The US Has 761 Military Bases Across the Planet, and We Simply Never Talk About It

[Orwellian_Ghost]

America garrisons the globe in ways that are truly unprecedented, but if you live in the United States, you rarely hear a word about it.


Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don't stay, often American equipment does -- carefully stored for further use at tiny "cooperative security locations," known informally as "lily pads" (from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis).

At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planetwide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.

The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard -- that is, the population of an American town -- are functionally floating bases.

And here's the other half of that simple truth: We don't care to know about it. We, the American people, aided and abetted by our politicians, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media, are knee-deep in base denial.

Now, that's the gist of it. If, like most Americans, that's more than you care to know, stop here.

<snip>

http://www.alternet.org/audits/97913/the_us_has_761_military_bases_across_the_planet%2C_and_we_simply_never_talk_about_it/

[Captain Hilts]

1. Not accurate, that's why. A radar dish does not comprise a "military base."

[ixion]

3. actually, it does... it's a military presence any way you cut it

no matter what the designation.

[L0oniX]

7. So then you have no problem with the Russians putting a radar on US soil?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. They have to protect us from the 761 bogeymen that the politicians and pentagon dreamed up.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[L0oniX]

10. Military bases provoke people to become terrorists ...and that's what the military wants.

That way they can keep their jobs, killing and blowing shit up. It's a job security thing. Oh wait ...they are out sourcing that too ...BlackWater.

[jmowreader]

4. Most of those bases are very, very small

This is Guard Post Collier, along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. There are two buildings that are NOT in this picture, the one the photographer's standing in being one of them.

There are some massive bases--Kaiserslautern in Germany comes to mind--but most are places with a couple thousand troops at most on them.

[Captain Hilts]

11. That Coast Guard Base is sooo scary!!!!!!

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. Despite your dismissive

responses the actual fact is that what is stated in the OP does not even represent nearly the total of US involvement across the globe. Perhaps you are okay with it.

"If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases overseas, but no one -- possibly not even the Pentagon -- knows the exact number for sure."

And of course there are numerous, between 300-400, CIA outposts et al and intelligence installations that aren't taken into the "official" listing. Add to that all the various military operations-installations that are listed as other countries but are in fact propped up by US finances and hardware.

Well you get the picture unless of course you subject yourself to willful blindness.

[jmowreader]

18. It's not a Coast Guard Base

It is a US Army base that looks straight into North Korea. IIRC it's big enough to hold one platoon of infantry--about fifty men. When Kim il Sung was alive there were several of these strung along the Demilitarized Zone.

I was using this base to illustrate the real truth about all these overseas bases: most of them are extremely small. For instance, there were ten "bases" in Berlin. One of them was Panzer Kaserne, where the 40th Armor was. It had two or three buildings, depending on if you wanted to count the guard shed as a building. One of them was our HF antenna in the middle of the Grunewald, and it didn't have any troops. Two of them were rifle ranges.

[NobleCynic]

20. You're essentially correct

A more proper way to measure our footprint would be number of soldiers deployed overseas at any given time, and our total military expenditures. Same results in the end though, we have more military than we need.

(edited for spelling)

[specimenfred1984]

25. 70% of Americans are invested in it too, in one way or another

The U.S. is a fascist, war-mongering, weapons producing, militaristic death machine and most Americans are more than happy to continuously cash in on it. Any wonder why America's treasury bonds are at the lowest price in history? The world's had enough of our cowboy/killer crap, they are moving on without us.

[shadowknows69]

5. Pretty fucking ridiculous no?

That probably doesn't even include our "non-permanent" bases in Iraq or Afghanistan. Naaa, we're not a military empire or anything.

[StClone]

6. Half of all Revenues go to Military

I think of this all the time and all those installations across the world and the people that benefit from it all.

[L0oniX]

8. The 5000 children who die each year in this country from neglect don't benefit.

Certainly we don't want SCHIP because we need the money to go to our military bases all over the world so we can benefit the all the other countries instead. We obviously hate our own people ...unless they are rich. We'd rather spend 700 billion on the military every year because we love to bully and rule the world and kill people and blow shit up. The military bases are what provoked most of the terrorists so I guess they keep jobs for them selves that way. Maybe we can all join the military after we out source all the jobs here. Oooops ...we are already outsourcing the military too ...BlackWater.

[ensho]

9. ALL our military should be brought home - trained in the ways of HAZMAT

and set to clean up bases here in the US. after that they can clean up toxic sites in the US.

aircraft carriers should be turned into Universities.

[Greyhound]

12. Thanks for trying. K&R

As you can see from about half the replies, this is correct, we do not want to know and will find any excuse, no matter how silly, to remain rulers of the world.
:kick:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

17. Yes some of the replies

do buttress the very point of the article. Rather sad but still many of us are determined to keep this on the radar and demand reductions in the US military largesse no matter how we are ignored or marginalized.

737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire

By Chalmers Johnson, Metropolitan Books. Posted February 19, 2007.

With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.

<snip>

The total of America's military bases in other people's countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. Reflecting massive deployments to Iraq and the pursuit of President Bush's strategy of preemptive war, the trend line for numbers of overseas bases continues to go up.

<snip>

The worldwide total of U.S. military personnel in 2005, including those based domestically, was 1,840,062 supported by an additional 473,306 Defense Department civil service employees and 203,328 local hires. Its overseas bases, according to the Pentagon, contained 32,327 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and 16,527 more that it leased. The size of these holdings was recorded in the inventory as covering 687,347 acres overseas and 29,819,492 acres worldwide, making the Pentagon easily one of the world's largest landlords.

These numbers, although staggeringly big, do not begin to cover all the actual bases we occupy globally. The 2005 Base Structure Report fails, for instance, to mention any garrisons in Kosovo (or Serbia, of which Kosovo is still officially a province) -- even though it is the site of the huge Camp Bondsteel built in 1999 and maintained ever since by the KBR corporation (formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root), a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston.

The report similarly omits bases in Afghanistan, Iraq (106 garrisons as of May 2005), Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, even though the U.S. military has established colossal base structures in the Persian Gulf and Central Asian areas since 9/11. By way of excuse, a note in the preface says that "facilities provided by other nations at foreign locations" are not included, although this is not strictly true. The report does include twenty sites in Turkey, all owned by the Turkish government and used jointly with the Americans. The Pentagon continues to omit from its accounts most of the $5 billion worth of military and espionage installations in Britain, which have long been conveniently disguised as Royal Air Force bases. If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases overseas, but no one -- possibly not even the Pentagon -- knows the exact number for sure.

<snip>

http://www.alternet.org/story/47998

[Greyhound]

22. The question I've never seen a good answer to is, to what purpose?

Why on earth would the "freest nation on earth" need such a disproportionately large military? Why do we need to spend more than the rest of the planet combined on a dead-end venture that's only purpose is death and destruction?

[Hydra]

13. I know about it and don't support it

We have a military presence all over the world- despite our status as a borrower nation, we are a true superpower, ready and willing to step on any ants that start talking about democracy and alternatives to capitalism.

[Mudoria]

14. I personally would prefer to see most of the bases

closed myself. The money could be better spent elsewhere. But then I also would like to see a return to the isolationist policies that the country had prior to WW I. A withdrawal from the UN and most of the other treaties we've signed should be the next step.

[anonymous171]

19. Good idea. nt

[tabasco]

15. The ruling class makes big bucks from the military.

At least half of the military budget is fraud, waste and abuse.

[Kaleko]

21. Recommended

[Time for change]

23. It is obscene

And of course there are other things that Americans are in denial about, as well.

The link appears not to be working right now.

Chalmers Johnson has an excellent discussion of this issue in his book, "The Sorrows of Empire".

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. take into account that every embassy and more than a few consulates

have Marines on duty. Those are military bases in the record books