“Ith the us military having withdrawn many of its forces from iraq and afghanistan, most americans would be forgiven for being unaware that hundreds of us bases and hundreds of thousands of us troops still encircle the globe. although few know it, the united states garrisons the planet unlike any country in history, and the evidence is on view from honduras to oman, japan to germany, singapore to djibouti. this article originally appeared at tomdispatch.com. to stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from tomdispatch.com. like most americans, for most of my life, i rarely thought about military bases. scholar and former cia consultant chalmers johnson described me well when he wrote in 2004, ‘as distinct from other peoples, most americans do not recognize—or do not want to recognize—that the united states dominates the world through its military power. due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet.’ to the extent that americans think about these bases at all, we generally assume they’re essential to national security and global peace. our leaders have claimed as much since most of them were established during world war ii and the early days of the cold war. as a result, we consider the situation normal and accept that us military installations exist in staggering numbers in other countries, on other peoples’ land. on the other hand, the idea that there would be foreign bases on us soil is unthinkable. while there are no freestanding foreign bases permanently located in the united states, there are now around 800 us bases in foreign countries. seventy years after world war ii and 62 years after the korean war, there are still 174 us ‘base sites’ in germany, 113 in japan, and 83 in south korea, according to the pentagon. hundreds more dot the planet in around 80 countries, including aruba and australia, bahrain and bulgaria, colombia, kenya, and qatar, among many other places. although few americans realize it, the united states likely has more bases in foreign lands than any other people, nation, or empire in history. oddly enough, however, the mainstream media rarely report or comment on the issue. for years, during debates over the closure of the prison at the base in guantánamo bay, cuba, nary a pundit or politician wondered why the united states has a base on cuban territory in the first place or questioned whether we should have one there at al…”

“TOP-secret u.s. intelligence document obtained by the intercept confirms that the sprawling u.s. military base in ramstein, germany serves as the high-tech heart of america’s drone program. ramstein is the site of a satellite relay station that enables drone operators in the american southwest to communicate with their remote aircraft in yemen, somalia, afghanistan and other targeted countries. the top-secret slide deck, dated july 2012, provides the most detailed blueprint seen to date of the technical architecture used to conduct strikes with predator and reaper drones.”