The United States has hundreds of bases around the world. The vast majority are not manned. They are a designated area with, perhaps, a few buildings some of which are decades old and not occupied. At the start of the Gulf War a friend was a crewman on a US cargo plane that flew into what had been an allied air base in the Mediterranean during WWII. It was a tine waterless rock in the sea with an air strip, little vegetation and a suspiciously good runway although covered with sand. They landed and unloaded tons of cargo. Which, in a few days, was all you needed for a base...housing, cooking equipment, etc.
I’ve read there are some unknown quantities of “bases” in Africa that consist of a runway, a building and no stored assets. The assets are flown in. One of these was an operating drone base in mere days used to support something the substance of which has escaped my mind. What we have are agreements with many nations that allow the US the flexibility to move anything anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice. No one else in the world has anything like this and it’s necessary if our intent is to support any mission the government decides we must undertake.
Good post. These inactive facilities are the grist of paranoid obsessions for many intellectuals.
“The United States has hundreds of bases around the world. The vast majority are not manned. “
THOUSANDS.
There’s a Youtube channel dedicated to it. The “audit” by the Pentagon was so big, they didn’t “know” how big the numbers were and had to rely on a book author to find out how many bases the US has and how much was being spent.
The host said his clearance allowed him to go anywhere and ended up in an undisclosed military base in Belgiun and inside was AMERICA complete with malls, movie theaters, gyms etc. It was nuts. The US really is an empire.
Even our own people don’t realize that the U. S. has been
far different than other nations, as they repeat that the
U. S. is no different than all those other nations.
They’ll find out.
Out in the Indian Ocean somewhere
There’s a former army post
Abandoned now just like the war
And there’s no doubt about it
It was the myth of fingerprints
That’s what that old army post was for
—Paul Simon
And you might want to have a base here for contingencies. After all, “here today, Ghana tomorrow!”