The cost of [limited value?] US military bases

Staggering sums of money are being committed by the US to military bases in an economic climate when one have thought some sort of prudence might be in order.

America is spending a colossal US$102 billion on maintaining bases around the world.

TomDispatch.com reports in "How to Deal with America's Empire of Bases" on the cost of the bases and the most recent decision to commit some US$736 to a new "embassy" in Pakistan:

"The U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad. The State Department was also reportedly planning to buy the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel (complete with pool) in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, to use as a consulate and living quarters for its staff there."

Comments

Kenj said…

Thanks for the article, Mahler's Body from the great Nation Magazine.
Also appreciate your political views on your blogs.
Keep up the good work!
Ken

July 05, 2009 10:53 am

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

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#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas stopped him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed behind his back into their patrol car, where they say he shot himself in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story, says in an interview that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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