However, I think it is time for us to close our military bases around the world which are in other nations. We were justified in establishing those bases during the cold war with the USSR as a policy of containment and to discourage aggression on their part.
The cold war is over and the existence of our troops in those bases not only cost us an arm and a leg, but the citizens of those countries are beginning to resent the presence of foreign troops on their sovereign soil - just as we certainly would if France or even England decided to establish a base just outside of Columbus, Ohio.
Military capabilities have changed over the past fifty years such that we have the ability of rapid deployment and access which didn't exist then. I think we no longer need to have standing armies stationed all over the world in order to protect ourselves. As to protecting others, I think that nations should have the capability of protecting themselves.
It really disturbs me and I believe it, that this administration of hawks haves plans to attack Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and/or Cuba. I think they want to either destroy the world or be destroyed - perhaps for religious purposes - just like the car bombers who do it in order to go to Heaven! .
'NO USA': Korean Farmers Protest U.S. Base Expansion
Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US Fri Sep 15
SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 15 (OneWorld) - Dozens of South Koreans took to the streets of Washington, DC Thursday in support of small farmers forced to relocate to make way for a massive new U.S. military base in their country. President George W. Bush was meeting with his South Korean counterpart just steps away in the White House at the time.
On Tuesday, it took 10,000 South Korean police to dislodge the protesting farmers. "They are elderly farmers," Kyo So of the group Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism pleaded from the protest outside the White House. "They have been living there for many years. They turned the old wetlands into arable farmland. They raised their children there. They don't want to move."
The U.S. military is increasingly unpopular in South Korea. Outside the U.S. base about 40 miles south of Seoul, protesters painted "NO USA" on buildings and stood on rooftops in a brief attempt to stop construction crews from tearing down about 90 homes.
Police had blockaded roads leading into the township, preventing more protesters from entering the area. Helicopters kept an eye on the protesters. "The government says they'll move the rest by October, but the sentiment in Korea is that the government is going too far and is using too much force. They are very angry with the government," So added.
The U.S. military plans to build new facilities on the farmers' land in order to improve quality of life for American soldiers stationed in Korea. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, those amenities include a new fitness center "complete with a gym, indoor pool, running track, and four-story parking garage."
In addition to an eight-lane, 25-meter indoor swimming pool, the center will feature a 626-foot indoor running track; separate rooms for cardio fitness, circuit training, free weights, and group exercise; basketball and racquetball courts; a martial arts training room; and climbing walls, the newspaper added.
The confrontation and construction is part of a larger redeployment of the 35,000-strong U.S. troop presence in Korea. Under the terms of an agreement between Washington and Seoul, American troops are being moved away from major population centers and the North Korean border.
Paradoxically, observers say, that could increase the likelihood of war on the Korean Peninsula.
"It's an offensive move," argued George Katsiaficas, a researcher at Harvard University's Korea Institute and president of the Peace Island Foundation. "It takes American forces out of the range of North Korean artillery and creates a situation where the United States could attack North Korea without Americans necessarily being directly threatened in the immediate counter attack."
Katsiaficas doesn't believe war with North Korea is imminent, but he sees the redeployment of U.S. troops in South Korea as part of a larger strategy by the Bush administration.
"Right now the governments of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are all preparing for a U.S. attack," Katsiaficas added. "They all believe a U.S. attack is coming because the neoconservatives in Washington are pursuing a very aggressive military policy. The Iranians are preparing for an attack modeled on Israel's attack on Lebanon. So the North Koreans would be remiss not to consider this realignment as a way for the U.S. to position itself in a way so that it could make such an attack."
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