Skip to main content

Hello, we [the USA} have a military presence near you....

From CommonDreams something to wake you up almost wherever you might be:

"The American military presence in the world is global, blogger and author Tom Engelhardt told RT.

"The Pentagon usually admits yearly to about 800 military bases or sites from macro to micro, but in their account they do not include anything in war zones," he said. "It is particularly strange because bases traditionally more or less were the way you kept colonies, but for us the bases are actually the thing."

"The US military now has a kind of secret military inside it and those are the special operations forces which have been incredibly beefed up and taken over certain activities that once were more CIA-type activities in the Bush and now Obama period... They are stationed now in 75 countries," added Engelhardt. "There are only 192 countries in the UN - I think that is the latest figure - so you are talking about somewhere upwards of 40 percent just for special operations forces. It is a lot."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland