American Base in Algeria?
Tindouf camps in Algeria: a big prison for Sahrawis
Egypt vs. Algeria: The Battle Continues
Mugabe's Diminishing Loyalist Base
U.S. Army Base A Fan of Arab Food
Casual Racism In the American Press
There is news that the United States may open a military base in Algeria. That would be added to the U.S. naval base in Casablanca and Bahrain, the Air base in Qatar, the Army base in Kuwait. Not to mention the U.S. occupation in Iraq and presence in Egypt, and the constant movement of U.S. troops and equipment throughout the region.
Why so many troops? Why so many bases? Not only is this counterproductive to the region since U.S. bases usually come with support for the local authoritarian client. But this leads to terrorism since Arabs view (rightly) U.S. military bases as imperialism and this feeds into the narrative of extremists who state that the U.S. is seeking to undermine the Muslim world. The U.S. thus similarly undermined by the bases because 1) they increase the number of terrorists and 2) they are a financial burden on the United States.
U.S. Middle Eastern bases costs tens of billions at a time when the U.S. is struggling to balance budgets and meet entitlement obligations. Congress wants savings? Cut down on the Empire.
American's Founding Fathers deplored the idea of imperialism since they knew that freedom at home could not be maintained while waging war and maintaining empire aboard.
War is the State, as the libertarian saying goes.
