US military bases

US Warns Japan over Relocation of Futenma Airbase

The US yesterday told Japan the planned relocation of a US marine airbase and thousands of troops based on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa was not up for negotiation in a further sign of growing tensions over the future of the US military footprint in east Asia.

Reports said the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, told the Japanese ambassador to Washington, Ichiro Fujisaki, that Japan must honour a 2006 agreement to move the Futenma airbase - located in a crowded city on Okinawa - to the island's remote east coast.

Posted in foreign policy, US military bases

The Pentagon Garrisons the Gulf

Despite recent large-scale insurgent suicide bombings that have killed scores of civilians and the fact that well over 100,000 U.S. troops are still deployed in that country, coverage of the U.S. war in Iraq has been largely replaced in the mainstream press by the (previously) "forgotten war" in Afghanistan.

Posted in iraq invasion, iraq occupation, oil, US military bases

Signing of Colombia Bases Deal Could Set the Stage for 'Expeditionary Warfare'

After several months of secrecy and controversy, on October 30th the US and Colombia signed an agreement to allow the United States military extensive access to s

Posted in US military bases, colombia

Guam Resists Military Colonization

The United States and the Chinese governments have some remarkable similarities when it comes to colonization. The Chinese government has sent a huge Han population to inhabit Tibet and overwhelm the Tibetan population, even building the world's highest railway to get people and materials there.

The United States government, with virtually no consultation with the local government and citizens, is increasing the population of its non-voting territory, Guam, by 25%. 8,000 U.S.

Posted in US military bases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2009
5:49 PM

CONTACT: Broad Coalition

John Lindsay-Poland, Fellowship of Reconciliation, 510-282-8983. johnlp@igc.org
Nnenna Ozobia, Transafrica Forum, 202-553-7186. nozobia@transafricaforum.org
Cristina Espinel, Colombia Human Rights Committee, 202-997-1358. colhrc@igc.org
Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, cell: 217-979-2857. naiman@justforeignpolicy.org
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK, cell: 415-235-6517. medea@globalexchange.org

Religious and Grassroots Leaders Urge Clinton to Suspend Military Base Talks With Colombia

Bases deal “presents enormous dangers for entire hemisphere”

NATIONWIDE - August 13 - Over one hundred religious, national, community organizations and leaders and academics today called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to "suspend negotiations for expanded U.S. military access or operations in Colombia," a plan that has generated a swell of protest among Latin American countries, including Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere.

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Posted in US military bases, colombia

Colombia Under Fire From Neighbours Over US ‘Military Aggression’

It is the cocaine deal that threatens to divide a continent. President Uribe of Colombia has brought stability to his country by crushing the Farc guerrilla movement, but much of his drug eradication effort has been a failure.

The Latin American leader has now asked Washington to step in, inviting US forces into Colombian military bases to run operations against the country’s still-thriving narcotics industry.

Posted in US military bases, colombia

Seven New US Military Bases in Colombia Is Hardly a Move to the Left

In a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal, Mary Anastasia O'Grady laments an apparent shift left in the Obama administration's Latin America policy. Clearly, O'Grady hasn't been keeping up to date with current events. If she had been, she would have heard about negotiations underway between the U.S. and Colombia to establish at least seven U.S. military bases in Colombia.

Posted in Militarism, US military bases, colombia

Resisting US Bases in Italy: No a la base si a la pace!

Vicenza, four hours north of Rome between Venice and Milan, is a classically Italian city with two important footnotes.

Posted in Activism, peace movement, US military bases, War/Empire, Europe

On the 6th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq: A New Direction?

This week marks the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an event some have called the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history. I won't repeat here the tragic statistics of American lives lost and damaged, Iraqi death tolls, and the stories of the millions of displaced who are still trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. Nor will I recount the extraordinary failure of the media to question the rational for war.

Posted in iraq occupation, iraq withdrawal, peace, US military bases

Battle over Bases

In 2003 and 2004, President George W. Bush announced his intention to initiate a major realignment and shrinkage of what his administration described as an economically wasteful and outdated U.S. overseas basing structure. The plan was to close more than a third of the nation's Cold War-era bases in Europe, South Korea, and Japan. Troops were to be shifted east and south, to be closer to current and predicted conflict zones from the Andes to North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Over a planned six to eight years, as many as 70,000 U.S.

Posted in military industrial complex, US military bases, War/Empire