I wanted to start tonight actually not about military bases but over the last month
I'm
a civilian member of the board of directors at coffee strong. And the organization
is called G.I.
Voice and over the last month we've had an incredible sea change at Joint Base
Lewis McChord ever since the pan to
a massacre the attention of the world has really been focused on Joint
Base Lewis McChord. And a lot of the things that
a lot of the Iraq. And Afghan vets have been saying for the last three years since
we were founded on Election Day two thousand and eight. Has come to pass and is now
very well known in the world's media and C.N.N. C.B.S.
Everybody was there and right now we can save for certainty that the whole world is
watching. Lewis McChord and we have an amazing situation in
a Limpia where we have a very large progressive antiwar community in
a Limpia Tacoma exciter a side by side with
a very very large military base community and there are very few places
in the country where you can say that that opportunity for dialogue for outreach
is there and so it's
a really important time and instead of the deployments to Afghanistan.
Rolling down the rolling up we have four thousand four thousand more
soldiers being deployed from J B L M Over the next month or so and
so this idea that somehow everything is going to be over in two thousand and
fourteen there's nothing to worry about is really reading fall we see the war at
home. Around
a Limpia we see the accidents we see the domestic violence the suicide P.T.S.D.
All of the results of war we see the helicopters overhead we hear the artillery
fire. And so the war really is at home and I think the more we bring out that
connection and the more we stand with some of the soldiers who are dissenting the
better. For all of us I wanted to open with
a point related to Afghanistan I was teaching
a program at Evergreen food place and culture and I started researching
pomegranates So I wanted to share just six minutes it's my first Powerpoint
poem so. Be patient I'm not sure it will work so well but.
This is from an experience I had coming back from Canada if years ago it's called
pomegranates and grenades pomegranate soda taste pretty good that's right on
a visit to Canada a few years ago why not take
a couple of twelve packs back home in our car nothing to declare when we pass
through the border only to discover to our horror there during the war on terror we
had smuggled into crates of grenades you see in bilingual Canada all products have
to be labeled in both English and French so it's pomegranate on one side and corn
on the on the other after perplexing why someone would name a fruit after
a weapon I did
a little Wikipedia eyes and found out it was the other way around French soldiers
in the sixteenth century named their cool new exploding ball after the French word
for pomegranate the Granted years thought their invention resembled the size and
shape of the fruit whose blood red juicy seeds resembled the soon to be bloodied
shrapnel in many other languages the pomegranate and grenade came to share similar
or identical terms in Spanish and the city in Spain because I'm not an Italian
Polish and Russian even though you moan in Hebrew the pomegranate give its life and
the grenade taketh away by cutting through the skin and puncturing internal organs
. Each pomegranate has about six hundred seeds in case by Errol's or tiny sacks of
juice the proper way to extract the url's is to first carefully cut off the calyx
or crown second lightly scored the leathery rind into quarters third gently pull
apart the fruit to expose Errol's and forth peacefully pluck them out from the
white membrane. Preparing a pomegranate is like disarming
a grenade if you push in the calyx you have armed the striker lever lever if you
violently tear apart the fruit or cut too deeply into it the arrows will be
punctured they will bleed red stains they will scream and cry they will die
the original homeland of the pomegranate stretches from India to Iran through
Afghanistan and Pakistan its spread across the red and Mediterranean season each in
times and was worshiped by all peoples who ate it succulent fruit to the Romans
it was pomegranate juice or seeded Apple whose treat could live up to two hundred
years to the Egyptians it symbolized everlasting life and was buried with King Tut
like the Phoenicians they grew pomegranates for religious purposes to the Greeks it
symbolized love and fertility and the blood of death Juno and Aphrodite offered the
sensuous food in marriage and Greek brides were its twigs in their hair but Hades
also tricked perception into eating for pomegranate seeds thus creating the four
barren months of winter to the Jews the pomegranate was
a blessing fruit its Calyx the source of the design for King David's crown it seed
symbolizing the six hundred thirteen myths vote or commandments of the. To the
Christians the seated Apple may have been the fruit that tempted Eve in the Garden
of Eden it stood for suffering resurrection and the blood of martyrs.
To the Muslims the fruit is associated with the garden of paradise and was
a favorite of the Prophet Muhammad it is still used today in red pepper spread in
Syria to bully in turkey and chicken stew in Iran
to the Americans the pomegranate is
a lifesaving food an alligator of health an instrument of war and
a tool of occupation when there towers were toppled by
a flying army the Americans invaded the homeland of the pomegranate bringing the
fruits namesake as part of their vast arsenal the grenade machine gun had its first
use in Afghanistan where it became
a very popular weapon against the Taliban pomegranates themselves still grew along
the Arghandab River in Khandahar province the Pashtun heartland of the Taliban the
strategists of U.S.
Counter insurgency look to them as
a lucrative cash crop that could lure Afghan farmers away from growing opium
poppies the way to curb addiction to narcotics would be addiction to export
oriented capitalism instead of Granted tears harvesting blood harvest pomegranate
juice for granted cocktails It was only
a matter of months before the aggressive worldwide campaign began the war for Palm
in the war on terror by the antioxidant superpower as the army fight insurgents in
the pomegranate Groves the engorging growing industry fought for customers in the
globalized market within three years by the time I bought my soda nearly two
hundred pomegranate products have hit the shelves wine involved.
Beer and salsa soap and pills dressing and shampoo. The
fruits miracle properties could cure high blood pressure cancer and heart disease
among citizens of the heart of the empire they do little to heal wounds caused by
Hellfire missiles cluster bombs or shrapnel from
a shiny new grenade machine guns in the Arghandab Valley the fifth Stryker Brigade
from Fort Lewis Washington set up
a base in pomegranate country in the middle of Taliban country
a kill team placed to grenade on an innocent civilian they killed to cover his
murder another Stryker bullet platoon got marooned in an orchard for several days
supplies ran so low that they turned to juice full pomegranates to maintain their
strength like the Greeks and Persians the British and Russians before them the
American soldiers had to sip the blood of life from the ancient pomegranate to give
them the energy to hurl the modern tools of death because of the battles in the
booby traps the Arghandab Valley no one can pick the fruit which now lies in
writing piles preparing a pomegranate is like to start
a grenade carefully cut off the crown lightly cut off score the rind
gently pull apart the fruit peacefully pluck out the seeds handle it with care so
it doesn't explode in your face.
So I want to talk about
a very much related topic of the military bases around the world I think
being exposed to them in places like Washington State I spent some time in the
Philippines and Europe. I'm really convinced that warfare it's not
just about violence it's not just about killing it's about power.
And domination and it's just as horrific if it's done without
explicit violence. And one country's dignity and self-determination
is taken over by another and it becomes something normal and I think that's one of
the reasons I was attracted to Native American studies and I really think that
a lot of what we're seeing in the world today is very much along the lines of this
idea of occupation of controlling the economy controlling the culture of
a place and. And dominating it. And I think it's important to focus
on things like the economics like the military bases like the resources and not
just focus on the moments when there's an invasion when there's bombing when there
are people being killed to me the most interesting time is after
a war is after the occupation goes off the front pages into the back pages
and the real control by the United States is instituted So I think that that's one
of the reasons that I've been studying military bases for years and years but just
to get
a sense of the radical radical changes that we've seen in the global network
of U.S.
Military bases over just the last twenty years is astounding. And we have. You
know a number of these countries that in one nine hundred ninety had no U.S.
Military bases and now it seems almost like they've been there forever
a large part of the Middle East and Central Asia in particular but also other parts
of the world next to the U.S.
Nuclear monopoly there is no more universally recognized symbol of the nation
superpower status than it's overseas basing system. Senior adviser to Vice Chair of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Give us
a sense of the size of some of these monstrous forward operating bases or if
Obs In places like Iraq or Afghanistan. This is
a satellite photo of Iraq and you can see this yourself on Google Earth we could
probably go on Google Earth I think we have a signal but I just did
a few snapshots from Google Earth and in the Tigris Euphrates River Valley there's
a little. Dot at first you don't really see it but it's right there that little red
box is around the DOT skipper I am there as we zoom in
and you can see there is this kind of natural lay of the land around the river
valley where it turns into desert but there's this kind of artificial rectangle as
we zoom in and that's Bill Oddie air base
built with Saddam's Air Force built with Soviet help and when the Americans went in
this is the premier air base and still functions because it's the headquarters of
a lot of the private contractors down here is what's called K.B.R.
Lander Kellogg Brown and Root. Former subsidiary of Halliburton
you can see the Chinook helicopters there on the tarmac you
can see the those little holes those are mortar craters that are left by insurgent
mortars so many of them that people were stationed at the base I met several call
used to call it mortar read avail and they even have
a song. To accompany that So that gives you
a sense of the gargantuan scale of some of these bases in places like Iraq or
Afghanistan or Kosovo. So looking at I know there's the take the billions back home
so I looked up the base structure report from two thousand and seven there's been
one more recently but now with as accurate data. Eight hundred twenty three bases
outside the US and that doesn't count the rock or Afghanistan those are considered
in war zones rather than. Part of the US military base
network maintained at about one hundred billion dollars a year so when you have
a little conversation with someone about the federal budget about all the cuts it's
a figure that kind of sticks in the mind one hundred billion dollars
a year there are many in the U.S.
Territories there are about four thousand on the U.S.
Mainland about seven hundred hundred of the major one hundred billion is just the
ones outside the United States so that would be the savings if we just decided to
close down all foreign military bases and bring them home. There are many purposes
of military bases not just one purpose obviously is to project force into other
countries also as
a listening post electronic surveillance on the surrounding area pre-positioning
supplies even if you don't have
a lot of personnel there there's supplies there ready to be used in
a war training we Nations testing and all the other kinds of things that are
associated with military personnel medical facilities
a prison rest and recreation facilities what I find most important about bases is
their function as
a trip wire and by tripwire I mean something that is present that if it is
it's positioned it's put in place in order that it become
a controversy in order that it can generate conflict so
a military tripwire for instance in South Korea because their U.S.
Military bases in Korea if there's
a war between North and South Korea we automatically have
a role in it because we already have bases there it's not
a matter of invading from the United States
a political trip wire is one and Philippines is
a very good example all through the eighty's and ninety's. Ments U.S.
Interests in that country so if there's any kind of fundamental social change going
on that country it has to be squashed because it might affect the status of the
bases. Or if there's
a dictator who's repressing his own people that might be to the detriment of the
U.S.
Military bases as well and that dictator might have to be held back but but the primary
interest of the United States is to defend the bases and will interfere in internal
politics in order to do so. It's obviously easier as we saw in Panama I visited
Panama a couple of years ago and and saw the former U.S.
Military bases there it's obviously easier to invade
a country if you already have bases there you just roll right out of the front gate
instead of just having to drop in paratroops. And so I really do believe that
one of the reasons for foreign military bases is to win popular support in the
United States for intervention with the message of we've got to protect our troops
our people are there we have to do something. And I think that that's deliberate
conscious not just
a side effect. Well
we do we do but the question is who and I'll get to that who do we ask permission
from and if it's
a dictatorship that doesn't have popular support if it's an elite that really only
represents
a tiny fraction of the population those are the people give the permission much
like how the World Bank or I.M.F. Interacts with the country it's much like the U.S.
Military interacts But there obviously and this is there's quite
a bit of exposure on this particular. Cynthia and lo if you really want to see the
dynamics of U.S.
Military bases both abroad and at home. I think she's the best
scholar of the interaction especially of women and militarism but in particular
military bases and you can see the economic gap between the Americans and the local
population the racial attitudes usually racism by Americans towards
the local people in some instances in Europe the other way around racism directed
towards American G.
Guys and African-American Latino or other G I's who are put in an all European
environment. The dangers the risks of explosions from unexploded ordinance
environmental contamination. The crimes that are directed by U.S.
Military personnel towards local women and girls in particular and how if
a Marine is accused of rape. Instead of being put on trial in that country they're
pulled out and perhaps court martialed in another and in the U.S.
Territory or perhaps not and that's under the so far the Status of Forces Agreement
when I was in the Philippines I was just amazed by the. Scale of the
prostitution industry and how women have been systematically prostituted not as
some accidental side effect of having
a lot of soldiers there but as part of the arrangement worked out with the host
businesses and host government so this is what I want to talk about is kind of the
geography of U.S.
Military bases and how in particular in this strategic area of the Middle East it's
. Changed radically over the last twenty twenty five years and one thousand nine
hundred nine These were the only host countries for U.S.
Military bases in the region. Turkey Greece Somalia had
a naval base that was Soviet was turned over to the Americans
a lot of oil the British had pulled out but not a big U.S.
Military presence since one nine hundred ninety we've had
a series of wars that have left behind
a whole string of permanent military bases in this region that previously had not
had military bases and I guess the question should be asked are these bases being
built to wage wars by the United States or is the United States waging wars in
order to leave behind these military bases as
a political military and economic some mentoring of U.S.
Influence in the strategic area so the military bases that we leave behind are as
important as the wars themselves. And I think that each of these wars it doesn't
matter if it's
a Republican or Democratic administration this is through the Bush administrations
through the Clinton administration through the Obama administration. Seeing the
stationing of the bases not only to wage the wars but using each of the wars not
necessarily planning it out in advance it's not
a conspiracy theory but looking at each of these wars as
a convenient opportunity to station these bases and leave them behind after the war
is over American vital interests in the central region are long standing with
over sixty five percent of the world's oil reserves located in the Gulf states of
the region from which the U.S.
Imports nearly twenty percent of its needs Western Europe forty three percent and
Japan sixty eight percent the international committee which must have free and
unfettered access to the region and resources the head of Central Command so it
isn't
a matter of oil from the region is vital to American interests whenever you hear
about this idea of domestic energy independence blah blah blah blah blah. Not very
much of our oil actually comes from the Middle East it comes from places like
Canada Mexico West Africa very little of it comes from Middle East what
actually. The U.S.
Role in the Middle East in terms of oil has in terms of getting the profits from
the oil and it's primarily western Europe and Japan and now increasingly China
that are the ones dependent particular Japan that doesn't have domestic energy
resources of its own is very dependent on Persian Gulf oil so as far back as the
Gulf War is actually rock in France correctly summed it up he said it's not that
the Americans want the oil so they can use the oil it so they can control the
spigot of oil. For their emerging economic competitors which is
the European Union and Japan and China. So when we see. The Gulf
War. To think well you know this I think people my students
don't even know that the Gulf War happened you know they know about the Iraq war
but they don't know about the Gulf War in one thousand nine hundred one and we when
you think about the blow back then it was the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that
was attacked by al Qaeda. It wasn't so much the war itself that generated the
blowback it was the presence of the bases still in Saudi Arabia that generated the
resentment that led to the formation of al-Qaeda and I'm not going to get into all
of the theories about al Qaeda. Came out of the war in Afghanistan really
the the Americans supporting the Mujahideen against the Soviets and. And it
was the presence of U.S.
Military bases in Saudi Arabia and support for Israel that created the huge scale
resentment that I think was exploited by al Qaeda but after the war. After the Gulf
War in ninety one the invasion of Kuwait and southern Iraq this was the situation
where you had
a cluster of bases set up Saudi Arabia you had the Fifth Fleet in grain you had air
base in Qatar you had United Arab Emirates Oman and the U.S.
Has pulled back because of this blowback from much of Saudi Arabia that the U.S.
Still has
a presence in Saudi Arabia there are still communications bases there are still
Saudi bases used by the United States that hasn't abandoned those so this was the
cluster left behind by the Gulf War. The Yugoslav wars the series of interventions
in both Bosnia and Kosovo left behind
a series of small bases in the NATO zone of course of. And
a very large and several of my students at Evergreen. In our who are veterans have
been stationed at cons Camp Bondsteel which is not only to have a U.S.
Presence in that sector in Kosovo. Which is the point of contention between Serbs
and Albanians but also
a lot of them have been stationed at Comp Camp Bondsteel this enormous sprawling
site before they're deployed to the Middle East so it's the stepping stone this
lilypad strategy that's being utilized so this was the cluster left behind after
the US love wars for Balkan wars in an airbase in Hungary basis in both bases and
Kosovo for a while
a presence in Macedonia now being. So in south eastern Europe as well.
The Afghan war launched in November of two thousand and one has left behind and
a large number of forward operating bases throughout the country in particular in
the Pashtoon south which is the heartland of the Taliban and really stepping into
that very complex ethnic geography we also of course have.
Afghanistan as
a transit point for the new great game of oil and gas pipelines coming out of the
Caspian Sea base and and several of the figures involved in the Afghan
war have been actually figures with Unocal Corporation So even though it's not rich
in oil like Iraq Afghanistan still plays
a role in and the game of oil and natural gas when the Afghan conflict is over we
will not leave Central Asia we have long term plans an interest in this region and
it's countries will be given assistance in exchange for concrete steps like having
these air bases in Afghanistan. I was actually amazed to one of my students
in Wisconsin in two thousand and two had been stationed at Bagram and she learned
more about me in my class and I didn't even know that much about Afghanistan at
that point she learned more from me in my class than she had learned from the Air
Force before she was deployed she didn't even know the ethnicity of the people who
are around that air base she didn't know the cities that were nearby they were
deliberately keep people in the dark. In
a systematic way but this is the cluster that was left behind after Afghanistan the
series of semi secret bases air bases or parts of air bases in Pakistan
whose back to stand to G.Q.
Stand Kyrgyzstan which is very interesting it's actually
a country that has had both U.S.
And Russian military bases right. Next to China of great concern to China in
respect to stand a dictator massacred
a large number of people in the city of Andijon two thousand and five and the US
actually objected for once it was so blatant and that dictator temporarily pulled
out the bases. A recent similar situation in Kyrgyzstan where
the US pulled out at least for
a while it's hard to tell whether they've been kicked out of there but there's
a whole series of US military bases around the world that have been kicked out and
of course Iraq war and I put
a lot of question marks I think the question marks would go from there to the wall
if the heroic wars really ended in two thousand and eleven the whole reason for the
war is to get American troops into the region to put pressure on other governments
this is going to be the main American military base in that region. And I think
that that has come to pass to some extent even though you have the ground forces
supposedly having pulled out you have
a large number of private contractors most of the soldiers are still being deployed
to Kuwait there's nothing in any of the agreements that says the U.S.
Can't use drones in Iraq or bomb insurgent positions in Iraq and so
watch for that kind of warfare that that kind of technical warfare to be continuing
even Jimmy Carter said the reason that we went to Iraq was to establish
a permanent military base in the Gulf region I have never heard any of our leaders
say that they would commit themselves to the Iraqi people that ten years from now
there will be no military bases of the United States in Iraq now remember back to
when we were talking about gender and about social costs it was really. The
insistence by the Iraqi opposition. Taught all solder that the United
States has to. Now it's and. Unity of it's troops when they commit crimes
that cause the Iraqi parliament to say you have to pull out your most explicitly
military troops what's happened now is that the private contractors and in two
thousand and nine the number of contractors surpassed the number of soldiers and
they are not under the military so it's true Department of Defense has pulled out
almost all its people the command for the private contractors is the State
Department isn't the Department of Defense it's Hillary Clinton who's giving the
orders for the armed personnel in Iraq not the Pentagon so the
major bases six major bases that are ups under the Iraqi flag now but where there
is still American special forces operations private contractors operations. That
still happening but to just fill in the map
a little bit so this was the situation one thousand nine hundred nine I showed you
after the air after the Gulf War you see Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States hosting
bases after the Yugoslav wars you see in southeastern Europe number of bases
after the Afghan war started Afghanistan Pakistan Central Asia the Iraq war not
only in Iraq but also now in Romania Bulgaria to some extent Poland
there are also bases being built so you can see on this map why there is so much
attention beyond simply the fact that their governments are repressing protesters
even before that there was
a huge amount of attention in pressure on Iran and Syria. Because if Iran and
Syria Iran as it did under the Shah if they ended up hosting US military bases
if the current regime was toppled and
a new government was put in that welcomed in US bases like the Shah did that would
complete the contiguous belt of US military bases from Poland to
Pakistan. Contiguous US military sphere of influence
which also ends up being
a US economic sphere of influence so he ran and Syria would maintain
this US fear of influence between the European Union one emerging economic
competitor of the United States and China and Japan the two economic poles to the
east that are in competition with the United States. So it's almost like
I told my friends it's almost as if you have all of Johnny Cash as C.D.'s except
for two right and you want you want those last two they've spent so much effort
to build up to may have
a permanent presence in this region between Asia and Europe and Russia. And the
two obstacles that are left are Iran Syria. Yeah and this really comes from
analysis by John Stockwell and that is not necessarily that each of these dictators
was financed supported with arms although a heck of
a lot of them were if you look at that Noriega. The ones who were late or later
toppled because they turned against the United States but it's really who is in the
media who is put out there as the enemy who is going to justify this
huge military budget used to be easy Soviet Union there have missiles aimed at our
cities. They're pretty easy to demonize but since the fall of the Soviet Union
what I found is there's usually one Middle Eastern dictator and one Latin American
dictator or rebel movement of some sort that's put forward Latin American dictators
haven't worked too well. Nicaragua was hard to demonize Venezuela chive is
one a lot of elections. In
a hard spot I think around the time of the Iran hostage crisis they started test
driving the Muslim enemy and that worked
a lot better and so I think since then there's always been. You know Iran or
somebody else has put forward as the enemy and I think that in many cases the
attention and demonization of some of these dictators actually prolong them in
power because they were able like a case of Cuba is
a good one where they're able to say our economic problems that's not our fault
it's not the fault of the Cuban government it's the fault of the United States.
Launched an embargo for many years and to some extent that's true factually and so
you have ability of someone like Noriega like Saddam to stay in power when they're
demonized. So I think that you see this pattern over time that some of the ones who
have been the most demonized are the ones who end up staying in power the longest
counter productive. So I think in
a lot of these cases. We saw opportunities to prevent wars before they
happened and we all went through it with Iraq. There all these arguments to go to
war because of famine because of humanitarian reasons because we need to catch
a terrorist because
a country might be constructing nuclear chemical weapons but. The
drive towards war was seemed inexorable no matter what the protests were and I
think that the stationing
a military base is one of the reasons for this because the powers that be knew that
these wars could lead to a more permanent presence
a military presence political control economic presence and so there really weren't
necessarily logical reasons or logical rationales for these wars it was decided
that they should be done for other reasons seizing the opportunities and I think
that. When we saw how long the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
stretched on. And for that matter the series of interventions in Somalia.
Failing to capture or kill bin Laden for many many years was convenient as well
because as soon as they captured Saddam. The Shias in Iraq
who before were somewhat neutral really turned against the U.S.
Occupation and we now see that since the killing of bin Laden the rationale not
only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but even among the US public has really collapsed
for the intervention in Afghanistan for most Americans that was the reason we went
in now it's over now it's time to get out and I hear that conversation over and
over again so I think that they held off on victory in many of these cases because
they wanted to cement that influence either through military bases or dominating
the economies so just in conclusion I want to go through using the analysis of
kind of seeing them more permanent domination of
a country after the war as one of the reasons for
a war we can obviously look at Iran and Syria as the focus is. Now
whether or not it's about
a nuclear program whether or not it's about the very real human rights violations
the massacres really going on in Syria. There are massacres of protesters going on
in Bahrain. In Yemen but you don't see those on the front pages whatsoever it's
really Syria that's the focus right now and same with Iran the targeting we have
Iran I think that when it comes to the very complex. Question of what
would be the future the ideal future of Palestine in the eyes of the U.S.
I think there is
a faction that is Israel right or wrong I think it's also important to look at the
possibility that there would be some kind of settlement in the future the CIA has
played
a large role both in Israel and the Palestinian Palestinian Authority and I think
there are some within the U.S. Government that would like to see some kind of U.S.
Role permanent role some even military bases or
a military presence in the West Bank in particular as part of some kind of
settlement so that's something to think about when whenever you hear about peace
peace is great but then is peace also becoming accompanied by greater
domination. And so this is one of the things to be thinking about we're already at
war it's not just drones there are special forces raids in both Somalia and Yemen
there's been bombing there have been ground attacks so the wars.
In Iraq and Afghanistan have expanded to Pakistan Yemen and Somalia in
a very systematic way and we don't hear about it because Americans are being killed
and I think that's one of the tragedies when you don't have Americans being killed
. But you have foreign civilians being killed the media doesn't pay as much
attention I think many Americans don't pay as much attention I think there are
possibilities also along the oil and gas pipelines in both George and I was there
by John of more direct to U.S.
Influence in the Philippines where the U.S.
Was kicked out of the bases in the early ninety's there is now
a very systematic attempt under the Visiting Forces Agreement and stationing of
trainers against us. Muslim rebels in the south in Mindanao to have the U.S.
Get back into the Philippines and I think that is happening now and there's quite
a large movement growing in the Philippines against that and of course we see the
instability just this week possibility of renewed conflict between North and South
Korea and a huge movement in South Korea against U.S.
Naval bases air bases that has been quite successful in winning public support in
South Korea among farmers among youth You see you know can now walk quite
a powerful movement and so you really do see some successes in mobilizing people
against these bases and Jeju Island in particular where farmers have been opposing
a Navy base and where on the mainland where farmers oppose the expansion of the
base now not very successfully but still the U.S.
Is not popular in South Korea like used to be or seemingly popular. I think
less so I think Colombia there's been
a whole. Counterinsurgency campaign by the United States which is becoming more
unpopular among Colombians and that in
a sense if you remember the eighty's Colombia's the new all Salvadoran Venezuela as
the new Nicaragua it's really not that much different. Does seem to have some.
More stability than I would have thought having been targeted so much by the United
States I think the new place to really look is Africa with Africa and I think that
the the intervention in Libya and the interventions in Somalia have been really to
justify the existence of Africa for calm or the Africa Command which was which is
headquartered in Germany but I'm sure will be headquartered very soon in Tripoli.
And you have
a whole. Series of. Us. Exercises of arming
the regimes in North Africa so that's how I want to talk about is kind of the
future the positioning of new bases and this comes out of the Rumsfeld doctrine
that's been taken up by was taken up by Gates is taken up by Panetta and this is
the idea of more small forward deployments and base access agreements they know how
unpopular it is to have these large communities of Americans move in to another
country and kind of dominate the culture and the economy around the base
communities and so they want smaller bases they want just the soldiers or airmen or
Marines themselves and that their families to join them so what we're seeing. At
coffee strong is more families are split up by deployments than used to be the case
. More used to civilian contractors more logistics and positioning supplies
less sprawling less visible kind of presence and this is what Rumsfeld called the
lily pad strategy and also to kind of use the shell game to move around bases
from places where they're very unpopular like Germany Saudi Arabia Iraq
South Korea Okinawa Ecuador Kirghiz Stan and to move them in places either where
they're popular which is in very many places or the governments at least support
them so places like Romania Kuwait the Philippines U.S.
Positions like Guam and Hawaii kicked out of career or Okinawa have them go to
Hawaii or Guam Pru or Colombia instead of Ecuador Panama instead of Ecuador.
So we see these very powerful movements in Okinawa in and when they're
successful the bases the Marines and the facilities are moved to a U.S.
Position Likewise if there's opposition in Guam they end up getting sent to Hawaii
and so this shell game of not only pitting these different territories against each
other but different he war and anti bases movements against each other is
a definite strategy of the United States and that's why it's so important to have
international unity and not just to say not in my backyard so what John was he
Poland and I last thing I want to show you is we have. Google Earth.
Site where you can actually download. A database
and superimpose it on Google Earth and show where the U.S.
Military bases are and be able to zoom in and actually identify those bases so you
can get that at the transnational Institute You could also email me I could give
you
a direct link I could show you I think we're on on line I think too and the other
thing that we're doing is militarism watch which is really building research skills
to help with demilitarisation activism So one of my students for instance was
looking at the use of depleted uranium at Joint Base Lewis McChord there are quite
a few people who are doing Freedom of Information Act requests who are trying to
look at. Some of the social security situations around various bases or
just look at military budgets there's
a real need and if there are people who are either in academia or just want to do
things on their own this is something that's very useful there are very few people
doing this kind of work and the military believe it or not actually reveals
a lot if you know where to look and so it's one of the things that people can do on
a low level you can do it as an individual you can do it as
a small group has to do research either the base near you or bases elsewhere or of
weapons sales to
a particular country and kind of pierce that fail of secrecy that we see out there
a really good source I think one of the best books that's out there on bases is an
anthology added to by Catherine called the bases of empire and I've used that in my
class the people charged
a fee of American empire because it not only gets sent to the depressing stuff
about domination. The country or the you for
a mental contamination or the the assaults that have taken place against civilian
women around bases it also gets into some of the more hopeful things where we have
seen in places like the Philippines Ecuador. Saudi Arabia
Panama. Many countries have U.S.
Military bases and there's been quite a successful movement even against U.S.
Installations like radar and Poland and Czech Republic places where you wouldn't
expect it and so there really is
a global network. If you go to no bases dot org The international network for the
abolition of foreign military bases that's
a real goal it's really easy for people to understand no foreign military bases no
military bases by any country outside its own borders it's
a pretty simple idea it would save us one hundred billion bucks
a year and it probably would cut down on the number of wars that are happening.
Do I teach that at Evergreen. I do teach at Evergreen but I do it in
a way you know where there's two sides and where there's debate I'm giving you my
opinion. I think I would say it with the facts
sure I mean we could look at the military budget and actually my what my class has
done is really interesting we do do
a little workshop How would you build an alliance around
a military base and I think we use
a fictional town called. Oh poky coma which is
a cross between OK now and coma. And we say you know who are the people who are
affected by this military base so there are some students who are the environmental
groups some who are the women's groups some who are the workers who work on the
base. There are there are yeah there roleplay there are some who are local business
leaders there are some who are soldiers or military families so that community you
have around any military base in the world and what is it that you can talk with
each other about what is it that might be
a basis for dialogue between all those different people who have come from
completely different places completely different interests I've done that workshop
now three times and it's always the same result it's very interesting health
health is the first thing that creates
a common dialogue so that the common environment which is often contaminated around
a base and also the social. The social costs
the the stress that there has put on in particular women in the community the kind
of working conditions that soldiers have to work under it's very dangerous work
there are
a lot of accidents so health and safety seems to be the one common denominator so
and I see that in some places in the world it's been quite successful like in
Puerto Rico they. Got rid of
a naval bombing range by using that safety health and safety argument no chemicals
no unexploded ordinance. Bombs flying around that's bad for
kids and and that's how they've gotten rid of some of these bases and that very
human argument.
Well let me just give you one example in our area. In the squalene nation in this
quality tribe. Which is down you know between Tacoma Olympia and they were
a major They figured in the treaty rights. Campaign they had quite
a large reservation but they lost seventy percent of it in one nine hundred
seventeen to form Fort Lewis. Squali means people of the prairie Squali ops and
their prairie where they gathered camis bulbous the where the women gather camis
bulbs and they harvested other root crops and they they had horses out there on
them on the prairie that prairie is now in the firing range. At Fort Lewis where
they test the strikers the howitzers it's
a very militarized area they used to shoot over the reservation into.
Into Thurston County and then this quality very much objected to that they objected
when the army ran its tanks through salmon spawning areas when they you know
destroyed part of the. Prairie the groundwater became
contaminated so. Squali I think probably played a role and cancelling of
a proposed missile system that would have gone in at Fort Lewis so you can see the
colonization of Native America was the template was the model for
the U.S.
. Spreading its military its imperial domination abroad and you can really see
that in the Philippine American war that movie by John Sayles about the Philippines
called I can remember the name of it but it really makes the point that the
soldiers were told this is kind of
a continuation of the Indian wars and you can really see the book in the book
facing west you can see how Vietnam both the Philippines and later Vietnam were
a westward extension of the Indian wars and how that the people were understood and
I think when you look at Iraq and Afghanistan you hear all the time about Indian
country what was bin Laden called he was called. And so you really have the
colonization of North America of the nations of North America the army for its were
military bases and our military bases that that was the. The structure
that was exported to other countries so we really can understand what's going on in
these countries and how there's a kind of
a global war on tribes and all the talk about tribes in Afghanistan and Iraq has
really modeled it goes back into that western American consciousness about who are
the inferior people and who are the superior people so I think studying here really
helps shed some light on what's going on over there and studying over there in the
Middle East is
a really good insight into our own history and what's weird is that in the Pentagon
they're now studying the Indian wars and how they divided and conquered tribes. In
order to study how they can do the same thing in particular in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. And they're doing
a lot of that kind of study. Yeah
I think definitely all all empires have overextended themselves.
Geographically economically and we can go back to the Roman Empire and we have two
very recent examples the British Empire where Britain has become more or less
a second rate power kind of licking its wounds. And doesn't have the global reach
that it used to but it's more of
a normal country than it used to be. Russia what the end of the
Soviet Union in one thousand nine hundred one wasn't just the end of the Soviet
Soviet Union and the end of the process that started in one thousand nine hundred
seventeen of the Russian Revolution it was the collapse of the Russian empire that
went back centuries and I don't think many Americans understand that and now you
have Russia really examining what is what Who are we if we're not this large
empire and we're at becoming
a normal country. And I think you know when we talk as the peace and
justice movement about the future we really should look at plausible scenarios that
I think most people can grasp and I don't think most people can grasp the sudden
collapse of the United States or even of the American empire but I think that they
can they can envision the United States becoming
a normal country and I think that that maybe is
a way that we can phrase it is do we want to always have these wars that are not
only killing foreign civilians but killing our own. And do we want to
have our economy tied to this very shaky and risky proposition or do we want to try
and become one of the two hundred countries in the world and there are so many
advantages to doing that so I don't think it's
a utopian vision. I think it's something that's very plausible and I think I think
the strongest argument for it is that it's under way whether we like it or not and
so we better get used to it and so I'm actually in
a strange way I'm scared to death of a war in Iran. But in
a strange way with the young people that I've met and their attitude towards war
and I'm not just talking about evergreen. I think that that idea of the United
States becoming
a normal country without Imperial reach is attractive right now with the economy
the way it is with our culture the way it is I think it's
a window of opportunity we haven't had. In my lifetime. If
you like very much.