US military bases worldwide number 737

The United States is currently operating 737 military bases around the world worth US $127 billion, reflecting both the war in Iraq and the George W Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike against countries it deems to be a danger to American security, according to a new book – “Nemesis: the last days of the American republic”, by Chalmers Johnson.

According to a 2005 Pentagon report, during the fiscal year of the same period, US the military high command deployed to overseas American bases some 196,975 uniformed personnel as well as an equal number of dependents and Department of Defence civilian officials. It employed an additional 81,425 locally hired foreigners. The worldwide total of US military personnel in 2005, including those based domestically, was 1,840,062 supported by an additional 473,306 Defence Department civil service employees and 203,328 local hires. Its overseas bases, according to the Pentagon, contained 32,327 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and 16,527 more that it leased. The size of these holdings was recorded in the inventory as covering 687,347 acres overseas and 29,819,492 acres worldwide, making the Pentagon easily one of the world’s largest landlords.

But Chalmers challenges these statistics, saying that although these numbers are staggeringly big, they do not begin to cover all the actual bases that the US occupies globally.

For example, he says that the 2005 Pentagon report fails to mention any garrisons in Kosovo, even though it is the site of the huge Camp Bondsteel built in 1999 and maintained ever since by an American corporation, a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation of Houston, once led by Vice President Dick Cheney. The report similarly omits bases in Afghanistan, Iraq (106 garrisons as of May 2005), Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, even though the US military has established colossal base structures in the Persian Gulf and Central Asian areas since 9/11.

Similarly, the Pentagon continues to omit from its accounts most of the $5 billion worth of military and espionage installations in Britain, which have long been conveniently disguised as Royal Air Force bases.

“If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases overseas, but no one - possibly not even the Pentagon - knows the exact number for sure,” Chalmers argues.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\02\20\story_20-2-2007_pg7_24

and was scoffed at as though I had said that the sky were green. It is good (?) to see that I was wrong.

My family have been talking about this for years. It maybe that we have an ex-service man from the service. My children have been trying to keep their kids out of the service, growing up Navy brats I guess they do not want any part of it. I also have the belief that a society can not be built on things you blow up and it has come down through the families thinking.

Is it any wonder why people hate the American government?

and I live here.
Nothing like the Ultimately Stupid (U.S.). Go ahead - pay for 700 bases, not health care.
Stupidest country in history.

The Indian Daily Times.

So, when we privatized military services, it appears the ownership of military assets were also privatized with little or no notice given to the American public.