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Given the thousands of US Mil installations all across the globe, foreign intervention and police actions, geopolitical intrigue, etc it is unfortunately lookin

Given the thousands of US Mil installations all across the globe, foreign intervention and police actions, geopolitical intrigue, etc it is unfortunately looking more and more like a Pax Romana -- a troubling sign, depending on your perspective.

TaylorAlexander 5y ago
Yes even going back to Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt rewrote his drafts of his speech to obscure the fact that the Philippines, a major site of the attack, was also a US colony. "How to Hide an Empire", Daniel Immerwahr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKOOqXDnqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKOOqXDnqA
- cartoonworld 5y ago
  Interesting, thanks. I just read this post on Popehat[0] recounting an event while Ken White was working for an LA federal judge back in the day. He was brought to a ceremony conducted by Judge Ronald S.W. Lew where numerous, VERY elderly Filipino WW2 veterans were granted US Citizenship. This was promised to them in addition to veteran's benefits by FDR in exchange for recruitment into the war effort, and after the war quietly swept under the rug by the congress. [0] - https://www.popehat.com/2020/07/04/the-fourth-of-july-rerun/ https://www.popehat.com/2020/07/04/the-fourth-of-july-rerun/
- hadlock 5y ago
  I was really surprised to find out, as an american, standing with feet on the ground in Manila, near age 30, having grown up in the US and gone to public schools, that the Philippines had been a US Territory off and on, on par with Puerto Rico, for about 50 years starting around 1898. There's even a big obelisk in the center of Union Square in San Francisco commemorating this event, it turns out. None of this was ever covered in public schools. I realize there's a lot of history to cover and kids can only absorb so much, but when people talk about "only focusing on europe and the middle east" it's good to have a couple of concrete examples. The Philippines actually has a larger english speaking population than the UK. Anyways, it always seemed that the Philippines got conveniently swept under the rug when discussing things like WW2 and American Imperialism.
  - TaylorAlexander 5y ago
    Yes certainly. I recently started listening to the audiobook A Peoples History of the United States and there is a LOT of history we don't cover. Right now I am listening to a talk by Noam Chomsky about inequality and it's remarkable that the top % of the wealthy that have control over the country also do not go to public schools. It's as if we have a second school system for the subservient class.
    - colordrops 5y ago
      Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? It's to further weaken the underclass since the rich don't even go to public school.
      - barbacoa 5y ago
        Having gone to high school in California, we never covered Mexican-american or Spanish-american wars, civil war focused almost exclusively on slavery. 90% of WW2 was about Japanese internment or how racist nuking Japan was. History of Communism was never mentioned for obvious reasons.
      - raegis 5y ago
        > Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? Can you document this? I'm a southern California resident, and I keep hearing stuff like this from people online, but I know no local examples of this at all.
        colordrops 5y ago
        https://edsource.org/2021/california-math-guidance-sparks-new-curriculum-controversy-among-parents/655272 https://edsource.org/2021/california-math-guidance-sparks-ne... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/why-university-california-dropping-sat/619522/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/why-univer...
indymike 5y ago
> Given the thousands of US Mil installations all across the globe There are only 750-800 US military installations around the world. Most of these are small. This number has been reduced by about 1000 since the peak in the 1980s (cold war era). The majority of large installations are in the US.
- mixedCase 5y ago
  "only" is an interesting choice of word. Which other countries have comparably sized deployments (with numbers)?
  - indymike 5y ago
    >Which other countries have comparably sized deployments (with numbers) "only" was used because the op said "thousands".
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Well, that we know of. It's not that unlikely that there are a few hundred more that we don't know about.
  - NickNameNick 5y ago
    We know - they're on strava
- mrow84 5y ago
  This Wikipedia article claims “ there are "around" 5,000 bases total, with "around" 600 of them overseas”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military...
  - indymike 5y ago
    >This Wikipedia article claims “ there are "around" 5,000 bases total There are 326 bases in the US. https://militarybase.net/u-s-military-bases/ https://militarybase.net/u-s-military-bases/ (see the CSV list at the bottom). The US has a total of 50 states and 6 protectorates (Guam, Puerto Rico, etc...). There's no where near 80 bases per state unless you count National Guard Armories (parking lots with a gym in most cases) and recruiting offices. The US has a big military, yes, but not that big.

TaylorAlexander 5y ago

Yes even going back to Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt rewrote his drafts of his speech to obscure the fact that the Philippines, a major site of the attack, was also a US colony. "How to Hide an Empire", Daniel Immerwahr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKOOqXDnqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKOOqXDnqA

cartoonworld 5y ago
Interesting, thanks. I just read this post on Popehat[0] recounting an event while Ken White was working for an LA federal judge back in the day. He was brought to a ceremony conducted by Judge Ronald S.W. Lew where numerous, VERY elderly Filipino WW2 veterans were granted US Citizenship. This was promised to them in addition to veteran's benefits by FDR in exchange for recruitment into the war effort, and after the war quietly swept under the rug by the congress. [0] - https://www.popehat.com/2020/07/04/the-fourth-of-july-rerun/ https://www.popehat.com/2020/07/04/the-fourth-of-july-rerun/
hadlock 5y ago
I was really surprised to find out, as an american, standing with feet on the ground in Manila, near age 30, having grown up in the US and gone to public schools, that the Philippines had been a US Territory off and on, on par with Puerto Rico, for about 50 years starting around 1898. There's even a big obelisk in the center of Union Square in San Francisco commemorating this event, it turns out. None of this was ever covered in public schools. I realize there's a lot of history to cover and kids can only absorb so much, but when people talk about "only focusing on europe and the middle east" it's good to have a couple of concrete examples. The Philippines actually has a larger english speaking population than the UK. Anyways, it always seemed that the Philippines got conveniently swept under the rug when discussing things like WW2 and American Imperialism.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  Yes certainly. I recently started listening to the audiobook A Peoples History of the United States and there is a LOT of history we don't cover. Right now I am listening to a talk by Noam Chomsky about inequality and it's remarkable that the top % of the wealthy that have control over the country also do not go to public schools. It's as if we have a second school system for the subservient class.
  - colordrops 5y ago
    Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? It's to further weaken the underclass since the rich don't even go to public school.
    - barbacoa 5y ago
      Having gone to high school in California, we never covered Mexican-american or Spanish-american wars, civil war focused almost exclusively on slavery. 90% of WW2 was about Japanese internment or how racist nuking Japan was. History of Communism was never mentioned for obvious reasons.
    - raegis 5y ago
      > Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? Can you document this? I'm a southern California resident, and I keep hearing stuff like this from people online, but I know no local examples of this at all.
      - colordrops 5y ago
        https://edsource.org/2021/california-math-guidance-sparks-new-curriculum-controversy-among-parents/655272 https://edsource.org/2021/california-math-guidance-sparks-ne... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/why-university-california-dropping-sat/619522/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/why-univer...

indymike 5y ago

> Given the thousands of US Mil installations all across the globe There are only 750-800 US military installations around the world. Most of these are small. This number has been reduced by about 1000 since the peak in the 1980s (cold war era). The majority of large installations are in the US.

mixedCase 5y ago
"only" is an interesting choice of word. Which other countries have comparably sized deployments (with numbers)?
- indymike 5y ago
  >Which other countries have comparably sized deployments (with numbers) "only" was used because the op said "thousands".
sudosysgen 5y ago
Well, that we know of. It's not that unlikely that there are a few hundred more that we don't know about.
- NickNameNick 5y ago
  We know - they're on strava
mrow84 5y ago
This Wikipedia article claims “ there are "around" 5,000 bases total, with "around" 600 of them overseas”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military...
- indymike 5y ago
  >This Wikipedia article claims “ there are "around" 5,000 bases total There are 326 bases in the US. https://militarybase.net/u-s-military-bases/ https://militarybase.net/u-s-military-bases/ (see the CSV list at the bottom). The US has a total of 50 states and 6 protectorates (Guam, Puerto Rico, etc...). There's no where near 80 bases per state unless you count National Guard Armories (parking lots with a gym in most cases) and recruiting offices. The US has a big military, yes, but not that big.