[News] The Burden of Empire (the face of imperialism)

[News at freedomarchives.org]

The Burden of Empire
  03/17/04

by Laurence M. Vance

There is a new empire in town, and its global presence is increasing every day.

The kingdom of Alexander the Great reached all the way to the borders of 
India. The Roman Empire controlled the Celtic regions of Northern Europe 
and all of the Hellenized states that bordered the Mediterranean. The 
Mongol Empire, which was the largest contiguous empire in history, 
stretched from Southeast Asia to Europe. The Byzantine Empire spanned the 
years 395 to 1453. In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire stretched 
from the Persian Gulf in the east to Hungary in the northwest; and from 
Egypt in the south to the Caucasus in the north. At the height of its 
dominion, the British Empire included almost a quarter of the worlds 
population.

Nothing, however, compares to the U.S. global empire. What makes U.S. 
hegemony unique is that it consists, not of control over great land masses 
or population centers, but of a global presence unlike that of any other 
country in history.

The extent of the U.S. global empire is almost incalculable. The latest 
"<http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2003/basestructure2003.pdf>Base 
Structure Report" of the Department of Defense states that the Departments 
physical assets consist of "more than 600,000 individual buildings and 
structures, at more than 6,000 locations, on more than 30 million acres." 
The exact number of locations is then given as 6,702 divided into large 
installations (115), medium installations (115), and small 
installations/locations (6,472). This classification can be deceiving, 
however, because installations are only classified as small if they have a 
Plant Replacement Value (PRV) of less than $800 million.

Although most of these locations are in the continental United States, 96 
of them are in U.S. territories around the globe, and 702 of them are in 
foreign countries. But as 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805070044/lewrockwell/>Chalmers 
Johnson has 
<http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1181>documented, 
the figure of 702 foreign military installations is too low, for it does 
not include installations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kosovo, Kuwait, 
Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan. Johnson estimates that an honest count 
would be closer to 1,000.

The number of countries that the United States has a presence in is 
staggering. According the U.S. Department of States list of 
"<http://www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm>Independent States in the World," 
there are 192 countries in the world, all of which, except Bhutan, Cuba, 
Iran, and North Korea, have diplomatic relations with the United States. 
All of these countries except one (Vatican City) are members of the 
<http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html>United Nations. According to the 
Department of Defense publication, 
"<http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/M05/hst0309.pdf>Active Duty Military 
Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country," the United States has 
troops in 135 countries. Here is the list:
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Antigua
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Australia
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Antigua
Argentina
Azerbaijan
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belgium
Belize
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Chad
Chile
China
Columbia
Congo
Costa Rica
Cote D'lvoire
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guatemala
Guinea
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Jamaica
Japan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Liberia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Korea
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia and Montenegro
Singapore
Sierra Leone
Slovenia
Spain
South Africa
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

This means that the United States has troops in 70 percent of the world's 
countries. The average American could probably not locate half of these 135 
countries on a map.

To this list could be added regions like the Indian Ocean territory of 
Diego Garcia, Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean island of St. Helena, all 
still controlled by Great Britain, but not considered sovereign countries. 
Greenland is also home to U.S. troops, but is technically part of Denmark. 
Troops in two other regions, Kosovo and Hong Kong, might also be included 
here, but the DODs "Personnel Strengths" document includes U.S. troops in 
Kosovo under Serbia and U.S. troops in Hong Kong under China.

Possessions of the United States like Guam, Johnston Atoll, Puerto Rico, 
the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the Virgin Islands are 
likewise home to U.S. troops. Guam has over 3,200.

Regular troop strength ranges from a low of 1 in Malawi to a high of 74,796 
in Germany. At the time the most recent "Personnel Strengths" was released 
by the government (September 30, 2003), there were 183,002 troops deployed 
to Iraq, an unspecified number of which came from U.S. forces in Germany 
and Italy. The total number of troops deployed abroad as of that date was 
252,764, not including U.S. troops in Iraq from the United States. Total 
military personnel on September 30, 2003, was 1,434,377. This means that 
17.6 percent of U.S. military forces were deployed on foreign soil, and 
certainly over 25 percent if U.S. troops in Iraq from the United States 
were included. But regardless of how many troops we have in each country, 
having troops in 135 countries is 135 countries too many.

The U. S. global empire an empire that Alexander the Great, Caesar 
Augustus, Genghis Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, Justinian, and King 
George V would be proud of.

Laurence M. Vance [<mailto:vancepub at juno.com>send him mail] teaches Greek 
at Pensacola Bible Institute in Pensacola, FL. Visit 
<http://www.vancepublications.com/>his website.



© 2004 Laurence M. Vance


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