Small lily pad bases routinely expand into behemoth installations.
Evidence
Relying on smaller bases may at first sound smarter and more cost-effective than maintaining huge bases that have often caused anger in places like Okinawa, Vicenza, and the Philippines. But the “lily pad” language can be misleading. By design or otherwise, small bases can quickly grow into behemoths. As we have seen, the Navy presented Diego Garcia to Congress as an “austere communications facility,” but it has grown into a multibillion-dollar base. Similarly, the 2002 Philippines deployment has grown into multiple lily pads, pier and airfield construction, and a return to Clark and Subic Bay. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1017
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- Small temporary bases routinely grow into large permanent ones with rising costs. (similarity 0.91)
- Closing big bases drove the Pentagon toward smaller lily pad facilities (similarity 0.88)
- Losses of major bases drove the U.S. to build smaller lily pads worldwide (similarity 0.87)
- Smaller lily pad bases still harm local communities despite hopes they would avoid controversy. (similarity 0.87)
- Lily pad networks reproduce full military capacity while avoiding bases’ visible political costs. (similarity 0.85)
- Lily pad bases cluster in weak states with lax environmental laws and lower costs. (similarity 0.84)
- Lily pads quietly expand US military reach into new conflict zones. (similarity 0.83)
- Lily pads provide redundancy so base denial by one host can be bypassed (similarity 0.83)
- Many dispersed bases give the US wartime redundancy and lower eviction costs. (similarity 0.82)
- Smaller bases do not reliably avoid the local controversies large bases provoke (similarity 0.81)
- Small military outposts advance U.S. business and deepen host-country dependence. (similarity 0.81)
- Lily pads grant the U.S. Subic-era access without the political costs of large garrisons (similarity 0.81)
- Small forward bases still harm local communities and provoke opposition. (similarity 0.81)
- The Pentagon shifted to small covert ‘lily pad’ bases to evade local opposition. (similarity 0.81)
- The U.S. military network has expanded geographically despite closing giant Cold War bases (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Small lily pads typically grow into large, expensive permanent bases
#corroborates(0.90) - Closing big bases drove the Pentagon toward smaller lily pad facilities
#expands(0.40) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 153