennis table with bats but no ball, and the expectation among soldiers seems to be of many more slow days, rather than drama, ahead.
The troops seem far more interested in Soviet past of the base and the US Cold War victory than any future that might involve Iran.
But analysts say the dozens of wrecked Soviet aircraft testify to the strategic value of the giant base built in the 1980s by Moscow, which not only gave it a platform to attack Afghan rebels but extended its air capabilities into the Gulf.
According to US-based think tank Global Security, Shindand is the largest airbase in Afghanistan, bigger even than the main US base at Bagram to the north of Kabul.
It has nothing like the same facilities as Bagram, but US troops have repaired damaged runways and gradually patched up huts and cleared ground for more accommodation on a base Nato troops are expected to take over next year.
Bookert, the only US National Guardsman with a brigade command overseas, played down the work, saying the long-term future of Shindand would be as a base for the Afghan military.
"In typical US army fashion, we always say that whenever we are sent anywhere we improve our foxhole. And that is just normal improvement that the US army does where ever we go."
NO BUILD UP: Bookert said he did not know how long US forces would remain at Shindand but he understood those in the west would be sent east to help fight insurgents once Nato troops arrived. London-based defence analyst Paul Beaver said he saw no current sign of any move by Washington to build up forces against Iran, but the Afghan bases did provide useful flexibility.
"The Americans are good at options and like to have them," he said. "And Afghanistan is their easiest option in the east."
Beaver said the US base at K-2 in neighbouring Uzbekistan -- also Soviet built -- was not ideal given its distance from the sea and potential Uzbek concerns about its use against another country, which is likely to be less of an issue with the US-backed government in Kabul.
At the same time, Beaver saw McCain's call for permanent US bases in Afghanistan as politically, rather policy driven.
"There is no indication this is policy yet and it does sound like McCain is just setting out his stall for the next Republican presidential nomination," he said.
"I don't see any physical manifestation on the ground of the Americans trying to pressure Iran. I think for the moment this issue of permanent Afghan bases is just something still being talked about in the rarefied atmosphere of Washington," he said.
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