Domestic military bases & dismantling empire

Speaking Security Newsletter | Congressional Candidate Advisory Note 3 | 29 April 2020

**A military base directory, here**

Summary

Empire is a problem, and domestic bases are part of that problem. But if they’re in your district, protect them — the fewer people subjected to the neoliberal austerity of the non-war economy, the better. Dismantling empire can start instead with any of the 800 military bases abroad.

Here’s why

1. Overseas bases put U.S. personnel (mostly working class) in harm’s way. 

2. Overseas bases put non-U.S. working class people in harm’s way.

3. Overseas outposts are considerably more expensive to maintain than domestic bases, with costs in the range of $10,000-$40,000 more per soldier, annually.

4. There are over 800 of them.

Status quo: backwards

In short: domestic bases are closed more readily than overseas bases because the latter are more relevant to US ‘national security’ imperatives (imperialism).

Going after domestic bases is convenient, considering 1) their location and 2) there’s already a legal process in place to dismantle them (Base Realignment And Closure, or BRAC).

In theory, BRAC doesn’t distinguish between bases here and those abroad. In practice, BRAC rounds are overwhelmingly applied to domestic bases. And it’s always been this way — take this newspaper article from 1964 (avoid eye strain, don’t read it; it’s summarized below):

Two takeaways:

1. BRAC’s focus on domestic bases: “Over the past four years 574 U.S. military bases around the world — the great majority of them in this country — have been closed or their activities sharply cut back.”

2. BRAC’s technocratic justification: “These bases ‘have outlived their usefulness for military missions,’ and are obsolete and unnecessary, the Pentagon chief says in explaining his program.” 

The technocratic part is crucial here, because it works both ways: not only is “usefulness for military missions” the central determinant in the closure of domestic bases, it’s also used an excuse to keep overseas bases open and build new ones. This is why it’s so hard to close overseas bases: because the War on Terror spans 80 countries, US military establishments across two-fifths of the world are deemed ‘essential.’

Conclusion

Just two quick notes. First, it’s not totally uncommon for domestic bases to be unsafe — here’s an article on how some are contaminated (I see articles like this probably once per week or so). Second, here’s a resource tracking COVID-19 cases among military personnel. Both of which cannot be fixed by flyovers.

Thanks for your time!

-Stephen (stephen@securityreform.org; @stephensemler)