Ever since the Continental Congress told the British government in
1776 that Americans would no longer tolerate foreign troops stationed
permanently on American soil, Independence Day has been America's most
treasured day of patriotic celebration. While Americans never again
allowed a foreign occupation, nowadays Congress and the President have
been growing increasingly eager to deploy and keep American troops on
foreign soil for decades, often against the clearly expressed majority
will of the native population?
According to the Defense Department's Base Structure Report, FY 2002,
U.S. troops are stationed in 156 countries. There are only 46 countries
left without an American military presence. We usually insist that U.S.
military bases are treated as U.S. territory and therefore exempt from
the laws of the host country.
Since 1945, no fascist-style regime has seriously threatened the U.S.,
and since 1991, the worldwide Soviet menace exists no more. Yet, the
U.S. European Command headquartered in Germany (where we presently maintain
18 bases) continues to control 13 million square miles in 89 countries
from the North Cape of Norway to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
"The Command's mission is to support and advance US interests and
policies throughout the region and to provide combat-ready land, maritime,
and air forces to Allied Command Europe or to US Unified Commands."
The Central Command operates in the vast territories stretching from
the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and from the Horn of Africa into
Central Asia. After terrorist attacks made the U.S. military presence
in Saudi Arabia impractical, the Central Command's regional headquarters
in the Middle East are now in Kuwait (Army), Bahrain (Navy and Marines),
and Qatar (Air Force).
The Pacific Command includes a fleet of "approximately 200 ships,
2,000 aircraft, and 250,000 sailors and Marines and covers more than
50% of the earth's surface, just over 100 million square miles from
the west coast of the U.S. to the Arabian Gulf." The Southern Command's
territories encompass 32 countries (19 in Central and South America
and 12 in the Caribbean) and cover about 15.6 million square miles.
Can you imagine how Congress and the President would react if Russia,
China, or any other country dared to establish military bases beyond
its borders, or even overseas, in order "to support and advance
their interests and policies"?
America's leading strategists, specifically Bush, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz,
have made it clear that foreign governments not supporting America's
military objectives will find themselves penalized and ostracized, particularly
the ungrateful French and the perfidious Germans--the latter, according
to Rumsfeld, being as unhelpful as Cuba and Libya.
Whether we like it or not, millions of foreigners see U.S. troops on
their soil as evidence of an ever more intrusive American imperialism.
Why, for example, are American troops needed to defend or assist the
700 million Europeans who are perfectly capable of taking care of their
own affairs? Why do the President's advisers mislead him into thinking
that American meddling in every corner of the globe will make us more
secure, admired, and loved? If the President could only visit the people
in the Middle East as a private observer, as this reporter recently
did along the Persian Gulf, he would be appalled to learn how much our
military presence and our arrogant threats cause anger, resistance,
and terrorist temptations.
We are insisting that America's and the whole world's security require
us to develop and deploy, at our discretion, any weapon of mass destruction
and disarm and inspect all lesser countries if we suspect them of harboring
such weapons. We tend to forget, however, that other societies, whatever
their faults, desire national independence just as much as we Americans
do. Proclaiming our unselfish pursuit of freedom and democracy is bound
to fall upon deaf ears if we keep American soldiers stationed indefinitely
in 156 countries. We may not see ourselves as colonialist occupiers
but others do.