The United States retains overseas territories primarily for military power projection.
Evidence
Even more relevant for the purposes of calculating the base nation’s bill, as Dancs points out, is the fact that “the United States retains territories … primarily for the purposes of the military and projecting military power.” As we have seen, since World War II the government has largely hung on to this collection of islands because they’re home to critical bases like Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and the Saipan and Tinian bases in the Northern Marianas. Given this fact, one could reasonably regard all the federal spending in each territory as the cost of maintaining bases and troops there. Federal transfer payments to Puerto Rico alone were more than
17 billion in 2010, with the total for all the territories probably nearing20 billion. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 614
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Connects to the earlier chapter analysis on why the islands were retained since World War II.
Related
- U.S. territories are retained mainly to host military bases (similarity 0.85)
- Overseas bases reveal America’s permanent war footing and militarized economy (similarity 0.82)
- The destroyers-for-bases deal transformed the US into a global military power. (similarity 0.81)
- Overseas bases generate dependent communities that resist closure (similarity 0.79)
- US overseas bases cost taxpayers at least $71.8 billion annually (similarity 0.79)
- Easier access to bases makes US military intervention more likely (similarity 0.79)
- U.S. bases and troops abroad cost about $170 billion in 2012 (similarity 0.79)
- US military can project power farther than any rival without overseas bases (similarity 0.79)
- True overseas base costs exceed the official Pentagon total by over threefold (similarity 0.79)
- Little Americas normalized permanent peacetime overseas troop deployment (similarity 0.78)
- Overseas base spending exceeds every federal agency’s budget except Defense. (similarity 0.78)
- US overseas bases make war more likely by easing military action (similarity 0.78)
- Overseas bases create entrenched constituencies dependent on their continuation (similarity 0.78)
- Overseas bases and troops cost around $136 billion in 2014 (similarity 0.78)
- War appropriations added about $80.6 billion in 2012 toward maintaining overseas bases (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- The US military can deploy power faster than any rival without foreign bases.
#contradicts(0.85) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1036 - US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination
#expands(0.70) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 104 - Overseas bases ease the waging of foreign wars and make war likelier
#expands(0.70) - Easier access to bases makes US military intervention more likely
#expands(0.65) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1065 - Overseas bases reveal America’s permanent war footing and militarized economy
#expands(0.60) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 47 - Overseas bases enable interventionist wars rather than defensive protection
#expands(0.60) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 35 - Postwar US power substituted a global base network for direct colonial control
#expands(0.60) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 96 - Overseas bases can increase global danger rather than security
#complicates(0.55) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1060