Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
The recent deaths of three U.S. soldiers near the Jordanian-Syrian border made me reflect on an obvious fact: It would be hard to kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East if they weren’t based and deployed there.
When we hear that U.S. troops are killed overseas, rarely do most Americans ask the question, What exactly were they doing in Jordan, or Syria, or Iraq, or Qatar, or the UAE, or Saudi Arabia, and so on. Why does America still have roughly 30,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East, not counting ex-military “civilian” contractors? Why are there still so many U.S. military bases in the area, even in countries like Iraq that say they don’t want them? And what about U.S. bases Syria, the presence of which constitutes an act of (undeclared, of course) war?
The American Security Project has a clear map showing U.S. bases in the Middle East, as of 2021. Such bases have sometimes been compared to lily pads, jumping off places for U.S. military strikes, but perhaps they’re more akin to mushrooms, popping up here, there, and everywhere. Meanwhile, we get the mushroom treatment as well, as in being kept in the dark and fed bullshit.
Maps like the one posted by the American Security Project that I linked to above only show unclassified bases. The secret ones, the dark sites, are just that, though you can get a decent idea of where some dark sites are (or were) from fitness tracking apps, as this story from 2018 revealed:
There’s something about the above story that appeals to my sense of humor.
Want to know where American troops are (or were)? Check out fitness app tracking data and look for Americans running in circles in countries like Afghanistan. There’s definitely some symbolism here but it escapes me.
I know former President George W. Bush said that “they” hate us for our freedoms, but maybe they hate us more for our military bases and the bombs we keep dropping on their heads? Nah … can’t be.
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views.
George W Bush lied about why the people in the ME hate the USA and why he declared war on Afghanistan and Iraq. The people hate the USA for the bases they have in their countries and the military and economic aid it provides to Israel which commits ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, uses water from their homes to irrigate farms and is now committing genocide in Gaza.
RTFO!
The late Chalmers Johnson’s first volume of his trilogy, “Blowback: the costs and consequences of American Empire”, was snubbed, laughed at. Then some Arabs (predominantly Saudi) planned and executed the ramming of the Twin Towers by jets. Suddenly, there could not be enough of Mr. Johnson’s books on the shelves to sell. I have his trilogy. I wish we still had him.
It was just like Pearl Harbor as some neocons hoped for.
We still have his books and the lessons they tried to impart but regrettably……
“Those who learn don’t seek to rule. Those who seek to rule don’t learn.”
— Doug Casey