Has The U.S Bases Really Left R.P.?

by Erick San Juan

My associate, Mar Tecson, a fellow book author has sent an email which is very timely to what I’m writing. Who said that there’s no more U.S. bases in the Philippines? The essay of Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and author of The End of Victory Culture entitled “The U.S. Has 761 Military Bases Across The Planet, and We Simply Never Talk About It,” is very revealing.

The usual reliable information that I’ve been getting from concerned citizens and free thinkers from the Philippines and abroad were confirmed by Tom in his article on the spread of American military bases and global empire. He cited how the U.S. operates either through diplomacy, humanitarian and economic aid, friendly visits, etc.

“Our soldiers not only arrive but stay interminably, if not indefinitely”, Tom Engelhardt said. He disclosed, “Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizable American towns with accompanying amenities, sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don’t stay, often American equipment does, carefully stored for further use at tiny ‘cooperative security locations’, known informally as “LILY PADS”, from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis.

He even cited a forward basing system during the Roman Empire who reportedly had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. During the British Empire, the Brits had 36 military bases worldwide. According to Pentagon records, there are 761 active U.S. military bases abroad which include portable bases, nation-states military camps where they are accommodated which act as part of the so called ‘lily pads’. Despite the U.S. government and its local U.S. Embassy’s denial, Tom confirmed that America garrisoned the earth, north to south, east to west, and even on the ’seven seas’, through their various fleets and massive aircraft carriers with 5,000 to 6,000 personnels aboard, the population of an American town and functioning as floating bases.

Tom explained, “We don’t care to know about it. We the American people, aided and abetted by our politicians, the Pentagon, the media are knee-deep in base denial.” He has been so proud before that the U.S. was hailed not just as a sole superpower or a hyperpower, the global policeman, the only cop on the block which American leaders and people took that label seriously. Their bases multiplied and seems preparing to confront future wars against Muslim nation-states who happened to live on so many of the key oil lands on earth.

I have been to some of the U.S. bases in Japan like in Yokosuka and Kadena in Okinawa but the Pentagon’s latest report according to Engelhardt have a total of 124 bases in Japan, 38 in Okinawa and 87 in South Korea.

Overheard that the Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza will lead to the installation of a new US base on Israeli territory at the Negev desert There are allegedly 194 countries, officially 39 of them have American ‘facilities’. Some nations share their military camps with the US bases. After the Iraq-Iran war and the Iraq-Kuwait war, the US temporary bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia became permanent fixtures with both governments paying the US government to act like their “security guards” to protect them from terror groups.

The need for the US bases by wealthy nations neutralized the attempt of the Pentagon to close some of their bases due to budget constraints, possible job loss and lost income. Most of the US bases were relocated instead near or closer to the oil heartlands and seabeds to monitor the ‘black gold’ meaning offshore oil drilling.

It’s quite amazing how Southern Philippines is being developed by USAID and the Pentagon from Palawan, Basilan, Gensan, Zamboanga, Sulu and now Tawi Tawi, building superior airstrips and modern pier.

Will the portable US bases in Minsupala (Mindanao-Sulu-Palawan) become permanent? I hope that the warlords, local politicians and media from Mindanao will not be tricked by the operators of ’hidden hands’ so that the Southern Philippines will not be divided and get ‘balkanized’……. Just thinking!

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Erick San Juan has a radio program from 5 to 6 pm at dzxq 1350khz am band, Monday through Friday.