Ecuador wont renew license 4 U.S. Mantra Airbase

[thescarface1989]

http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base. In an interview with Reuters Correa said he would renew the lease on one condition -- the United States allow Ecuador to build a military base in Miami.

Correa said: "If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorian base in the United States." It is estimated that United States has over 700 military bases in foreign countries.

[Aikbach]

http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base. In an interview with Reuters Correa said he would renew the lease on one condition -- the United States allow Ecuador to build a military base in Miami.

Correa said: "If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorian base in the United States." It is estimated that United States has over 700 military bases in foreign countries.I'm sure they could clean out a broom closet to make room for the Ecuadorian envoy.

The Philipines pulled a similar stunt, what is actually happening is they want the Americans out but the American hardware and base to remain, little do they realize it will ALL go with the Americans as the Filipinos found out.

[BrAinPaiNt]

I'm sure they could clean out a broom closet to make room for the Ecuadorian envoy.

The Philipines pulled a similar stunt, what is actually happening is they want the Americans out but the American hardware and base to remain, little do they realize it will ALL go with the Americans as the Filipinos found out.

I don't have a problem with what the one guy asks. And to be honest I am shocked it has not happened more.

However your story about the phillipines reminds me of when I was stationed in South Korea.

Word was that South Korea wanted to take back all of the land they had given to the USA for their bases.

Word is that the USA said...sure but you have to pay us for every structure, every inch of concrete and pavement, every inch of plumbing and other areas we put on the land.

In other words we were not going to go away and just give all the other stuff to them for free.


Now whether any of that actually happened I can not say. Probably just an Army rumor but we all found it humorous at the time.

[Aikbach]

I don't have a problem with what the one guy asks. And to be honest I am shocked it has not happened more.

However your story about the phillipines reminds me of when I was stationed in South Korea.

Word was that South Korea wanted to take back all of the land they had given to the USA for their bases.

Word is that the USA said...sure but you have to pay us for every structure, every inch of concrete and pavement, every inch of plumbing and other areas we put on the land.

In other words we were not going to go away and just give all the other stuff to them for free.


Now whether any of that actually happened I can not say. Probably just an Army rumor but we all found it humorous at the time.They're welcome to have their country free of American military presence but they need to understand what that means, no freebies, they're banking on American generousity or wastefulness to profit them.

Plus they don't get along with Argentina, should be interesting to see if an American exodus flares that up again.

[BrAinPaiNt]

They're welcome to have their country free of American military presence but they need to understand what that means, no freebies, they're banking on American generousity or wastefulness to profit them.

Plus they don't get along with Argentina, should be interesting to see if an American exodus flares that up again.

Also include the revenue they would lose from GIs just going out for a drink or buying trinkets to send home.

I know the village outside of the US Camp where I was stationed, if the US left that area that village would be a ghost town.

MANY people would be out of work.

The country was so poor in areas that they made money going through our trash...anyone remember that episode on mash...well it was not far from the truth.
As soon as we left a field site you would see families of koreans coming in to go over the trash site.

After we would have weapons qualifications ...The money they made from sculptures made from brass ammunition rounds that we missed picking up alone kept many families in business.

Same for small towns in the US that military bases left.

I left Fort Polk before they moved the majority of the 5th ID to Texas. However the first town outside of the base was nothing but bars, tattoo joints and eating places.

I know they had to take a HUGE hit when the majority of the fort moved to texas.

Just think of a local economy that had been relying on GIs since they were training for Viet Nam at the latest just up and moving. Has to effect the local economy.

[Sasquatch]

Also include the revenue they would lose from GIs just going out for a drink or buying trinkets to send home.

I know the village outside of the US Camp where I was stationed, if the US left that area that village would be a ghost town.

MANY people would be out of work.

The country was so poor in areas that they made money going through our trash...anyone remember that episode on mash...well it was not far from the truth.
As soon as we left a field site you would see families of koreans coming in to go over the trash site.

After we would have weapons qualifications ...The money they made from sculptures made from brass ammunition rounds that we missed picking up alone kept many families in business.

Same for small towns in the US that military bases left.

I left Fort Polk before they moved the majority of the 5th ID to Texas. However the first town outside of the base was nothing but bars, tattoo joints and eating places.

I know they had to take a HUGE hit when the majority of the fort moved to texas.

Just think of a local economy that had been relying on GIs since they were training for Viet Nam at the latest just up and moving. Has to effect the local economy.

Critics of the military-industrial-complex point to the fact that so many people are dependent on the military and arms industry for their livelihood that our society has become practically dependent on militarism and warfare and that any attempt to dismantle the apparatus will produce vigorous opposition for precisely this reason.

[Aikbach]

Critics of the military-industrial-complex point to the fact that so many people are dependent on the military and arms industry for their livelihood that our society has become practically dependent on militarism and warfare and that any attempt to dismantle the apparatus will produce vigorous opposition for precisely this reason.Militaries don't start wars so that's a bogus argument. Maintaining a peacetime force doesn't mean it has to be deployed in full fury all hours of the day and night and for every reason, historically peace through strength is a proven success anyhow.

Pax Romana and frigid as it was at times the Cold War was a rather bloodless era in history and so forth, even today American military might has helped insure wars between nation states have been minimal.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Critics of the military-industrial-complex point to the fact that so many people are dependent on the military and arms industry for their livelihood that our society has become practically dependent on militarism and warfare and that any attempt to dismantle the apparatus will produce vigorous opposition for precisely this reason.

You have a point there. But it some cases it is simply the truth that the military leaving an area can cause a devastating situation to some local economies.


Now South Korea as a whole would not fall. I mean we give them enough business.

However the local economy would be hit hard.

This is not something that should prevent us from leaving an area. I mean I am not saying we should keep all of the camps in S.Korea because we can not just up and leave those local economies.

I am just pointing out that it would have an effect on them.

I will say this though.

The USA has military instillations all over the world. How many foregin countries have military instillations in the USA?

I know we have foreign troops train in the USA. I can remember German Troops training in Fort Bliss with the ADA.

But would the USA ever allow a foreign government to install a Military Base in the USA? Somehow I doubt it.

Yet we have them in the middle east, we have plans to keep long term military instillations in Iraq and we still have people in Kuwait.

[Aikbach]

You have a point there. But it some cases it is simply the truth that the military leaving an area can cause a devastating situation to some local economies.


Now South Korea as a whole would not fall. I mean we give them enough business.

However the local economy would be hit hard.

This is not something that should prevent us from leaving an area. I mean I am not saying we should keep all of the camps in S.Korea because we can not just up and leave those local economies.

I am just pointing out that it would have an effect on them.

I will say this though.

The USA has military instillations all over the world. How many foregin countries have military instillations in the USA?

I know we have foreign troops train in the USA. I can remember German Troops training in Fort Bliss with the ADA.

But would the USA ever allow a foreign government to install a Military Base in the USA? Somehow I doubt it.

Yet we have them in the middle east, we have plans to keep long term military instillations in Iraq and we still have people in Kuwait.Those bases weren't put there at gunpoint, they were requested by the respective governments of every nation that has one.

The world likes being under the umbrella od American military protection and if they ask us to leave then we will up and go but few do once we arrive because they know it is in their best interests.

What tactical advantage would the US gain by inviting a third world nation or non military power to build a base on her soil?

We pay our taxes for a common defense, others lease it out to America in the name of regional striking distance in hotbed areas.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Militaries don't start wars so that's a bogus argument. Maintaining a peacetime force doesn't mean it has to be deployed in full fury all hours of the day and night and for every reason, historically peace through strength is a proven success anyhow.

Pax Romana and frigid as it was at times the Cold War was a rather bloodless era in history and so forth, even today American military might has helped insure wars between nation states have been minimal.

To an extent militaries due start wars. Because the leaders of those militaries start wars.

Notice how many leaders have a title of General or Commander in Chief or other titles that equate to them being the Top leader of the military.

Sure it is a stretch but the military is lead by those that start the wars...nobody is higher on a military's chains of command.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Those bases weren't put there at gunpoint, they were requested by the respective governments of every nation that has one.

The world likes being under the umbrella od American military protection and if they ask us to leave then we will up and go but few do once we arrive because they know it is in their best interests.

What tactical advantage would the US gain by inviting a third world nation or non military power to build a base on her soil?

Were they ALL requested by the home country at the time? Or were some of them part of treaties they agreed to at the time.

Not being argumentative on that question...I am really not sure of the answer.

[Aikbach]

Were they ALL requested by the home country at the time? Or were some of them part of treaties they agreed to at the time.

Not being argumentative on that question...I am really not sure of the answer.We have pulled out of the Phillipines, we are there by treaty and later request in Okinawa.

Ramstein Germany by request, we pulled out of madrid but were there by request when present.

We have several bases in England by request, Polish base by request, DMZ by request, Guam because it is ours.

Kuwait by request, used to be Turkey by request but no longer, Saudis had us present for a while, UAE by request, Quatar by request, that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

[BrAinPaiNt]

We have pulled out of the Phillipines, we are there by treaty and later request in Okinawa.

Ramstein Germany by request, we pulled out of madrid but were there by request when present.

We have several bases in England by request, Polish base by request, DMZ by request, Guam because it is ours.

Kuwait by request, used to be Turkey by request but no longer, Saudis had us present for a while, UAE by request, Quatar by request, that's all i can think of off the top of my head.

Thanks for the info.:starspin

[Sasquatch]

Pax Romana and frigid as it was at times the Cold War was a rather bloodless era in history and so forth, even today American military might has helped insure wars between nation states have been minimal.

It only cost the Romans their beloved republic.

[Aikbach]

It only cost the Romans their beloved republic.A distortion of history, Rome abandoned her republic after it fell to coup after coup and an impotent senate full of power hungry men took no efforts to prevent an emperor from emerging, she had no checks and balances.

No generals are plotting coups stateside.

[arglebargle]

Those bases weren't put there at gunpoint, they were requested by the respective governments of every nation that has one.

The world likes being under the umbrella od American military protection and if they ask us to leave then we will up and go but few do once we arrive because they know it is in their best interests.

What tactical advantage would the US gain by inviting a third world nation or non military power to build a base on her soil?

We pay our taxes for a common defense, others lease it out to America in the name of regional striking distance in hotbed areas.

When the 800 lb Gorilla says he wants to sleep in your house, you consider your answer very carefully.

Sometimes the request is quite loaded, and high calibre to boot.

[burmafrd]

They want us gone but when trouble comes calling who gets phoned first?
And it AIN'T the UN.
We are going to have to keep an eye on Venezuela as long as Chavez is around so those bases in Equador are important right now.
I have not heard lately but for a long time the area in the Phillipines around where Clark and Subic was was a real depressed area after we left.
Our bases pump a LOT of money into local economies.

[Yeagermeister]

Also include the revenue they would lose from GIs just going out for a drink or buying trinkets to send home.

I know the village outside of the US Camp where I was stationed, if the US left that area that village would be a ghost town.

MANY people would be out of work.

The country was so poor in areas that they made money going through our trash...anyone remember that episode on mash...well it was not far from the truth.
As soon as we left a field site you would see families of koreans coming in to go over the trash site.

After we would have weapons qualifications ...The money they made from sculptures made from brass ammunition rounds that we missed picking up alone kept many families in business.

Same for small towns in the US that military bases left.

I left Fort Polk before they moved the majority of the 5th ID to Texas. However the first town outside of the base was nothing but bars, tattoo joints and eating places.

I know they had to take a HUGE hit when the majority of the fort moved to texas.

Just think of a local economy that had been relying on GIs since they were training for Viet Nam at the latest just up and moving. Has to effect the local economy.

I'm sure you visited those often :D

[CowboyFan74]

We should just take Ecuador and the rest of the world while we're at it:D

[BrAinPaiNt]

I'm sure you visited those often :D

Yes sir I did my part in keeping that economy strong.:laugh2:

[Yeagermeister]

Yes sir I did my part in keeping that economy strong.:laugh2:

Kimshi for everyone :puke:

:D

[BrAinPaiNt]

Kimshi for everyone :puke:

:D

No...could not stand that stuff.

[jterrell]

Were they ALL requested by the home country at the time? Or were some of them part of treaties they agreed to at the time.

Not being argumentative on that question...I am really not sure of the answer.

of course they were not all requested.

A lot of it happens as we position ourselves by offering aid or protection.
A lot like the mafia, lol.


http://hnn.us/articles/3097.html

excerpted...


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 U.S. 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. Pentagon bureaucrats calculate that it would require at least $113.2 billion to replace just the foreign bases -- surely far too low a figure but still larger than the gross domestic product of most countries -- and an estimated $591,519.8 million to replace all of them. 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.

These numbers, although staggeringly large, do not begin to cover all the actual bases we occupy globally. The 2003 Base Status Report fails to mention, for instance, any garrisons in Kosovo -- even though it is the site of the huge Camp Bondsteel, built in 1999 and maintained ever since by Kellogg, Brown & Root. The Report similarly omits bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, although the U.S. military has established colossal base structures throughout the so-called arc of instability in the two-and-a-half years since 9/11.

For Okinawa, the southernmost island of Japan, which has been an American military colony for the past fifty-eight years, the report deceptively lists only one Marine base, Camp Butler, when in fact Okinawa "hosts" ten Marine Corps bases, including Marine Corps Air Station Futenma occupying 1,186 acres in the center of that modest-sized island's second largest city. (Manhattan's Central Park, by contrast, is only 843 acres.) The Pentagon similarly fails to note all of the $5-billion-worth of military and espionage installations in Britain, which have long been conveniently disguised as Royal Air Force bases. If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases in other people's countries, but no one -- possibly not even the Pentagon -- knows the exact number for sure, although it has been distinctly on the rise in recent years.

For their occupants, these are not unpleasant places to live and work. Military service today, which is voluntary, bears almost no relation to the duties of a soldier during World War II or the Korean or Vietnamese wars. Most chores like laundry, KP ("kitchen police"), mail call, and cleaning latrines have been subcontracted to private military companies like Kellogg, Brown & Root, DynCorp, and the Vinnell Corporation. Fully one-third of the funds recently appropriated for the war in Iraq (about $30 billion), for instance, are going into private American hands for exactly such services. Where possible everything is done to make daily existence seem like a Hollywood version of life at home. According to the Washington Post, in Fallujah, just west of Baghdad, waiters in white shirts, black pants, and black bow ties serve dinner to the officers of the 82nd Airborne Division in their heavily guarded compound, and the first Burger King has already gone up inside the enormous military base we've established at Baghdad International Airport.

Some of these bases are so gigantic they require as many as nine internal bus routes for soldiers and civilian contractors to get around inside the earthen berms and concertina wire. That's the case at Camp Anaconda, headquarters of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, whose job is to police some 1,500 square miles of Iraq north of Baghdad, from Samarra to Taji. Anaconda occupies 25 square kilometers and will ultimately house as many as 20,000 troops. Despite extensive security precautions, the base has frequently come under mortar attack, notably on the Fourth of July, 2003, just as Arnold Schwarzenegger was chatting up our wounded at the local field hospital.