{"id":49130,"date":"2024-09-02T06:57:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T14:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=49130"},"modified":"2024-09-02T06:57:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T14:57:23","slug":"the-biggest-military-base-empire-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/02\/the-biggest-military-base-empire-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Military Base Empire on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reprinted from World Beyond War<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The United States of America, unlike any other nation on Earth, maintains a massive network of foreign military bases around the world,\u00a0more than 900 bases in more than 90 countries and territories<\/a>. If the peace movement is serious about ending the United States\u2019 and its allies\u2019 warmaking, then this global constellation of bases must be curtailed.<\/p>\n

The permanent stationing of more than\u00a0220,000 U.S. troops<\/a>, weapons arsenals, and thousands of aircraft, tanks, and ships in every corner of the globe makes the logistics for U.S. aggression, and that of its allies, quicker and more efficient. Bases also facilitate the proliferation of nuclear weapons, with the United States keeping nuclear bombs in\u00a0five NATO member countries<\/a>, and nuclear-capable planes, ships, and missile launchers in many others. Because the U.S. is continually creating plans for military actions around the world, and because the U.S. military always has some troops \u201con the ready,\u201d the initiation of combat operations is simpler.<\/p>\n

Not to mention the fact that these bases act as a provocation to surrounding countries. Their presence is a permanent reminder of the military capacity of the U.S. Rather than deterring potential adversaries, U.S. bases antagonize other countries into greater military spending and aggression. Russia, for example,\u00a0justifies its interventions<\/a>\u00a0in Georgia and\u00a0Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0by pointing to encroaching U.S. bases in Eastern Europe. China feels encircled by the\u00a0more than 200 U.S. bases in the Pacific region<\/a>, leading to a more assertive policy in the South China Sea. With vastly more foreign military bases than any other country on Earth, the U.S. logically must lead the way in a reverse arms race.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the U.S.\u2019s network of foreign military bases perpetuates empire \u2014 an ongoing form of colonialism that robs Indigenous people of their lands. From\u00a0Guam<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Puerto Rico<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Okinawa<\/a>\u00a0to dozens of other locations across the world, the military has taken valuable land from local populations, often pushing out Indigenous people in the process, without their consent and without reparations. For example, between 1967 and 1973, the entire population of the\u00a0Chagos Islands<\/a>\u00a0was forcibly removed from the island of Diego Garcia by the UK so that it could be leased to the U.S. for an airbase. The Chagossian people were taken off their island by force and transported in conditions compared to those of slave ships. Despite an overwhelming vote of the UN General Assembly, and an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in the Hague that the island should be returned to the Chagossians, the UK has refused and the U.S. continues operations from Diego Garcia today.<\/p>\n

Each base has its own story of injustice and destruction, impacting the local economy, community, and environment. The U.S. military has a notorious\u00a0legacy of sexual violence<\/a>, including kidnapping, rape, and murders of women and girls. Yet U.S. troops abroad are often afforded impunity for their crimes due to Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) with the so-called \u201chost\u201d country. The lack of respect for the lives and bodies of Indigenous people is another product of unequal power relationships between the U.S. military and the people whose land they occupy. In essence, the\u00a0presence of U.S. foreign bases<\/a>\u00a0creates apartheid zones, in which the occupied population, with second-class status, comes into the base to perform the labor of cooking, cleaning, and landscaping. Furthermore, the\u00a0rise in property taxes and inflation<\/a>\u00a0in areas surrounding U.S. bases has been known to push locals out.<\/p>\n

Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) also often\u00a0exempt U.S. foreign military bases<\/a>\u00a0from adhering to local environmental regulations. The construction of bases has caused irreparable ecological damage, such as the destruction of coral reefs and the environment for endangered species in\u00a0Henoko, Okinawa<\/a>. Furthermore, it is\u00a0well documented at hundreds of sites around the world<\/a>\u00a0that military bases leach toxic so-called \u201cforever chemicals\u201d into local water supplies, which has had devastating health consequences for nearby communities.<\/p>\n

Closing bases is a necessary step to right the wrongs of colonialism, to curb the environmental destruction wrought by militarism, and to shift the global security paradigm towards a demilitarized approach that centers common security \u2014\u00a0no one is safe until all are safe<\/em>. This September 20-22, in honor of the International Day of Peace, World BEYOND War is organizing its annual global\u00a0#NoWar2024 Conference<\/a>\u00a0focused on the theme of the U.S. military base empire \u2014 its impacts and the solutions. Throughout\u00a0three days of sessions<\/a>\u00a0held in four locations around the world (Sydney, Australia; Wanfried, Germany; Bogot\u00e1, Colombia; and Washington, DC), and streamed on Zoom, speakers will address the social, ecological, economic, and geopolitical impacts of U.S. military bases in their regions, plus the powerful stories of nonviolent resistance to prevent, close, and convert bases to peacetime uses.<\/p>\n

Karina Lester, a Yankunytjatjara Anangu woman from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in the far North West of South Australia, will speak about the impacts of nuclear testing felt by her people. Alejandra Rodr\u00edguez Pe\u00f1a, member of the Olga Castillo Collective in Colombia, will discuss the collective\u2019s work for justice and reparations for victims of sexual violence by U.S. military personnel. Laura Ben\u00edtez, a marine biologist, will detail the campaign opposing the construction of a U.S. base on Colombia\u2019s Gorgona Island, which is home to unique ecosystems and rich wildlife. Ricardo Armando Pati\u00f1o Aroca, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense of Ecuador during the government of Rafael Correa, will share how the U.S. base in Manta, Ecuador was effectively shut down. Dr. Cynthia Enloe, renowned for her work on gender and militarism and the author of\u00a0Bananas, Beaches and Bases<\/em>, will explain how the presence of U.S. military bases impacts the local economy, shapes race relations within the community, and re-configures the sexual politics of a society.<\/p>\n

On September 20-22, join us virtually \u2014 or in-person in Australia, Germany, Colombia, and the U.S. \u2014 for the\u00a0#NoWar2024 Conference<\/a>\u00a0to hear from these and many other speakers about the impacts of the USA\u2019s military base empire and how to work towards demilitarization and decolonization.<\/p>\n

Greta Zarro is the Organizing Director at World BEYOND War<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from World Beyond War. The United States of America, unlike any other nation on Earth, maintains a massive network of foreign military bases around the world,\u00a0more than 900 bases in more than 90 countries and territories. If the peace movement is serious about ending the United States\u2019 and its allies\u2019 warmaking, then this global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":449,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-49130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"U.S. foreign military bases provoke war, pollute communities, and steal land from Indigenous peoples."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/449"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49136,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49130\/revisions\/49136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49130"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=49130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}