Skip to content

US Foreign Bases

Close Military Bases, Not Embassies

TIn U.S. culture and media, where it’s one’s duty to pretend that the military budget and everything that goes with it does not exist, one could hardly be blamed for thinking that the closure of embassies actually meant a full departure. And one could hardly be blamed for thinking this a positive development. Those embassies have steadily been transformed over the decades into weapons dealerships, military sidekicks, and dens of spies. (The CIA may yet point out to Trump how many embassy employees are CIA and make him an offer he can’t refuse.) It’s hard sometimes to imagine other functions.

Close The US Military Bases In Asia

President Donald Trump is again loudly complaining that the US military bases in Asia are too costly for the US to bear. As part of the new round of tariff negotiations with Japan and Korea, Trump is calling on Japan and Korea to pay for stationing the US troops. Here’s a much better idea: close the bases and return the US servicemen to the US. Trump implies that the US is providing a great service to Japan and Korea by stationing 50,000 troops in Japan and nearly 30,000 in Korea. Yet these countries do not need the US to defend themselves. They are wealthy and can certainly provide their own defense.

Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands Now Open To US Military

The national government of Daniel Noboa approved a resolution that enables US ships and crews to use the Galapagos Islands for control and patrol activities in the area. On February 15, 2024, Noboa signed a series military cooperation treaties with the US government, allowing ships, military personnel, armament, equipment, and submarines to be installed in the natural reserve, which UNESCO declared a World Natural Heritage Site in 1978. In doing so, Noboa ratified the Washington Agreement, signed by former President Guillermo Lasso. The agreement grants US soldiers and their contractors several privileges, exemptions, and immunity in Ecuadorian territory, similar to those enjoyed by members of diplomatic missions as agreed on in the Vienna Convention.

US Occupation Base Hit By ‘Intense’ Rocket, Drone Strikes In Syria

US forces at Washington’s occupation base in the Conoco oil field near eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor governorate came under heavy attack during the early hours of 29 September. “Intense rocket and drone bombardment targeted the headquarters of the US occupation's armored forces stationed at the Conoco gas field base in Deir Ezzor,” Al Mayadeen's correspondent cited field sources as saying. “The intense shelling on Conoco resulted in direct hits on the headquarters of the armored division,” according to one of the sources. Sputnik’s correspondent reported the attack left casualties among the occupation troops. Local sources said the strikes were launched in response to a series of US airstrikes on Deir Ezzor’s Harabeesh neighborhood.

Pentagon Renovates Israeli Air Base

The US Department of Defense is building aircraft facilities in Israel to accommodate new US-made KC-46A Pegasus refueling tanker planes that could assist in an attack on Iran, The Intercept reported on 14 September. Army Corps of Engineers documents show new buildings will be constructed and existing buildings will be upgraded, including hangars, warehouses, and storage facilities, at a military base in the south of Israel.  The project includes “establishing and adapting aviation and maintenance infrastructure for the KC-46,” including the construction of five new concrete and steel structures, the documents show.

The Biggest Military Base Empire On Earth

The United States of America, unlike any other nation on Earth, maintains a massive network of foreign military bases around the world, more than 900 bases in more than 90 countries and territories. If the peace movement is serious about ending the United States’ and its allies’ warmaking, then this global constellation of bases must be curtailed. The permanent stationing of more than 220,000 U.S. troops, weapons arsenals, and thousands of aircraft, tanks, and ships in every corner of the globe makes the logistics for U.S. aggression, and that of its allies, quicker and more efficient. Bases also facilitate the proliferation of nuclear weapons, with the United States keeping nuclear bombs in five NATO member countries, and nuclear-capable planes, ships, and missile launchers in many others.

We Win Peace When We Struggle For It: Cuba And The Zone Of Peace

In the midst of May Day Celebrations in Cuba, on May 4th and 5th participants from 30 countries gathered in Guantanamo, Cuba for the 8th International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases. Representatives from social movements for peace, and mass based organizations from around the world came together for two days of discourse and dialogue on the conditions of peace and war during these times of US/Western backed Zionist genocide in Palestine, and the western led invasion of Haiti (with many of the same foreign interests involved in both), to declare the necessity to work towards peace and to close down all foreign military bases that are a direct threat to the sovereignty of those lands and to peace worldwide.

Gulf States Warn United States Not To Launch Strikes On Iran

Gulf monarchies are urging the US not to use American military bases on their territories to strike in response to any potential Iranian attack on Israel, sources told Middle East Eye. The US's Gulf allies are working overtime to shut down avenues that could link them to a US reprisal against Tehran or its proxies from bases inside their kingdoms, according to a senior US official who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity. As tensions flare, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait have raised questions about the intricate details of basing agreements that permit tens of thousands of US troops to be stationed across the oil-rich peninsula.

8th International Seminar For Peace And Abolition Of Foreign Bases

The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and the World Peace Council (WPC), are calling for the participation in the VIII International Seminar on Peace and for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, which will take place in the province of Guantanamo, on May 4 and 5, 2024. Once again, this conference will take place in the province of Guantanamo, where there is the oldest  U.S. military base that remains against the will of the Cuban people and government. The Guantanamo Base has become synonymous with torture and imperialism, which for 121 years has illegally occupied 117 square kilometers of that territory, and a prison where the human rights of the detainees there are constantly violated, constituting an outrage to the sovereignty and independence of the nation.

Role Of US Menwith Hill NSA Base And The United Kingdom In Gaza

Every Tuesday at 6pm, rain or shine, a small group of protestors stand outside a U.S. base in North Yorkshire with banners and flags. Members and supporters of the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign (MHAC) are there to protest at the unaccountable and highly secret activities that go on inside the U.S. spy base nominally called ‘RAF’ Menwith Hill but run by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). In recent weeks the focus has been on the UK’s role in events in Gaza. Just how is the UK government involved in Gaza? According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, the UK has consistently sold arms to Israel since 1967.

As Wars Expand, Veterans And Others Plan Peace Walk To Washington, DC

The Israeli War on Palestine, made possible by US support, is beginning to become a regional conflict. In addition to this, the US is backing conflicts in Ukraine targeting Russia, in the Horn of Africa and in Latin America and increasing its aggression against China. Congress is appropriating hundreds of billions of dollars for the Pentagon while the majority of people in the United States struggle to meet their basic needs each week and the climate crisis worsens. To raise awareness about this, Veterans for Peace is organizing a Peace Walk 2024 from Augusta, Maine to Washington, DC, arriving in July to protest the NATO meetings being planned then. Clearing the FOG speaks with Tarak Kauff and Ellen Davidson, two of the Peace Walk organizers.

‘We Will Target US Bases If Washington Intervenes’: Iraqi Resistance

Iraqi resistance faction Kataib Hezbollah issued a stern warning on 11 October, threatening to strike at US bases in Iraq and surrounding areas if the US intervened in the ongoing war between various Palestinian factions and Israel. They, alongside other Iraqi groups and religious leaders, have voiced strong support for the Palestinians as they continue Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. “Since the first hours, we have been in direct and indirect contact with the Palestinian resistance,” Kataib Hezbollah's leader Sayyid al-Shuhada, Abu Alaa al-Walai, said in a statement. “If the US intervenes, we will intervene directly; all US presence in the region will be legitimate targets for the resistors inside and outside Iraq,” Walai added.

President Daniel Ortega Challenges Petro To Shut Down US Military Bases

These are times of challenges, of difficulties testing the revolutionary mettle of those who in our region of Latin America and the Caribbean at some point even took up arms to overthrow a pro-imperialist government in the service of Capital, in the service of drug trafficking. There are those who have stood firm throughout history, as all of you have stood firm, beloved brothers and sisters of the National Police, brothers and sisters of the Army, Sandinista sisters and brothers. Others take part for a while but when the conditions become adverse, then cowardice makes them change sides, cowardice makes them become agents of the Yankee Empire, and makes them betrayers, they betray themselves, betray those who gave their lives when they were leading those guerrilla movements.

US Indo-Pacific Strategy Sparks Concerns Of Confrontation

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conducted a Pacific tour in late July in an attempt to strengthen Washington's influence in the region by sowing discord between China and Pacific island countries. The tour is the latest U.S. effort to implement its so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy," which involves strengthening military cooperation with its regional allies and pitching the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) to exclude China from regional trading systems and supply chains.

Provocations Escalate: US Nuclear Submarine Docks In Cuban Territory

It is no coincidence that just days before Cuba marked two years since the July 11 riots, a nuclear-powered US submarine crossed Cuban waters and docked at the illegal base at Guantanamo Bay. From July 5-8, it remained afloat in that Cuban territory usurped and illegally occupied by Washington 121 years ago as a clear threat to peace in the region. On July 11, the Cuban Foreign Ministry formally denounced this provocative escalation by the United States, “whose political or strategic motives are unknown. The presence of a nuclear submarine at this time forces us to question what military reasons are behind this act.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.