neo cons boast 27 countries have our military bases

[donsu]

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1440&Itemid=135


Empire and Burlesque: Permanent Bases Rise While Public Gawks at Geeks


-snip-

A few days ago came the news – ignored or buried by almost every venue of that non-stop multi-platform media echo chamber – that the United States has made a very significant, and very permanent, addition its empire of bases: one that American officials freely admit will allow them to project "full spectrum" military dominance over 27 sovereign nations. And of course, what is most noteworthy about the development, reported in full in the Pentagon's own Stars and Stripes newspaper, is that this astonishing declaration of imperial aggression and hubris is regarded as something completely normal – indeed laudatory.

Stars and Stripes – an often excellent paper, reporting genuine news that the geek-gawking non-entities in the corporate media ignore – lays it all out, plain and simple:


CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — U.S. Army Central is establishing a permanent platform for “full spectrum operations” in 27 countries around southwest Asia and the Middle East, its commander says.

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Yes, the personnel will change – even in the White House. But the commands will remain. And this permanent, force-projecting base is of course just the icing on the imperial cake in the region; the U.S. military already has its boots in the ground all over the area, as the newspaper notes:


Col. Michael A. Carroll, USARCENT’s chief of staff, said the command has a footprint in 22 of the area’s 27 countries, where it conducts theater security engagements, peacekeeping and exercises with other militaries.

-snip-

But Arkin is right on the money in noting that these developments – which have drawn not a peep of protest or the slightest questioning from the great "progressives" seeking the Democratic nomination (much less the bilious bagman cruising to the GOP nod) – are indeed "a continuation of the same military and strategic policy" that is driving the imperial war-state on to more "full spectrum operations" all over the world, for decades to come. And much as I might wish it to be otherwise, I have seen nothing to make me believe that any of the chicken-chompers bound for the White House will make any actual, substantial changes in this policy, much less begin the task of rolling back the empire.
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the only thing that will stop the neo con empire is climate change

will Obama immediately stop the occupation of Iraq? will Hillary? even if they want to?

[endarkenment]

1. Uh - your headline is misleading there are way more than 27

countries where we maintain various sorts of military bases. (It is over 100.) The story cited is about the completion of the upgrade of the Kuwait base to a level that, according to the military, projects military dominance over 27 nations in the region. This announcement was a not even thinly veiled threat directed at Iran.

[donsu]

3. I thought the 3rd parag. took care of that?

nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Slightly misleading heading --

it specifies 27 countries in south asia and the middle east. We have bases in well over 100 different countries around the globe.

At the height of the soviet empire they maintained bases in only a very few countries other than the Eastern Bloc nations - there were a couple in N Vietnam, they had access to facilities (don't know about bases in terms of restricted access to the host country) in N Korea, a couple in Africa and one in Cuba. All their bases were essentially a response to our positioning in the world.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, our positioning of extra-territorial forces has only increased.