US troops describe remote base deployments using racialized frontier and colonizing language.

Evidence

When Kaplan visited U.S. troops at lily pad bases and other obscure and remote locations around the globe, he heard a consistent refrain: “Welcome to Injun Country.” 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: Echoes settler-colonial framing seen in US Indian policy as settler colonialism rather than mere discrimination, and Manifest Destiny rhetoric elsewhere in the book.
• SEED: Could support an angle on how colonial/Manifest Destiny mentalities persist in modern US military culture and basing strategy.