The U.S. Global Empire

There
is a new empire in town, and its global presence is increasing every
day.

The
kingdom of Alexander the Great reached all the way to the borders
of India. The Roman Empire controlled the Celtic regions of Northern
Europe and all of the Hellenized states that bordered the Mediterranean.
The Mongol Empire, which was the largest contiguous empire in history,
stretched from Southeast Asia to Europe. The Byzantine Empire spanned
the years 395 to 1453. In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire
stretched from the Persian Gulf in the east to Hungary in the northwest;
and from Egypt in the south to the Caucasus in the north. At the
height of its dominion, the British Empire included almost a quarter
of the world’s population.

Nothing,
however, compares to the U.S. global empire. What makes U.S. hegemony
unique is that it consists, not of control over great land masses
or population centers, but of a global presence unlike that of any
other country in history.

The
extent of the U.S. global empire is almost incalculable. The latest
"Base
Structure Report" of the Department of Defense states that
the Department’s physical assets consist of "more than 600,000
individual buildings and structures, at more than 6,000 locations,
on more than 30 million acres." The exact number of locations
is then given as 6,702 – divided into large installations (115),
medium installations (115), and small installations/locations (6,472).
This classification can be deceiving, however, because installations
are only classified as small if they have a Plant Replacement Value
(PRV) of less than $800 million.

Although
most of these locations are in the continental United States, 96
of them are in U.S. territories around the globe, and 702 of them
are in foreign countries. But as Chalmers
Johnson has documented,
the figure of 702 foreign military installations is too low, for
it does not include installations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel,
Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan. Johnson estimates
that an honest count would be closer to 1,000.

The
number of countries that the United States has a presence in is
staggering. According the U.S. Department of State’s list of "Independent
States in the World," there are 192 countries in the world,
all of which, except Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, have diplomatic
relations with the United States. All of these countries except
one (Vatican City) are members of the United
Nations. According to the Department of Defense publication,
"Active
Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country,"
the United States has troops in 135 countries. Here is the list:

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Antigua Argentina Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burma Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chad Chile China Colombia Congo Costa Rica Cote D’lvoire Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji

Finland France Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Guinea Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mexico Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua

Niger Nigeria North Korea Norway Oman Pakistan Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Sierra Leone Singapore Slovenia Spain South Africa South Korea Sri Lanka Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Tanzania Thailand Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe

This
means that the United States has troops in 70 percent of the world’s
countries. The average American could probably not locate half of
these 135 countries on a map.

To
this list could be added regions like the Indian Ocean territory
of Diego Garcia, Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean island of St.
Helena, all still controlled by Great Britain, but not considered
sovereign countries. Greenland is also home to U.S. troops, but
is technically part of Denmark. Troops in two other regions, Kosovo
and Hong Kong, might also be included here, but the DOD’s "Personnel
Strengths" document includes U.S. troops in Kosovo under Serbia
and U.S. troops in Hong Kong under China.

Possessions
of the United States like Guam, Johnston Atoll, Puerto Rico, the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the Virgin Islands are
likewise home to U.S. troops. Guam has over 3,200.

Regular
troop strength ranges from a low of 1 in Malawi to a high of 74,796
in Germany. At the time the most recent "Personnel Strengths"
was released by the government (September 30, 2003), there were
183,002 troops deployed to Iraq, an unspecified number of which
came from U.S. forces in Germany and Italy. The total number of
troops deployed abroad as of that date was 252,764, not including
U.S. troops in Iraq from the United States. Total military personnel
on September 30, 2003, was 1,434,377. This means that 17.6 percent
of U.S. military forces were deployed on foreign soil, and certainly
over 25 percent if U.S. troops in Iraq from the United States were
included. But regardless of how many troops we have in each country,
having troops in 135 countries is 135 countries too many.

The
U. S. global empire – an empire that Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus,
Genghis Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, Justinian, and King George
V would be proud of.

March
16, 2004

Laurence
M. Vance [send him mail]
is a freelance writer and an adjunct instructor in accounting and
economics at Pensacola Junior College in Pensacola, FL. Visit his
website.