The Worldwide control of
humanity's economic, social and political
activities is under the helm of US corporate and
military power. Underlying this process are
various schemes of direct and indirect military
intervention. These US sponsored strategies
ultmately consist in a process of global
subordination.
Where
is the Threat?
The 2000 Global
Report published in 1980 had outlined "the State
of the World" by focussing on so-called
"level of threats" which might negatively
influence or undermine US interests.
Twenty years later, US strategists,
in an attempt to justify their military
interventions in different parts of the World,
have conceptualised the greatest fraud in US
history, namely "the Global War on Terrorism"
(GWOT). The latter, using a fabricated pretext
constitutes a global war against all those
who oppose US hegemony. A modern form of slavery,
instrumented through militarization and the "free
market" has unfolded.
Major elements of the conquest and
world domination strategy by the US refer
to:
1) the control of the
world economy and its financial markets,
2) the taking over of all natural
resources (primary resources and nonrenewable
sources of energy). The latter constitute
the cornerstone of US power through the activities
of its multinational corporations.
Geopolitical Outreach: Network of
Military Bases
The US has
established its control over 191 governments which
are members of the United Nations. The
conquest, occupation and/or otherwise
supervision of these various regions of the World
is supported by an integrated network of
military bases and installations which covers the
entire Planet (Continents, Oceans and Outer
Space). All this pertains to the workings of
an extensive Empire, the exact dimensions of
which are not always easy to ascertain.
Known and documented from
information in the public domaine including Annual
Reports of the US Congress, we have a fairly good
understanding of the strucuture of US military
expenditure, the network of US military
bases and the shape of this US
military-strategic configuration in different
regions of the World.
The objective of this article is to
build a summary profile of the World network
of military bases, which are under the
jurisdiction and/or control of the
US. The spatial distribution of these
military bases will be examined together with
an analysis of the multibillion dollar annual
cost of their activities.
In a second
section of this article, Worldwide popular
resistance movements directed against US military
bases and their various projects will be outlined.
In a further article we plan to analyze the
military networks of other major nuclear
superpowers including the United Kingdom,
France and Russia.
I. The Military
Bases
Military bases are
conceived for training purposes, preparation and
stockage of military equipment, used by national
armies throughout the World. They are not very
well known in view of the fact that they are not
open to the public at large. Even though they
take on different shapes, according to the
military function for which they were established;
they can broadly be classified under four main
categories :
a) Air Force Bases
(see photos 1 and 2);
b) Army or Land
Bases;
c) Navy Bases and
d)
Communication and Spy Bases.
Photo 1. Air Base of Diego Garcia located in the
Indian Ocean
II. More than 1000 US Bases
and/or Military Installations
The main sources of information on
these military installations (e.g. C.
Johnson, the NATO Watch Committee, the
International Network for the Abolition of
Foreign Military Bases) reveal that the US
operates and/or controls between 700 and 800
military bases Worldwide.
In this regard, Hugh d’Andrade and
Bob Wing's 2002 Map 1 entitled "U.S.
Military Troops and Bases around the World, The
Cost of 'Permanent War'", confirms the
presence of US military personnel in 156
countries.
The US Military has bases
in 63 countries. Brand new military bases
have been built since September 11, 2001 in
seven countries.
In total, there
are 255,065 US military personnel deployed
Worldwide.
These facilities include a
total of 845,441 different buildings and
equipments. The underlying land surface is of the
order of 30 million acres. According to
Gelman, who examined 2005 official Pentagon data,
the US is thought to own a total of 737 bases in
foreign lands. Adding to the bases inside U.S.
territory, the total land area occupied by US
military bases domestically within the US and
internationally is of the order of 2,202,735
hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the
largest landowners worldwide (Gelman, J.,
2007).
Map 1. U.S. Military Troops and Bases around the
World. The Cost of «Permanent War» and Some
Comparative Data
The Map of the World
Network "No Bases" (Map 3) reveals the
following:
Based on a selective examination of military
bases in North America, Latin America, Western
Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia,
the Philippines and Japan, several of these
military bases are being used for intelligence
purposes. New selected sites are Spy Bases
and Satellite-related Spy Bases.
The Surface of the Earth is Structured
as a Wide Battlefield
These
military bases and installations of various kinds
are distributed according to a Command structure
divided up into five spatial units and four
unified Combatant Commands (Map 4). Each unit is
under the Command of a General.
The Earth
surfaceis being conceived as a wide battlefield
which can be patrolled or steadfastly supervised
from the Bases.
Map 4. The World and
Territories Under the Responsibility of a
Combatant Command or Under a Command
Structure
Territories under a Command are: the
Northern Command (NORTHCOM) (Peterson Air Force
Base, Colorado), the Pacific Command (Honolulu,
Hawaii), the Southern Command (Miami, Florida –
Map 5), The Central Command (CENTCOM) (MacDill Air
Force Base, Florida), the European Command
(Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany), the Joint Forces
Command (Norfolk, Virginia), the Special
Operations Command (MacDill Air Force Base,
Florida), the Transportation Command (Scott Air
Force Base, Illinois) and the Strategic Command
(STRATCOM) (Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska).
The
Atlantic Alliance (NATO) has its own Network
of military bases, thirty in total. The latter are
primarily located in Western Europe:
Whiteman, U.S.A., Fairford, Lakenheath
and Mildenhall in United Kingdom, Eindhoven in
Netherlands, Brüggen, Geilenkirchen,
Landsberg, Ramstein, Spangdahlem, Rhein-Main in
Germany, Istres and Avord in France. Morón
de la Frontera and Rota in Spain, Brescia,
Vicenza, Piacenza, Aviano, Istrana, Trapani,
Ancora, Pratica di Mare, Amendola, Sigonella,
Gioia dell Colle, Grazzanise and Brindisi in
Italy, Tirana in Albania, Incirlik in
Turkey, Eskan Village in Soudi Arabia and
Ali al Salem in Koweit (http://www.terra.es/actualidad/articulo/html/act52501.htm
)
III. The Global
Deployment of US Military Personnel
There
are 6000 military bases and/ or military
warehouses located in the U.S. (See Wikipedia,
February 2007).
Total Military
Personnel is of the order of 1,4
million of which 1,168,195 are in the
U.S and US overseas territories.
Taking figures from the same
source, there are 325,000 US military
personnel in foreign countries:
800
in Africa, 97,000 in Asia (excluding the
Middle East and Central Asia), 40,258 in South
Korea, 40,045 in Japan, 491 at the Diego
Garcia Base in the Indian Ocean, 100 in the
Philippines, 196 in Singapore, 113 in
Thailand, 200 in Australia, and 16,601
Afloat.
In Europe, there are 116,000 US
military personnel including 75,603 who are
stationed in Germany.
In Central Asia
about 1,000 are stationed at the Ganci (Manas) Air
Base in Kyrgyzstan and 38 are located at
Kritsanisi, in Georgia, with a mission to train
Georgian soldiers.
In the Middle East
(excludng the Iraq war theater) there are 6,000 US
military personnel, 3,432 of whom are in
Qatar and 1,496 in Bahrain.
In the Western
Hemisphere, excluding the U.S. and US territories,
there are 700 military personnel in Guantanamo,
413 in Honduras and 147 in Canada.
Map 3 provides information
regarding military personnel on duty, based
on a regional categorization (broad regions
of the world). The total number of military
personnel at home in the
U.S. and/or in US Territories is
1,139,034. There are 1,825 in Europe
114, 660, 682 in Subsaharian Africa, 4, 274
in the Middle East and Southern Asia, 143 in the
Ex-USSR, and 89,846 in the Pacific.
IV. The
Operational Cost of the Worldwide Military
Network
US defense spending (excluding the
costs of the Iraq war) have increased from 404 in
2001 to 626 billion dollars in 2007 according
to data from the Washington based Center for Arms
Control and Non-Proliferation. US defense spending
is expected to reach 640 billion dollars in 2008.
According to Fig 1, the 396
billion dollars military budget proposed in 2003
has in fact reached 417.4 billion dollars, a 73%
increase compared to 2000 (289 billion
dollars). This outlay for 2003 was more than half
of the total of the US discretionary budget.
Since 2003, these military expenditures
have to be added to those of the Iraq war and
occupation The latter reached in March 2007,
according to the National Priorities Project, a
cumulative total of 413 billion dollars.
Military and other staff required
numbered 1,332,300. But those figures do not
include the money required for the "Global World
on Terrorism" (GWOT). In other words, these
figures largely pertain to the regular Defense
budget.
A Goldstein of the Washington
Post, within the framework of an article on the
aspects of the National 2007 budget titled «2007
Budget Favors Defense», wrote about this topic:
"Overall, the budget for the 2007 fiscal
year would further reshape the government in the
way the administration has been striving to during
the past half-decade: building up military
capacity and defenses against terrorist threats on
U.S. soil, while restraining expenditures for many
domestic areas, from education programs to train
service"
V. US Military Bases to
Protect Strategic
Energy Resources
In the wake of 9/11, Washington
initiated its "Global War on Terrorism"
(GWOT), first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq.
Other countries, which were not faithfully obeying
Washington's directives including Iran, North
Korea, Syria and Venezuela have been earmarked for
possible US military
intervention.
Washington keeps a close eye
on countries opposed to US corporate control over
their resources. Washington also targets
countries where there are popular resistance
movements directed against US interests,
particularly in South America. In this context,
President Bush made a quick tour to Brazil,
Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico «to
promote democracy and trade» but also with a view
to ultimately curbing and restraining popular
dissent to the US interests in the region.
.
The same
braod approach is being applied in Central Asia.
According to Iraklis Tsavdaridis, Secretary of the
World Peace Council (WPC):
"The
establishment of U.S. military bases should not of
course be seen simply in terms of direct military
ends. They are always used to promote the economic
and political objectives of U.S. capitalism. For
example, U.S. corporations and the U.S. government
have been eager for some time to build a secure
corridor for US.-controlled oil and natural gas
pipelines from the Caspian Sea in Central Asia
through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian
Sea. This region -has more than 6 percent of the
world's proven oil reserves and almost 40 percent
of its gas reserves. The war in Afghanistan and
the creation of U.S. military Bases in Central
Asia are viewed as a key opportunity to make such
pipelines a reality."
The US. are at War in Afghanistan
and Iraq. They pursue these military
operations until they reach their
objective which they call "VICTORY".
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deployment_of-the_U.S.-Military),
American troops fighting in these countries number
190,000. The "Enduring Freedom" Operation in
Iraq alone has almost 200,000 military
personnel, including 26,000 from other
countries participating to the US
sponsored "Mission". About 20,000 more could
join other contingents in the next few months. In
Afghanistan, a total of 25,000 soldiers
participate to the operation (Map 6 and Map
7).
Map6.Petroleum
and International Theatre of War in the Middle
East and Central Asia
VI. Military Bases Used
for the Control of Strategic Renewable
Resources
US Military Bases in foreign
countries, are mainly located in Western
Europe: 26 of them are in Germany, 8, in Great
Britain, and 8 in Italy. There are
nine military installations in Japan
(Wikepedia).
In the last few years, in the
context of the GWOT, the US haa built 14 new bases
in and around the Persian Gulf.
It is also
involved in construction and/or or
reinforcement of 20 bases (106 structured units as
a whole) in Iraq, with costs of the order of
1.1 billion dollars in that country alone (Varea,
2007) and the use of about ten bases in Central
Asia.
The US has also
undertaken continued negotiations with
several countries to install, buy, enlarge or rent
an addional number of military bases. The latter
pertain inter alia to installations in
Morocco, Algeria, Mali,
Ghana, Brazil and Australia (See
Nicholson, B., 2007), Poland, Czech Republic
(Traynor, I., 2007), Ouzbekistan, Tadjikistan,
Kirghizstan, Italy (Jucca, L., 2007) and France.
Washington has signed an agreement to
build a military base in Djibouti (Manfredi, E.,
2007). All these initiatives are a part of an
overall plan to install a series of military bases
geographically located in a West-East
corridor extending from Colombia in South America,
to North Africa, the Near East, Central Asia and
as far as the Philippines (Johnson, C., 2004). The
US bases in South American are related to the
control and access to the extensive natural
biological , mineral and water resources resources
of the Amazon Basin. (Delgado Jara, D., 2006 and
Maps 9 and 10).
The network of US military bases
is strategic, located in prcximity of traditional
strategic resources including nonrenewable sources
of energy. This military presence has brought
about political opposition and resistance from
progressive movements and antiwar activists.
Demonstrations directed against US
military presence has developed in Spain,
Ecuador, Italy, Paraguay, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria and
in many other countries. Moreover, other
long-termer resistance movements directed against
US military presence have continued in South
Korea, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, Cuba,
Europe, Japan and other locations.
The Worldwide resistance to US
foreign military bases has grown during the last
few years. We are dealing with an
International Network for the Abolition of US
Military Bases.
Such networks' objective is to
broadly pursue disarmament, demilitarization
processes Worldwide as well as dismantle
US military bases in foreign
countries.
The NO BASES Network
organizes educational campaigns to sensitize
public opinion. It also works to
rehabilitate abandoned military sites, as in the
case of Western Europe.
These campaigns, until 2004, had a
local and national impact.
The
network is now in a position to reach people
Worldwide. The network itself underscores
that "much can be gained from greater and deeper
linkages among local and national campaigns and
movements across the globe. Local groups around
the world can learn and benefit from sharing
information, experiences, and strategies with each
other"
"The realisation that one is not
alone in the struggle against foreign bases is
profoundly empowering and motivating. Globally
coordinated actions and campaigns can highlight
the reach and scale of the resistance to foreign
military presence around the world. With the trend
of rising miniaturization and resort to the use of
force around the world, there is now an urgent and
compelling need to establish and strengthen an
international network of campaigners,
organisations, and movements working with a
special and strategic focus on foreign military
presence and ultimately, working towards a lasting
and just system of peace»
The Afghanistan and Iraq wars have,
in this regard, created a favourable momentum,
which has contributed to the reinforcement of
the movement to close down US military bases in
foreign countries:
"At the time of an
International anti-war meeting held in Jakarta in
May 2003, a few weeks after the start of the Iraq
invasion, a global anti-military Bases campaign
has been proposed as an action to priorize among
global anti-war, justice and solidarity
movements»(http://www.no-bases.org/index.php?mod=network&bloque=1&idioma=en).
Since then, the campaign has
acquired greater recognition. E-mail lists have
been compiled (nousbases@lists.riseup.netand nousbases-info@lists.riseup.net
) that permit the diffusion of the movement
members experiences and information and discussion
exchanges. That list now groups 300 people and
organizations from 48 countries. A Web site
permits also to adequately inform all Network
members. Many rubrics provide highly valuable
information on ongoing activities around the
World.
In addition, the Network is more and
more active and participates in different
activities. At the World Social Forums it
organized various conferences and colloquia.
It was present at the European Social Forum held
in Paris in 2003 and in London in 2004 as well as
at the the America’s Social Forum in Ecuador in
2004, and at the Mediterranean Social Forum in
Spain in 2005.
One of the major
gatherings, which was held in Mumbai, India, in
2004, was within the framework of the World Social
Forum. More than 125 participants from 34
countries defined the foundations of a coordinated
global campaign.
Action priorities were
identified, such as the determination of a
global day of action aiming at underscoring major
issues stemming from the existence of US military
bases. The Network also held four discussion
sessions at the Porto Alegre Social Forum in 2005.
One of those pertained to the financing of the
Network's activities.
It is important to recall that the
Network belongs to the Global Peace Movement.
Justice and Peace organizations have become
more sensitized on what was at stake regarding US
military bases.
.
Map 11.
Social and Resistence Movements in Latin
America
The objective of
the Conference was to underscore the political,
social, environmental and economic impacts of US
military bases, to make known the principles of
the various Anti-Bases movements and to formally
build the Network, its strategies, structure and
Action Plans. The main objectives of the
Conference were the following:
-Analyze the role of Foreign Military Bases
and other features of military presence associated
to the global dominance strategy and their impacts
upon population and environment;
-Share experiences and reinforce the built
solidarity resulting from the resistance battles
against Foreign military Bases around the World;
-Reach a consensus on objectives mechanisms,
on action plans, on coordination, on communication
and on decision making of a Global Network for the
abolition of all Foreign military Bases and of all
other expressions of military presence; and
-Establish global action plans to fight and
reinforce the resistance of local people and
ensure that these actions are being coordinated at
the international level.
Conclusion
This article has focussed on the
Worldwide development of US military power.
The US tends to view the Earth surface as
a vast territory to conquer, occupy and exploit.
The fact that the US Military splits the World up
into geographic command units vividly
illustrates this underlying geopolitical reality.
Humanity is being controlled and
enslaved by this Network of US military bases. .
The ongoing re-deployment of US
troops and military bases has to be analyzed in a
thorough manner if we wish to understand the
nature of US interventionism in different
regions of the World.
This militarisation
process is charactersied by armed aggression
and warfare, as well as interventions
called "cooperation agreements". The
latter reaffirmed America's economic design
design in the areas of trade and investment
practices. Economic development is ensured through
the miniaturization or the control of governments
and organizations. Vast resources are thereby
expended and wasted in order to allow such control
to be effective, particuarly in regions
which have a strategic potential in terms of
wealth and resources and which are being used to
consolidate the Empire's structures and
functions.
The setting up of the International
Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military
Bases turns out to be an extraordinary means to
oppose the miniaturization process of the Planet.
Such Network is indispensable and its growth
depends on a commitment of all the People of the
World. It will be extremely difficult to mobilize
them, but the ties built up by the Network among
its constituant resistence movements are a
positive element, which is ultmately conducive to
more cohesive and coordinated battle at the World
level.
The Final Declaration of the
Second International Conference against Foreign
Military Bases which was held in Havana in
November 2005 and was endorsed by delegates from
22 countries identifies most of the major issues,
which confront mankind. This Declaration
constitutes a major peace initative. It
establishes international solidarity in the
process of
disarmament. .
COMITÉ DE SURVEILLANCE OTAN. 2005. Las
bases militares : un aspecto de la estrategia
global de la OTAN. Intervencion del Comité
Surveillance Otan en la Conferencia Internacional
realizada en La Habana 7-11.11.2005. 9
pages.
DELGADO JARA, Diego. 2006. Bases de Manta,
Plan Colombia y dominio de la Amazonia.
Militarizacion de la Hegemonia de EE. UU. En
América latina. 17
pages.
Military Bases around
the world and in Europe - the role of the USA and
NATO , Iraklis Tsavdaridis,
Secretary of the World Peace Council (WPC)
8th November 2005,
From the Greek Committee for
International Detente and Peace (EEDYE),
Presented on November 8, 2005
at the International Conference on Foreign
Military Bases in Havana/Cuba organized by MOVPAZ
:
Jules Dufour is President of the
United Nations Association of Canada (UNA-C) –
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean branch and Research
Associate at the Center for Research on
Globalization (CRG). He is Emeritus
Professor of Geography at the University of
Quebec, Chicoutimi.
In 2007, Professor
Jules Dufour becameChevalier de
l'Ordre national du Québec,
a distinction conferred by the Quebec
government, for his contributions to World peace
and human rights, his numerous scholarly
writings and the work he accomplished in the
context of national and international commissions
on issues pertaining to regional development,
human rights and the protection of the
environment.
Translated from the French,
first published on Global Research's French
language website: www.mondialisation.ca
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