The Global Deployment of US Military Personnel<\/i><\/p>\n
The Worldwide control\u00a0of humanity\u2019s\u00a0economic, 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 ultimately consist in a process of global subordination.
\n<\/i>
\nWhere is the Threat?<\/b><\/p>\n
The 2000 Global Report published in 1980 had outlined \u201cthe State of the World\u201d by focussing on\u00a0so-called\u00a0 \u201clevel of threats\u201d which might negatively influence or undermine US interests.<\/p>\n
Twenty years later,\u00a0US strategists, in an attempt to justify\u00a0their military interventions in different parts of the World, have conceptualised the greatest fraud in US history, namely \u201cthe Global War on Terrorism\u201d (GWOT). The latter, using a fabricated pretext \u00a0constitutes a global war against all those who oppose US hegemony. A modern form of slavery, instrumented through militarization and the \u201cfree market\u201d has unfolded.<\/p>\n
Major elements of the conquest and world domination strategy by the US refer to:<\/p>\n
1) the control of the world economy and its financial markets, <\/b><\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Geopolitical Outreach: Network of Military Bases<\/b><\/p>\n
The US has established its control over 191 governments which are members of the United Nations.\u00a0The conquest,\u00a0occupation and\/or otherwise supervision of these various regions of the World is supported by\u00a0an integrated network of military bases and installations which covers the entire Planet (Continents, Oceans and Outer Space). All this pertains to the workings of\u00a0 an extensive Empire,\u00a0the exact dimensions of which are not always easy to ascertain.<\/p>\n
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,\u00a0the network of US military bases\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0the shape of this US military-strategic configuration in different regions of the World.<\/p>\n
The objective of this article is to build a summary profile of the World network of\u00a0military bases, which are under the jurisdiction and\/or\u00a0control\u00a0 of the US.\u00a0The spatial distribution of these military bases\u00a0will be examined together with an analysis of\u00a0the multibillion dollar annual cost of their activities.<\/p>\n
In a second section of this article,\u00a0Worldwide 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\u00a0 the United Kingdom, France and Russia.<\/p>\n
I. The Military Bases<\/b><\/p>\n
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\u00a0to 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 :<\/p>\n
a) Air Force Bases (see photos 1 and 2); <\/b><\/p>\n
b) Army or Land Bases;<\/p>\n
c) Navy Bases and<\/p>\n
d) Communication and Spy Bases.<\/p>\n
II. More than 1000 US Bases and\/or Military Installations<\/b><\/p>\n
The main sources of information on these military installations (e.g.\u00a0C. Johnson, the NATO Watch Committee, the International Network for\u00a0the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases) reveal that the US operates and\/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases Worldwide.<\/p>\n
In this regard, Hugh d\u2019Andrade and Bob Wing\u2019s 2002 Map 1 entitled \u201cU.S. Military Troops and Bases around the World, The Cost of \u2018Permanent War\u2019\u201d,<\/b> confirms the presence of US military personnel in 156 countries.<\/p>\n
The US Military has bases in 63 countries.\u00a0Brand new military bases have been built since September 11, 2001\u00a0in seven countries.<\/p>\n
In total,\u00a0there are 255,065 US military personnel deployed Worldwide.<\/p>\n
These facilities include a total of 845,441 different buildings and equipments. The underlying land surface is of the order of 30 million\u00a0acres. 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,\u00a0the 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).<\/p>\n
Map 2. The American Military Bases around the World (2001-2003)<\/b><\/p>\n