During the Second World War, the United States undertook a massive military effort to defeat the fascist forces of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. During the Cold War, it maintained a sizable military in order to contain and deter the threat of Soviet communism. All of this was necessary at the time. But with the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later, any rationale for a massive American military effectively vanished.
That being the case, why does a vast network of American military bases still encircle the globe? The United States has an army of 56,000 men permanently deployed in Germany. It also maintains nearly 10,000 men each in Italy and the United Kingdom, and another 10,000 scattered about the rest of Europe. It has 33,000 men in Japan and 28,000 men in South Korea. These are just the biggest deployments; thousands of other service personnel are based in scores of other countries. All told, America has nearly a thousand American military bases around the world, which the author Chalmbers Johnson refers to it as America's "empire of bases."
The expense of maintaining this "empire of bases" is truly astounding. A vast fleet of enormous transport aircraft provides the logistical blood of these bases. The cost of construction and maintaining these bases is huge, and all the more upsetting because the construction contracts usually go to politically well-connected corporations. The upkeep of these bases by itself costs American taxpayers roughly $100 billion a year, about one-eighth of the entire military budget of the country.
Many of these overseas bases are small American worlds unto themselves, with multiple bus lines for transportation and the whole array of American fast food restaurants. Recreational facilities, including everything from movie theaters to golf courses to health spas, are part of many of these establishments. A huge American school system exists within these overseas bases to provide education for the children of servicemen. This is all far from free, and one can ask whether the golf courses are really necessary.
The existence of these bases contributes to the rise of anti-Americanism around the world. With so many servicemen deployed overseas, it's inevitable that some will commit crimes, which discredit the entire American military in the eyes of the locals. In the last fifteen years, for example, assaults and rapes by Americans stationed on Okinawa has generated enormous anger towards America on the part of the Japanese people. The fact that the Americans involved in such incidents are often not tried by the justice system of the host country, but by the system of American military justice, only adds fuel to the controversies. American national security is not enhanced by engaging in actions which turn people into enemies of the United States.
The overseas American military presence also contributes to unnecessary tensions between the United States and other countries, disstabilizing the overall global situation. The present Chinese military buildup is spreading alarm among many armchair strategists in America, but few point out the obvious fact that it is taking place mostly because of the powerful American military presence throughout East Asia. Russia is attempting to rebuild its former military power, but one wonders if it would be so determined to do so if the American military presence in Europe vanished. And so long as America continues to maintain a military presence in the Middle East, the struggle between the United States and radical Islamists will continue to fester.
The powers-that-be in the United States would like their constituents to believe that the "empire of bases" is necessary to maintain American security. In truth, by stoking tensions with other nations and contributing to anti-Americanism among foreign peoples, its overseas bases almost certainly put the United States at greater risk. And it must be remembered that these bases signficantly contribute the the country's national debt, which is a far greater threat to America, and the world as a whole, than any possible foreign enemy.
America is supposed to be a republic, not an empire. Its "empire of bases" not only degrades its security and contributes to its debt, but represents a disgraceful betrayal of its Jeffersonian ideals. The United States should begin an immediate reduction of its overseas military presence, with a view of its eventual elimination.
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