Units of Empire
Posted: June 13th, 2011, 10:47 pm
Cutting and Pasting
“The unit of empire in the classic European empires was the colony. The unit for the American empire is not the colony, it’s the military base… Things that can’t go on forever, don’t. That’s where we are today.”...
"According to the Pentagon, there are approximately 865 US military bases abroad—over 1,000 if new bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are included. The cost? $102 billion annually—and that doesn’t include the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan bases."...
"In a must-read article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson points out that these bases “constitute 95 percent of all the military bases any country in the world maintains on any other country’s territory.” He notes a “bloated and anachronistic” Cold War-tilt toward Europe, including 227 bases in Germany...."
“It makes as much sense for the Pentagon to hold onto 227 military bases in Germany as it would for the post office to maintain a fleet of horses and buggies,” writes Gusterson...
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161378/ar ... t-security
“The unit of empire in the classic European empires was the colony. The unit for the American empire is not the colony, it’s the military base… Things that can’t go on forever, don’t. That’s where we are today.”...
"According to the Pentagon, there are approximately 865 US military bases abroad—over 1,000 if new bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are included. The cost? $102 billion annually—and that doesn’t include the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan bases."...
"In a must-read article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson points out that these bases “constitute 95 percent of all the military bases any country in the world maintains on any other country’s territory.” He notes a “bloated and anachronistic” Cold War-tilt toward Europe, including 227 bases in Germany...."
“It makes as much sense for the Pentagon to hold onto 227 military bases in Germany as it would for the post office to maintain a fleet of horses and buggies,” writes Gusterson...
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161378/ar ... t-security