Imperialism Obama Style: 800 Military Bases Around the World
July 1, 2016
IM_photo / Shutterstock.com
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 28, Secretary of State John Kerry sought to ease anxiety over an ever-rising global “turmoil and strife” by pointing to an eyebrow-raising fact. "I state unabashedly to every single one of you: The United States of America is more engaged in more places with greater impact today than at any time in American history,” he reassured the audience. “And that is simply documentable and undeniable.”
Kerry made it clear that when he talks about “engagement,” war is a key part of the equation. “We’ve been working with countries to support a new Government of National Accord in Libya,” he said, referencing a dubious statethat the U.S. is moving to heavily arm. “I was recently in the United Arab Emirates. I think we’ve come to a common understanding of how to strengthen that government and go after Daesh in Libya. We’re supporting Afghanistan in its fight against extremists and support a sovereign and democratic Ukraine.”
Kerry’s observation of unprecedented engagement may, in fact, be an understatement. As David Vine, the author of the book Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, noted in 2015, the United States “probably has more foreign military bases than any other people, nation, or empire in history.” The roughly 800 U.S. military bases around the world compare to a grand total of zero free-standing foreign bases on U.S. soil, Vine reported.
Meanwhile, Ken McGraw, a spokesman for Special Operations Command, toldjournalist Nick Turse that, by the 9th month of 2015, special operations forces had already deployed to 135 countries—or 70 percent of all the nations on the planet. This compares to about 60 countries under the George W. Bush years. The Government Accountability Office concluded that special operations funding has ballooned from $3 billion in 2001 to just under $10 billion in 2014.
And then there is the steady creep of AFRICOM. Journalist Nick Turse wrote in November 2015, “in recent years the U.S. military has, in fact, developed a remarkably extensive network of more than 60 outposts and access points in Africa. Some are currently being utilized, some are held in reserve, and some may be shuttered. These bases, camps, compounds, port facilities, fuel bunkers, and other sites can be found in at least 34 countries—more than 60% of the nations on the continent—many of them corrupt, repressive states with poor human rights records.”
The Pentagon even runs an estimated 170 golf courses around the world.
Tallying up the list of U.S. direct or proxy wars is no simple task. In a May 2013 article published in the journal Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, Linda J. Bilmes and Michael D. Intriligator noted:
Today U.S. military operations are involved in scores of countries across all the five continents. The U.S. military is the world’s largest landlord, with significant military facilities in nations around the world, and with a significant presence in Bahrain, Djibouti, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to long-established bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK. Some of these are vast, such as the Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of the United States Central Command, which has recently been expanded to accommodate up to 10,000 troops and 120 aircraft.
The authors ultimately concluded that the U.S. was directly or indirectly involved in wars in 74 countries at the time.
As recently as May 2016, New York Times reporter Mark Landler observed that Obama is the “only president in American history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.”
Kerry is certainly correct to point out that U.S. engagement in vaster than it ever has been before. But as militarized intervention drives the greatest crises of human strife and displacement since World War II, this observation is no comfort at all.
4 opmerkingen:
Nigel Farage quits UKIP, but there’s one very big catch
Farage will keep his MEP job for the next two years. Therefore, it’s understandable that Farage wants his “life back”. It’s a very easy life.
'As an MEP, he receives €7957 a month. He is paid in Euros, which given the collapse of the pound (which he has helped to orchestrate with the Brexit vote), means he is one of the few people to have seen a salary rise post-Brexit. Presently Farage’s salary is worth £6665.19 a month compared to the £6246 earned by MPs.
Given Farage has been absent, or refused to vote, on the majority of debates at the European Parliament, it seems the decent thing would be for him to resign his position. Instead, he is proving to be the very essence of everything he claims to hate about Europe – a lazy, worthless bureaucrat, sponging money out of the institution he claims to despise.'
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cmg55MDW8AAhE6S.jpg
Kwam toevallig dit onder ogen:
De ombudsman van de NRC (2013) over "Aanval geopend"(20 maart 2003) van de NRC met "Nu de oorlog is begonnen, moeten president Bush en premier Blair worden gesteund. Die steun kan niet blijven steken in verbale vrijblijvendheid. Dat betekent dus politieke steun – en als het moet ook militaire."
------- "Of je het nu met de conclusie van dat commentaar uit 2003 eens bent of niet – de casus belli bleek in elk geval niet te deugen – het MOOIE (?) ervan is, dat de krant zijn worsteling en chagrijn liet zien. Tot het laatst wachten, MAAR DAN OOK KIEZEN. EEN STUK MET PERSOONLIJKHEID dus – al was het dan niet ondertekend."
Die man is knettergek!
http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/2013/08/31/oorlog-in-het-commentaar-krant-kiest-voor-ingrijpen-1287397
Ik durf te wedden dat die zouteloze Kerry af en toe zijn helmpje van zolder haalt
en voor de spiegel zijn botox-wangetjes bolt en zijn kaakje staalt.
De man die beter zou moeten weten is een pathetisch figuur.
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