Lily pad base rhetoric carries racialized frontier and civilizing overtones.

Evidence

These words, and the frequent descriptions of lily pads as “frontier forts” hosting a “global cavalry,” are deeply troubling—for their racial overtones, for their invocation of a Manifest Destiny–like “civilizing” mission, and for the suggestion of ever-expanding military operations. One doesn’t go to “Injun Country” just for the scenery. One goes looking for Injuns. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1049

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader theme of how military basing discourse mirrors colonial-era ideology.