11 thousand Iranian missiles aimed at Israel and US bases

Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon says Iran has prepared itself to launch about 11,000 missiles at Israel and U.S. bases in the region if they do a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Lebanese media reported. “We have prepared ourselves and currently have 11,000 missiles ready to launch at the U.S. and Israel and their interests […]

The American Arc of Instability

We have a system that bails out just one bank with $180 billion – enough to eliminate malnutrition in the world, and provide education for every child, and water and sanitation for all, and to reverse the spread of malaria. On September 11th, 2001, the United Nations reported that 36,615 children had died from poverty […]

300 thousand US troops at 761 sites in 39 foreign countries

The United States maintains a military establishment far far far in excess of anything that could reasonably be called necessary to defend the country from any real threat to “national security” as that term would be defined by any other more normal country. The United States maintains 300,000 troops abroad at 761 sites in 39 […]

US drone bases throughout the Middle East

The Air Force is now negotiating with Turkey to relocate some of the Predator drones still operating in Iraq to the giant air base at Incirlik next year. Elsewhere in the Greater Middle East, according to Aviation Week, the military is launching Global Hawks from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, piloted […]

U.S. Pentagon information dominance

The U.S. is engaged militarily in 75 countries. There are some 900 U.S. military bases across the world, many at the gateways to the sources of fossil fuels. Yet most Americans are opposed to these wars and to the billions of dollars spent on them. According to Associated Press, the Pentagon spends $4.7 billion on […]

America “approaching spiritual death”

Martin Luther King observed that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” The US now has a debt of about $66 trillion, five times the GDP and double the national wealth. This debt is largely a result of […]

400 US Military Bases in Afghanistan of 700 total

According to official sources, approximately 700 bases of every size dot the Afghan countryside. Colonel Wayne Shanks, a spokesman for the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), tells TomDispatch that there are, at present, nearly 400 U.S. and coalition bases in Afghanistan, including camps, forward operating bases, and combat outposts.  In addition, there are at […]

War Costs are Bankrupting America

Military and intelligence spending relentlessly increase as unemployment heads over 10% and the economy bleeds red ink. Obama’s total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military “contractors”; and veterans’ costs. […]

Afghanistan “Pipelinestan” – yet another war over oil

Pipelinestan is a term used to define the “…istan” nations that the pipelines carrying gas and oil have to pass through. Those who control the Mid-East-Central Asia oil and gas supplies control the world. The U.S. went into Iraq for the Oil, with plans drawn up to go into Iraq well before 9/11 happened. In […]

The Cost and Enormity of U.S. Military Bases

According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 […]