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The Soon Coming Judgment Of God Upon America and How To Escape It                45
But the US military of today relies on technology and no nation on earth can match the military
technology of the United States. Later we'll take a brief look at many of the US's weapons
systems, Naval vessels, aircraft, and ground based systems.
The US has a military presence throughout the world and has given itself a strategic
advantage by prepositioning itself on every continent of the world. Further, the US has a base or
some form of military presence in 74% of the countries of the world.
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“It's not easy to assess the
size or exact value of our empire of bases. Official records on these subjects are misleading,
although instructive. According to the Defense Department's annual 'Base Structure Report' for
fiscal year 2003, which itemizes foreign and domestic US military real estate, the Pentagon
currently owns or rents 702 overseas bases in about 130 countries and has another 6,000 bases in
the United States and its territories.... The military high command deploys to our overseas bases
some 253,288 uniformed personnel, plus an equal number of dependents and Department of
Defense civilian officials, and employs an additional 44,446 locally hired foreigners. The
Pentagon claims that these bases contain 44,870 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other
buildings, which it owns, and that it leases 4,844 more.”
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A restructuring of US troops stationed abroad has been announced. This is the result of
the Pentagon's new offensive policy which has replaced a long standing defensive policy. “Two
years after the US invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon has formally included in key strategic plans
provisions for launching preemptive strikes against nations thought to pose a threat to the United
States.” According to defense department officials, “[t]he doctrine also now stipulates that the
US will use 'active deterrence' in concert with its allies 'if we can' but could act unilaterally
otherwise”. As a result of this new policy, Pentagon managers [will] use the “National Military
Strategy” and “National Defense Strategy” reports to guide decisions such as “where to place
bases, which bases to eliminate, what weapons to buy and where to position them.”
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The new policy and resultant restructuring of troops has resulted in a massive worldwide
undertaking. The Nation reported that “[t]his massive undertaking will result in a substantial
reduction of American forces in Germany and South Korea, and the establishment of new
facilities in Eastern Europe, the Caspian Sea basin, Southeast Asia and Africa. Tens of thousands
of troops (and their dependents) now stationed abroad will be redeployed to the United States,
while fresh contingents will be sent to areas that have never before housed a permanent US
military presence. These steps are largely justified in terms of military effectiveness—to
eliminate obsolete cold war facilities and ease the transport of American troops to likely scenes
of conflict. Underlying the planning, however, is a new approach to combat and a fresh calculus
of the nation's geopolitical interests.”
President Bush explained: “We'll move some of our troops and capabilities to new
locations, so they can surge quickly to deal with unexpected threats.” The Pentagon has
mentioned a dozen or so possible locations for new bases which include: Algeria, Azerbaijan,
Cameroon, Gabon, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Romania, São Tomé and Príncipe,
Tunisia.
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Already underway or on the drawing board are more than $1.2 billion in construction
to upgrade 16 air bases throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
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In a speech at the State of the World Forum in 2003, Jim Garrison clearly stated that the
US is a global empire of unmatched military strength. Garrison cofounded the State of the World
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