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US Foreign Bases

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.

Filipinos Protest Marcos Jr’s Decision To Further Open Up To US Military

The Philippines has agreed to give the US military further access to more local bases across the country. The move was announced by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Thursday, February 2, along with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is on a visit to the country. As per the agreement reached by the two countries, the US will gain access to four new bases under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). This military access will be facilitated by the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and will be on top of the already existing EDCA facilities that the US has access to. The EDCA, put in place during Barack Obama’s administration, is the most prominent military agreement signed between the US and the Philippines since the complete withdrawal of US troops in 1992. The agreement gives the US access to strategic military sites in the Philippines, allowing extended stays for US troops, and the building and operation of facilities on Philippine bases.

US Base Comes Under Missile Attack In Northern Syria

A US military patrol base in Al-Shaddadi, south of Syria’s northeastern Hasakah governorate, was targeted by two Katyusha missiles on 25 November, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in a statement. This was the second attack on a US military base in Syria in just over a week, following the 17 November attack on Washington’s Green Village military base near the Al-Omar oilfield. “Two rockets targeted coalition forces at the US patrol base in Al-Shaddadi, Syria, today at approximately 10:31 p.m. local time in Syria (4:31 p.m. EST). The attack resulted in no injuries or damage to the base or coalition property. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) visited the rocket origin site and found a third unfired rocket,” the CENTCOM statement read.

Okinawa Poll Results Hamper Plans To Expand US Military Presence

In a major setback to plans for expanding US military presence in Japan, Denny Tamaki, the anti-US base governor of Okinawa, has won a second term in office, continuing his platform against US military bases in the prefecture. In the gubernatorial election held on Sunday, September 11, Tamaki won with a clear majority by defeating Japan’s ruling party candidate Atsushi Sakima. As per the final results released on Monday, Tamaki, supported by a coalition of opposition groups and local movements, secured 339,767 votes, nearly 51% of the total votes polled. Tamaki defeated his nearest rival Sakima for the second time, with a margin of nearly 10%. Local conservative politician Mikio Shimoji, also a former parliamentarian and minister, stood a distant third with around 8% votes.

Why US Foreign Military Bases Should Be Reduced Significantly

Soon after the Second World War ended, the British government with its vast colonial empire made significant territorial concessions to the USA which could facilitate the rapid spread of USA military bases in many parts of the world. In addition of course the defeated Axis countries and their territories could provide another suitable place for the rapid proliferation of the US military bases that was to follow. In recent decades there have been several closures of these bases but there have been several new ones coming up as well. This together with definitional issues makes it difficult to give precise numbers, and it has been stated that even the Pentagon may struggle to give a precise number and list.

Greenland – Towards A Protective Future

At a time when headlines were focused more on the heat wave in Europe, an event of great importance which should have received more attention was the melting of as much as 18 billion tons of ice sheets in just 3 days of mid-July in Greenland. Very frightening estimates have been presented of the extent of rise in sea level if melting on such a scale continues. This was not the first instance of such massive ice melting within a short time, nor is it likely to be the last. This has also highlighted the need for a more protective future for Greenland. But it appears that some powerful persons have an entirely different view on the matter. This came to attention during the tenure of Trump as USA President. It was reported that Donald Trump made an offer of a payment to Denmark to acquire control over Greenland.

The United States Extends Its Military Reach Into Zambia

On April 26, 2022, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced that they had set up an office in the US Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. According to AFRICOM Brigadier General Peter Bailey, Deputy Director for Strategy, Engagement and Programs, the Office of Security Cooperation would be based in the US Embassy building. Social media in Zambia buzzed with rumors about the creation of a US military base in the country. Defense Minister Ambrose Lufuma released a statement to say that “Zambia has no intention whatsoever of establishing or hosting any military bases on Zambian soil.”

US Wants To Surround China With Missiles

The United States plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to surround China with missiles. But it’s having trouble finding an Asian country willing to host the offensive weapons. The US military commissioned a study from the RAND Corporation, a Pentagon-backed research group, to assess the feasibility of deploying intermediate-range missiles to the Pacific. The study closely analyzed the US government’s relations with its five treaty allies in the region: Australia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. Citing “an inability to find a willing partner,” the RAND report concluded that the chance of these nations hosting US ground-based intermediate-range missiles “is very low as long as current domestic political conditions and regional security trends hold.”

Guantanamo, Cuba: VII Symposium On The Abolition Of Foreign Military Bases

The seventh iteration of the Symposium on the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases was held May 4-6, 2022 in Guantanamo, Cuba, near the 125 year old US Naval Base located a few miles from the city of Guantanamo.   The Naval Base is the site of the infamous US military prison that, as of April 2022, still holds 37 men, most of whom have never been tried as their trial would reveal the torture to which the US has subjected them.  18 of the 37 are approved for release if U.S. diplomats can arrange for countries to accept them. The Biden administration has released 3 prisoners so far including one who had been cleared for release in the final days of the Obama Administration but was kept imprisoned for 4 more years by the Trump administration.  The prison was opened twenty years ago on January 11, 2002.

Address To The VII International Seminar For Peace And The Abolition Of Foreign Military Bases

In short, the U.S. imperialism and its allies had already turned the world into a lawless wild west.  Since the September 11, 2001 attack on New York, the U.S., at the instigation of its military industrial complex, had put its war machine into high gear, attacking one country after another  and bringing death and destruction to many countries of the world, especially to those in Latin  America and the Middle East. This period has witnessed the eastward expansion of U.S. and  NATO military bases into 13 European countries and even a westward expansion of NATO into  Latin America by making Colombia a global partner of NATO, and, according to New York  Time, the presence of U.S. military personnel in 173 countries of the world.

Bases, Bases, Everywhere…

The U.S. military is finally withdrawing (or not) from its base at al-Tanf. You know, the place that the Syrian government long claimed was a training ground for Islamic State (ISIS) fighters; the land corridor just inside Syria, near both the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, that Russia has called a terrorist hotbed (while floating the idea of jointly administering it with the United States); the location of a camp where hundreds of U.S. Marines joined Special Operations forces last year; an outpost that U.S. officials claimed was the key not only to defeating ISIS, but also, according to General Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, to countering “the malign activities that Iran and their various proxies and surrogates would like to pursue.” You know, that al-Tanf.

New US Military Base In Micronesia To Challenge China

Last month in Honolulu, Hawaii, Microensian President David Panuelo held high-level defense talks with US Navy Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) about “the United States’ broader defense and force posture in the Pacific,” among other topics. “The FSM and the United States collaborated on plans for more frequent and permanent US Armed Forces presence, and have agreed to cooperate on how that presence will be built up both temporarily and permanently within the FSM, with the purpose of serving the mutual security interests of both nations,” a news release by the Micronesian government noted. The release gave no further details about where the base would be located or what type of facility it would be. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation after the summit, Panuelo said that while the small country of 58,000 people maintains diplomatic relations with China, he didn’t foresee the new US base as harming that relationship.

The All-American Base World

It was the spring of 2003 during the American-led invasion of Iraq. I was in second grade, living on a U.S. military base in Germany, attending one of the Pentagon’s many schools for families of servicemen stationed abroad. One Friday morning, my class was on the verge of an uproar. Gathered around our homeroom lunch menu, we were horrified to find that the golden, perfectly crisped French fries we adored had been replaced with something called “freedom fries.” “What are freedom fries?” we demanded to know. Our teacher quickly reassured us by saying something like: “Freedom fries are the exact same thing as French fries, just better.” Since France, she explained, was not supporting “our” war in Iraq, “we just changed the name, because who needs France anyway?”
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