Comments on: Angles on Empire: Book Week at Brown http://www.radioopensource.org/angles-on-empire-book-week-at-brown/ Christopher Lydon in conversation on arts, ideas and politics Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:35:29 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: CommentFromMike http://www.radioopensource.org/angles-on-empire-book-week-at-brown/comment-page-1/#comment-162888 CommentFromMike Thu, 07 May 2009 19:37:56 +0000 http://www.radioopensource.org/?p=2759#comment-162888 I was struck more by what was not said than by what was said. Indeed many of these bases can be criticised for the bad things they are - they're perhaps a form of neo-colonialism with threads back to the days of extra-territorial possessions. In the extreme, maybe even a form of eco-terrorism. Sure, all that could be true and those points were made or implied in the Lutz's remarks. But what she didn't say were all the other things that they represent. You may say what you want about US security policy - take it on if you wish - but forward-basing has many attractions. It can place elements of the military, and their logistics tails, closer to potential flashpoints; it can put muscle into cooperative security agreements with host nations; it can provide useful, and many cases unique, training environments. Leaving Open Source's audience with the impression that overseas bases are,in general a bad idea is, in my opinion, in general a bad idea. I was struck more by what was not said than by what was said. Indeed many of these bases can be criticised for the bad things they are – they’re perhaps a form of neo-colonialism with threads back to the days of extra-territorial possessions. In the extreme, maybe even a form of eco-terrorism. Sure, all that could be true and those points were made or implied in the Lutz’s remarks.

But what she didn’t say were all the other things that they represent. You may say what you want about US security policy – take it on if you wish – but forward-basing has many attractions. It can place elements of the military, and their logistics tails, closer to potential flashpoints; it can put muscle into cooperative security agreements with host nations; it can provide useful, and many cases unique, training environments.

Leaving Open Source’s audience with the impression that overseas bases are,in general a bad idea is, in my opinion, in general a bad idea.

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