There are times, however, when the U.S. military considers this seventeen-square-mile atoll of coral and sand in the middle of the Indian Ocean —with no indigenous inhabitants or natural resources to speak of—one of the most valuable places on Earth. With the December 1997 bombings of Iraq, the island once again became a strategic hot spot.
Diego Garcia was developed as a joint U.S.-U.K. air and naval refueling and support station during the cold war. Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and out of cyclone range, it was ideal for keeping an eye on the Soviet Union. During the current U.S. bombing of Iraq, Diego Garcia is the base of B-52 bombers, which on December 17 launched nearly 100 long-range cruise missiles aimed at Iraq.
Diego Garcia had proved to be critically important during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and was crucial during 1997's Operation Desert Fox: since Saudi Arabia does not permit the U.S. to launch attacks from its territory, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Diego Garcia* are the closest locations from which U.S. forces can launch their campaigns.
The Portuguese explored Diego Garcia in the 1500s; between 1814 and 1965 it was a dependency of Mauritius. It then became part of the Chagos Archipelago, which belonged to the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory. The island remains a British dependency today.
Although Diego Garcia once had a small indigenous population, the inhabitants, known as the Ilois, were moved to Mauritius in the 1970s so that the island could be turned into a military base—over the strong protestations of other Indian Ocean islands, who objected to having cruise missiles as neighbors.