US Military Deployment World Wide

 “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.“ -- Reverend Martin Luther King

"Naturally the common people don't want war... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." -- Hermann Goering, Nazi leader in Hitler's cabinet

"... how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical... Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources... Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to reach a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1997, former US National Security Advisor and foreign policy advisor to U.S. Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama

"You're either with us or against us" -- U.S. President Bush.  “I... reserve the right to act unilaterally ... against anyone” -- U.S. President Obama.

"We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force." -- United States General Stanley McChrystal

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
-- Albert Einstein.

“The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood as a means to kill and destroy others ... to smash, injure, or destroy is the worst sin a human-being can commit. The real Way of the Warrior is to prevent slaughter ." -- Morihei Ueshiba, the world's only never-defeated martial artist and a National Treasure of Japan

I first constructed this map when I was an undergraduate as an aid in understanding the larger flow of events which had precipitated the death of  several close friends in yet another of humanity's meaningless wars:

  • Areas in RED represent countries or states where known US military bases and troops or contract mercenaries are currently located (total = 93% of the world's countries).
  • Areas in CRIMSON represent countries or states where particularly high numbers of known US military bases, force, or contract mercenaries are currently located.
  • Areas in GREEN represent countries or states where no known US military bases, force, or contract mercenaries are currently located.
  • Areas in MAUVE denote countries or states where internationally banned weapons have been allegedly used by US military against civilian populations
  • (Not represented: US navy, submarine, and space weaponry deployment. )

Shock and Awe: US military world wide deployment

As adjunct to this map below are listed a few (but by no means all) of the countries with whom the United States has been at war.

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, Central African Republic, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cypress, Dafur, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, East Timur, Egypt, El Salvador, Ecuador,Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Fiji, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Hawaii, Honduras, Iceland, North America (against the Indigenous peoples), Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Martial Islands, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Numibia, Palestine, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia, Rwanda, Samoa, Santo Domingo, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Soviet Union, Spain, Sudan, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad, Turkey, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Indies, Yemen, Yucatan, Yugoslavia, Zaire

It has been alleged by a number of academic researchers that this country is a nation dedicated to war. And to the vast profits therefrom. Very sad. Millions of lives lost senselessly... Some believe that the war is on two fronts: the obvious one of external destruction, and the less obvious but just as egregious,  class warfare. This latter is perhaps indicated by the prison system that country has constructed or the amasing of 93% of that nation's privately held wealth in the hands of less than 300 people. At any rate, the nation also has the world's largest military expenditure, a plethora of alleged war profiteers, and a  propaganda system which it is alleged, is largely invisible due to its pervasiveness. The end result? Allegedly millions of civilian deaths. I do not know if these allegations are true of fanciful. But there is a very well researched and cited academic literature on the issue, as well as the findings of numerous war crimes trials (from the Russel Commission onwards), which may merit your own investigation.

Sources:
My purpose in presenting this map is the hope that you will search out detailed references for yourself as an interesting historical exercise, using the list below as a starting point.
I would recommend beginning with Blum's work, and moving on from there to the others.

  • United States Department of Defense Base Structure Report

  • United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (numerous reports)

  • United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries

  • United States Department of Defense Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country

  • Amnesty International reports

  • United Nations War Crimes Commission

  • Médecins Sans Frontières

  • US General Accounting Office

  • US Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs

  • Foreign and Military Intelligence Final Report

  • Hearings before a US House Subcommittee of the Committee Appropriations (numerous years)

  • Various news feeds from non-western media

  • Directory of U.S. Military Bases Worldwide

  • Peace Corp. reports

  • Reports on War Crimes to the International Court

  • Reporters without boarders

  • International War Crimes Tribunal

  • Congressional Research Service

  • Blum's Rogue State

  • U.S. House Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on International Security and Scientific Affairs

  • U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs: Use of U.S. Armed Forces in Foreign Countries

  • U.S. Congressional Record: Armed Actions Taken by the United States Without a Declaration of War

  • Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons

  • Noam Chomsky - numerous papers by Dr. Chomsky

  • Michael Parenti - numerous papers by Dr. Parenti

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees summary statistics

  • Federation of American Scientists reports on biological weapons
     

  • Please note: Naval and air force deployments, nor the massive build up of space, bio-weaponry, and mercinary forces by the United States and its subject nations have not been included for obvious reasons.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell