Historical base cases cannot prove that overseas bases provide security

Evidence

Even if the assumptions about pre–World War II history or about the Cold War were hypothetically correct, these singular cases would not come close to providing conclusive evidence that overseas bases ensure security across time and place. One could make an equally emotionally resonant argument that if the United States had not occupied the Muslim holy land of Saudi Arabia with military bases and troops after the first Gulf War, al-Qaeda’s attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, could have been averted. Like the Hitler appeasement argument, this may be true, but it is equally unknowable. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1044

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s ongoing debate about whether US bases deter aggression, echoing the Hitler-appeasement counterargument Vine has been refuting.