Monday, January 18, 2016

Are U.S. Bases Overseas Being Used As A Recruiting Tool For Local Militants?

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Located: The U.S. has military bases around the world, as depicted in this graphic. Daily Mail

David Vine, The Nation: The Pentagon’s New Base Plan Will Achieve the Exact Opposite of Its Goal

We’re building bases to prevent terrorism, but local terror groups are recruiting in reaction to our bases.

Amid the distractions of the holiday season, The New York Times revealed that the Obama administration is considering a Pentagon proposal to create a “new” and “enduring” system of military bases around the Middle East. Though this is being presented as a response to the rise of the Islamic State and other militant groups, there’s remarkably little that’s new about the Pentagon plan. For more than 36 years, the US military has been building an unprecedented constellation of bases that stretches from Southern Europe and the Middle East to Africa and Southwest Asia.

The record of these bases is disastrous. They have cost tens of billions of dollars and provided support for a long list of undemocratic host regimes, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and Djibouti. They have enabled a series of US wars and military interventions, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which have helped make the Greater Middle East a cauldron of sectarian-tinged power struggles, failed states, and humanitarian catastrophe. And the bases have fueled radicalism, anti-Americanism, and the growth of the very terrorist organizations now targeted by the supposedly new strategy.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: No one likes to see a foreign military base in their backyard .... doubly so in places like the Middle East and Africa.

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