Category Archives: bureaucratic bullshit
How many military bases do we have around the world?
I was thinking about this recently and finally looked it up. From the wonderful folks at Global Research:
More than 1000 US Bases and/or Military Installations
The main sources of information on these military installations (e.g. C. Johnson, the NATO Watch Committee, the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases) reveal that the US operates and/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases Worldwide.
In this regard, Hugh d’Andrade and Bob Wing’s 2002 Map 1 entitled “U.S. Military Troops and Bases around the World, The Cost of ‘Permanent War'”, confirms the presence of US military personnel in 156 countries.
The US Military has bases in 63 countries. Brand new military bases have been built since September 11, 2001 in seven countries.
In total, there are 255,065 US military personnel deployed Worldwide.
These facilities include a total of 845,441 different buildings and equipments. The underlying land surface is of the order of 30 million acres. According to Gelman, who examined 2005 official Pentagon data, the US is thought to own a total of 737 bases in foreign lands. Adding to the bases inside U.S. territory, the total land area occupied by US military bases domestically within the US and internationally is of the order of 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide (Gelman, J., 2007).
The map can be seen in a larger, viewable format (pdf) here.
But..farther down the page at Global Research..there was this:
There are 6000 military bases and/ or military warehouses located in the U.S. (See Wikipedia, February 2007).
Total Military Personnel is of the order of 1,4 million of which 1,168,195 are in the U.S and US overseas territories.
Taking figures from the same source, there are 325,000 US military personnel in foreign countries:
800 in Africa,
97,000 in Asia (excluding the Middle East and Central Asia),
40,258 in South Korea,
40,045 in Japan,
491 at the Diego Garcia Base in the Indian Ocean,
100 in the Philippines, 196 in Singapore,
113 in Thailand,
200 in Australia,
and 16,601 Afloat.In Europe, there are 116,000 US military personnel including 75,603 who are stationed in Germany.
In Central Asia about 1,000 are stationed at the Ganci (Manas) Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and 38 are located at Kritsanisi, in Georgia, with a mission to train Georgian soldiers.
In the Middle East (excludng the Iraq war theater) there are 6,000 US military personnel, 3,432 of whom are in Qatar and 1,496 in Bahrain.
In the Western Hemisphere, excluding the U.S. and US territories, there are 700 military personnel in Guantanamo, 413 in Honduras and 147 in Canada.
Map 3 provides information regarding military personnel on duty, based on a regional categorization (broad regions of the world). The total number of military personnel at home in the U.S. and/or in US Territories is 1,139,034. There are 1,825 in Europe 114, 660, 682 in Subsaharian Africa, 4, 274 in the Middle East and Southern Asia, 143 in the Ex-USSR, and 89,846 in the Pacific.
Which really set my head to spinning..then…I saw this page at Global Research. It excerpts Chalmers Johnson’s new book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic”. I decided to just give it up..I was depressed enough for today. You however can check it out if you are of a very strong constitution..if you do..let me know ok?
Obama bitched today about the cost of Medicare/healthcare (video below) and the Social Security costs (cough..bullshit!) in the federal budget and after reading how much crap military-wise, we have spread around the entire friggin world..Obama can kiss my hairy ass about the cost of Medicare and Universal healthcare and his bogus argument about Social Security. Shit-can most of the military bases around the fucking world dude (keep the ones here in Amerika)..then maybe we can have single payer healthcare. It would be a start..we are NOT the worlds babysitter, we simply can not afford to do that anymore. One base per country with minimal staffing..that’s it!
I know..its not reasonable to expect our government to close all those bases..but for the love of Buddha..where are our priorities? I am tired of friends dying for lack of basic healthcare..really..I am.
Editorial in San Diego paper attacks state and federal help
My sister has said she heard rumblings about the ineptitude of the state and federal fuckwits the last day or two..how they are more interested in having a pissing contest with each other about control than knocking down the fires and saving homes. This editorial in the Union Tribune today lays it out pretty well:
Surviving disaster
Why wasn’t more key help prepositioned?
October 24, 2007
The response of local authorities to the horrific San Diego County wildfires has been a sharp improvement on what was seen during the 2003 Cedar and Paradise fires. But we’re not sure the same holds for state and federal officials.
It first became apparent last Thursday that the expected Sunday ar rival of hot, windy Santa Ana conditions would put drought-stricken Southern California at grave risk. Sure enough, wildfires broke out in many areas. Why weren’t U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard planes already at nearby airfields and ready to drop water or retardant, by prearrangement of the Pentagon and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Instead, The Associated Press repor ted that the Pentagon’s OK of the governor’s request for such planes to help in San Diego County did not come until yesterday morning. The planes won’t join the fight until this morning – six days after exper ts first warned of a possible Santa Anafueled conflagration and nearly three days after the Witch Creek blaze began its rampage from Ramona west to Rancho Santa Fe and south to Poway. This is inex plicable.
California has led the way in coordinating regional efforts to attack blazes that threaten to overwhelm local fire departments. But given the increasing frequency of catastrophic wildfires, perhaps it is time the interagency approach gave way to a centralized authority in which, at a time of crisis, a fire czar could dispatch resources on a moment’s notice instead of having to tend to bureaucratic niceties.
Such a fire czar could also be an advocate for better funding. In May, five former U.S. Forest Service chiefs warned Congress that inadequate resources imperiled fire suppression efforts. In a telephone interview yesterday, Dan Smith – a senior official with the National Association of State Foresters – painted a grim picture. Between drier conditions, a decline in forest health and the millions of homes built in recent years in fire-prone areas, preventing huge wildfires is “more difficult and more complex” than ever, Smith said. “I hope the appropriators … understand the big picture.”
We hope so, too – because when it comes to both funding and functionality, the big picture needs a close look.
Thank God, its coming out now..while the firestorms are still raging. I hope folks take notice and bring it to the forefront. Shades of NOLA my dear reader…which I had hoped wouldn’t happen.
Tags: San Diego, Fires, bureaucratic bullshit,
California wildfires
Sundays protests in Myanmar
From Democratic Voice of Burma:
Smaller-scale protests in Burma on Sunday
Oct 1, 2007 (DVB)–Government security levels remained high in Burma yesterday as smaller-scale protests were held around the country.
In Moegok, Mandalay division, soldiers and police officers cracked down on a protest group of about 200 monks and 3,000 civilians, severely beating the protestors, according to witnesses.
One of the protestors described being confronted by several soldiers and police officers in about 15 military trucks blocking the road near Kyat Pyin market who then proceeded to beat the protestors.
“They beat up the women walking in the back rows first…. A lot of men were also beaten up trying to protect the women,” said the source.
Bystanders also reported that 34 protesters, including six women and two monks, were arrested during the crackdown.
In a separate event in Arakan’s Taunggok township, around 1,000 civilians led by four monks staged a protest at about 2pm yesterday. A bystander told DVB that the protesters, who were marching on the Taunggok Township Peace and Development Council office, were later threatened by soldiers.
“They threatened to beat up protesters with bamboo sticks,” said the bystander.
Other residents in Taunggok reported government officials and armed groups circling the town in trucks giving warnings over loudspeakers that protesters would be arrested.
Around 100 monks and 8,000 civilians joined a demonstration at about 1pm yesterday afternoon in Yaynanchaung, Magwe division.
The protestors were closely watched by government guards and soldiers armed with batons and automatic weapons, but no harassment of those demonstrating took place.
Protestors were summoned to a talk with the township police chief and the army’s battalion commander, after which the protest broke up peacefully.
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
Villagers keep soldiers at bay with sticks and slingshots..
How many here would take that stand? Who among us would face an armed soldier with only a stick or slingshot? I don’t think I would..and I am being honest with myself.
“If we just stood by, not even dogs would survive in Burma under these bastards’ brutality and inhumanity,” the resident continued, pledging that residents were ready to assist the monks whenever their help was needed.
Army troops attempting to raid monasteries in Mandalay and Rangoon last night were forced to withdraw by local residents.
Troops approaching the monasteries backed off after seeing people from the surrounding areas armed with sticks and slingshots preparing to stop them.
In Mandalay, Masoyein (Old and New), Mya Taung, Veitthudayon, Phayagyi and Dhammikarama monasteries were targeted.
Residents had heard rumours of impending raids and made preparations to thwart the security forces’ approach.
“We set up an alert system of banging pots and pans when anyone saw soldiers approaching the monastery, and we prepared ourselves with any available weapons to stop these unholy people from harassing the monks,” said a Mandalay resident.
The UN stopped by Myanmar today to check it out..and deliver a message from the UN Secretary.
Whoopi fuck, did you stop and visit the monks that have been jailed? Or perhaps the morgue to see how many dead there really are?
War Czar? We don’t need no stinking War Czar.
Because we already have one..actually two if you count the Decider-in-Chief and Robert Gates. In 1947, the Truman administration changed over from a Secretary of War to the Secretary of Defense. This law also saw the beginning of the Dept of Defense (DoD) and the creation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who’s friggin job it is to assist in the planning and execute the wishes of the Commander in Chief and the SoD in the combat arena when our country is ‘at war’.
Gates, as the SoD, is either too fuckwitted to DO HIS JOB..or the Joint Chiefs are falling down on theirs.
Which is it boys?
Add to this mix that three, count em three 4-star military minds have said thanks but no thanks..and the general assesment should be:
We are in a state of FUBAR..so its time to roll up the tents and get the hell out. Or make Gates and the Joint Chiefs do their damn jobs.
But we don’t need another layer of freaking bureaucracy in this hell-hole we call the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For a good read on this situation MSNBC has Jack Jacobs, a retired Army Colonel, who has more medals than Gates has common sense evidently, giving us his take on this retarded idea.
If tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee, along with the Joint Chiefs, can’t figure it out..its time to get out.
Tags: Politics, War Czar, FUBAR, Federal Fuckwits at the Helm, Bureaucratic Bullshit
Its my Right to be Left of the Center 