I arrived in Australia on the same day in November, 2011, as President Barack Obomber of the USA arrived to speak to a compliant Australian Parliament in Canberra, the capital city. So I watched on television as he explained his motives behind his visit.
The US President flew to Australia for about 28 hours to tell the Australian people that the US government had decided to establish a military base in Australia for 2500 US marines as part of US expansionist policy in the Pacific region and to send warning signals to China.
Australian citizens were not provided with the opportunity for either a Parliamentary or public debate on whether they wanted such a military base. This base only confirms the suspicion among Australia’s Asian neighbours that Australia functions as a puppet of US foreign policy rather than Australia seeing Asia as equal partners in mutual development.
Once again, the will of the people has never mattered much in the forging of the US Military Empire. President Obomber has not only continued the foreign policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush, but expanded on them as well.
Number of USA Military Bases
With the full support of the White House, the US continues relentlessly to expand its Military Empire in every corner of the world. Investigative journalists report there are around 1077 US military bases located in around 130 countries. The US Department of Defence’s 2010 Base Structure Report, claimed the US military maintained only 662 military bases in 38 countries with a total of 4,999 military bases in the USA, territories and overseas. In this list of 38 countries, the 208-page, 2010 report omits Afghanistan with more than 400 bases and the military occupation of Iraq. US military bases constitute 95% of foreign basis around the world.
The US government and military make it deliberately difficult to come to any exact figure of numbers of countries and basis as they fear a global campaign against these bases. The US fears that people worldwide will realise these military camps are a form of occupation. Republicans and Democrats also fear US citizens will demand an end to such occupation and instead demand that their government uses the billions of dollars saved to support domestic programmes for the poor, the unemployed and sick in the USA and demand compassionate application of use of aid overseas.
The USA spends a massive $102 billion every year on maintaining these military bases. Numerous networks of CIA agents pressure governments and communities to follow its agenda. The USA adopts a carrot and stick foreign policy. It has the power to bring about the economic collapse of poor nations. The disastrous economic policies of governments, banks and corporations can bring a country to ruin or the edge of ruin. The US uses the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank to run these countries. To cut the debts of these countries and receive loans, these two financial institutions demand a dramatic cutting of any government’s social, health, welfare and educational benefits for the poor. Once these countries, rich or poor, have signed up to fiscal agenda of the IMF and World Bank, they receive in exchange debt laden loans. This is the basis of IMF and World Bank despite certain programmes of these institutions to cultivate a “good guy” image. Both these financial institutions are based in Washington DC and just a few minutes from the White House.
Impact of US Military Bases
There are more than 500,000 US military personnel and US defence employees based around the world. More than half are in uniform. In addition to the military personnel, there are countless numbers of weapon salesmen, corporations, private contractors, secret services and Christian fundamentalists to infiltrate the culture, traditions and ways of life of residents in the numerous countries where they have a military base.
The military personnel in these 1000 bases live in a cocooned isolation on a daily diet of junk food, American television, CNN, Fox News, computer war games and military training. Their daily programme ensures they have no real contact with the culture of the countries where they are based. They arrive as aliens in these countries, live as aliens and return home as aliens. The US government does not permit any of its military personnel, who commit crimes, including rape and murder, to stand trial in the criminal court of the country where the marines are based. Outdoor military exercises, pollution and toxic waste from these military bases destroy local habitats.
The U.S. Military Empire generates deep and widespread resentment. Alcohol/drug abuse, prostitution, environmental damage, petty crime, bullying and arrogance of US military personnel breeds further resentment towards the USA around the world. The US military bases are hated and feared or, at best, tolerated.
The US Military Empire conducts a public relations campaign to rebrand their military bases “lily pads.” – as pathetic a use of language as another US term “collateral damage” referring to the hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children killed, maimed and traumatised through the foreign policies of the White House in this decade alone. More than 6300 US military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq have died overseas in the last decade, soldiers have the highest numbers of suicides of any employment, tens of thousands servicemen maimed, widespread domestic violence among military personnel with ever increasing levels of drug and alcohol addiction especially upon return to the homeland. US citizens pay a heavy price in cities, towns and rural backwaters for the uncontrolled reactivity of soldiers and ex-soldiers, back in the USA, trained to demonise those who think differently from themselves.
US War on Democracy
US aircraft carriers around the world serve as another form of military base to launch covert operations. The US government and military engages in widespread funding of political groups that support the US Military Empire. The White House sanctions a persistent campaign to undermine or take out political groups opposed to US militarism. Successive previous presidents continue to sanction their Military Empire, a parallel to the brutal era of Caesar and the Roman Empire and successive military empires and regimes. Caesar set up forts throughout the entire Roman Empire to ensure control over citizens and their leaders. The same kind of policy continues today.
Whether at military bases or aircraft carriers, US government engages in massive surveillance, use of satellites, computer hacking and employment of networks of informers in its operations in all of these countries, as well as spying on neighbouring countries. The US Military Empire uses unmanned Drone planes to bomb villages, engages in assassinations, funds political prisons, summary arrests, kidnapping, routine torture, rendition of suspects for interrogation in remote places, free from the interference of lawyers. Nobody is safe from the secret services, whether residing in the USA, a so-called liberal democracy or under a dictatorship.
The USA works to minimise the democratic influence of the 198 member states of the UN and will veto any attempt to bypass US foreign policy. It will cut funds to nations and organisations that reject its demands. The US punished UNESCO by cutting funding to UNESCO for permitting Palestine to join this UN body through the democratic will of member states. When the nations of the world democratically attempted to forge a substantial long lasting agreement on climate change at the Copenhagen Summit two years ago, US embassies worldwide exerted immense pressure and threats to 170 countries to vote against any agreement as it would harm US corporate interests.
President Obomber, the current figurehead of the US Military Empire and others in the White House, fly in their luxury jets to various countries to add a new military base, such as Australia, or congratulate their military missionaries on their occupation and routinely speak of the phony War on Terror.
Biggest Bombs made in US bound for Israel
US President Obomber has authorised the provision of 55 of the US military’s largest non-nuclear bombs for the use of the Israeli government. Previous President, George Bush had refused to give these bunker busting bombs to Israel out of fear of their employment against Iranian installations, and the massive destabilisation it would bring to the region. The President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had kept it a secret about the provision of these bombs to Israel.
WikiLeaks exposed this secret agreement between the Pentagon and the Israeli government. In November 2009, WikiLeaks made available in the public domain a cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv that noted that the ” transfer (of these large bombs) should be handled quietly to avoid any allegations that the USA is helping Israel prepare for a strike against Iran.”
The release of this cable particularly infuriated the White House with all the consequences to WikiLeaks such as getting US corporations to close down WikiLeaks accounts used for the transfer of donations by supporters, as well as a determination to silence its founder, Julian Assange. The US government will not tolerate authentic freedom of information. The US government continues to harass and severely punish those who endeavour to make real information available about its policies and Kafka-esque world of secrecy.
The US Military Empire will use all manner of coercion to destroy fledgling and established democracies if the elected government voices criticism of US foreign policy – as numerous countries can testify. In politically sensitive places, like its northern neighbour, Canada, NATO has bases instead of US military bases. The US government sanctions NATO military operations, such as the bombing of Libya when the White House feels it expedient rather than launch the war, itself. Polls showed that US public opinion could not tolerate yet another military invasion in the time of such hardship and poverty in the USA. Like IMF and World Bank, NATO functions as an extension of the US Military Empire
What are some of the occupied countries with a US military base? They can be found in all five continents – Asia, Africa, Europe, Australasia and the Americas (including central and South America. You can google to see if a particular country has a US military base on its soil. Here is a short list of 30 countries.
- Afghanistan
- Australia
- Bahrain
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Germany (227 bases)
- Greece
- Greenland
- Guam
- Guantanamo Bay
- Iraq
- Israel (based in the Negev and facilities in Haifa for US Sixth Fleet)
- Italy
- Japan
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Netherlands
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia – nationals formed Al Qaeda. Launched 9/11 on hatred of bases
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
My response to the American Military Empire is simple. Get off our backs. Pack up and leave. Go home. You block or attempt to block virtually every real effort for world peace, disarmament, global co-operation and environmental sustainability. You consistently ignore or punish the democratic will of the people, their representatives and international organisations working for change.
Mr. President. You are in charge of a military regime exporting fear and terror around the world. Your country qualifies as a rogue state. You belong to the 1% who remains utterly out of touch with the 99%. WAKE UP!