by Amal Zadok
The United States loves to cast itself as the great peacekeeper of the modern age — the white‑hat nation preaching freedom, “stability,” and human rights. But… spend five minutes looking at a world map.
What you’ll see is staggering. Scattered across the globe — from the neon‑lit streets of Okinawa to the wind‑scoured runways of the Persian Gulf, from Eastern Europe’s cobblestoned towns to the lonely coral atolls of the Indian Ocean — sits the largest permanent military network ever built: about 870 U.S. bases in more than 80 countries¹, run by roughly 170,000 active‑duty troops².
That isn’t a peacekeeper’s footprint. That’s an empire, plain and simple. A Global Garrison State. One that projects force, locks down critical resources, and makes sure the rules of the “international order” keep bending in Washington’s favour.
Where the Empire Lives
This isn’t some dusty, frozen‑in‑time relic of the Cold War. It’s alive. It’s funded. It’s welded into foreign soil.
–East Asia: Japan alone hosts 52–60 thousand troops². Okinawa is basically one giant staging ground — jet noise rumbling over apartment blocks — plus there’s Yokosuka’s massive naval hub. South Korea? Another 23–28.5 thousand² troops, centred on Camp Humphreys (which feels like a sealed‑off American suburb dropped into rural Korea). Agreements keep U.S. gears turning in Singapore, the Philippines, and beyond.
-Europe: Germany carries about 29–35 thousand² personnel across 40‑50 sites, with Ramstein Air Base acting like central dispatch for global missions. Throw in Italy, the UK, Spain, and — after 2022 — Poland, Romania, and the Baltics, and you’ve got a clear military belt aimed east at Russia.
-Middle East: Think of sweltering tarmacs like Qatar’s Al Udeid, the piers of Bahrain, bases in Kuwait and the UAE. Troops are still in Iraq, and yes, a small but pointed footprint in Syria.
-Africa & Indian Ocean: Djibouti’s Camp Lemonnier covers Africa’s Horn. Diego Garcia — a remote speck on the map turned fortress — controls Indian Ocean lanes.
-The Americas: Guantanamo Bay, occupied since 1898 and still running against Cuba’s will… an old wound that won’t close.
The Price of the Garrison
Here’s the thing — it’s obscenely expensive. We’re talking around $50 billion a year³ just to maintain these overseas bases. No new ships. No new weapons. Just keeping gates manned, runways fuelled, and barracks lit.
And the post‑9/11 wars these posts have launched or sustained? $8 trillion⁴. Enough to give every U.S. household a life‑changing cheque, fix highways coast‑to‑coast, and still have billions left for schools and hospitals.
And yet the “cost” goes further:
•Generations of local protests — from grandmothers in Okinawa holding banners to student marches in Italy.
•Polluted soil, constant air traffic noise, land disputes that linger for decades.
•SOFA rules shielding U.S. troops from host‑country courts — a symbol of unequal power.
They call this “stability.” History tends to call it something else.
Rhetoric vs. Reality
Every modern president has talked a big game about diplomacy, sovereignty, and the noble “pursuit of peace.” We’ve all heard it. Yet every single one has signed off on — and often expanded — the most powerful, permanent war platform the world has ever seen.
They promise to “end wars.” They seldom promise to dismantle the scaffolding that makes it so easy to start new ones.
Peace President… or Just War President?
Let’s be blunt: you can’t run the biggest warfighting network in human history and credibly wear a “President of Peace” sash.
Real peace leadership would mean shutting down the unnecessary fortresses, pulling back deployments that are about muscle‑flexing more than mutual defence, and pouring that money into diplomacy, aid, and the actual global crises — famine, poverty, climate disaster — that no bomber can fix.
The Final Reckoning
Until that happens, “President of Peace” is just a slick slogan slapped over the commander‑in‑chief of a military machine that spans the planet. The U.S. isn’t merely protecting its own shores — it’s making sure no place on Earth is beyond its reach.
That reach? It burns through dollars, it costs lives, and it erodes legitimacy. From Okinawa’s crowded streets to Guantanamo’s razor‑wire fences, the truth is the same: America’s peace is armed, conditional, and enforced through the barrel of a gun.
Sources:
1.David Vine, The United States of War, & U.S. Department of Defense, Base Structure Report (2024).
2.U.S. DoD, Active Duty Military Personnel by Service and Overseas Region (2024).
3.U.S. Congressional Budget Office & DoD analyses (2021–2024).
4.Costs of War Project, Watson Institute, Brown University (2021 update).
©️2025 Amal Zadok. All rights reserved.
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