Lmst

> The US military is vast in scale, with a carbon footprint larger than any other institution.. disclosure of its emissions of greenhouse gases, it’s been kept off the books – and has been let off the hook.
> “It’s the elephant in the room,".. #DavidVine, author of, #BaseNation: How US #MilitaryBases Abroad Harm America and the World. “It operates with this kind of cloak of invisibility despite having a long track record of very serious damage.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/elephant-in-the-room-the-us-militarys-devastating-carbon-footprint
/HT @pvonhellermannn

While looking for the World Beyond War book about "A Global Security System" I found another mapping approach to seeing the #MilitaryBases of the #BaseNation #USA. It reminded of work by #DavidVine
https://worldbeyondwar.org/no-bases/
#WorldBeyondWar #NoBases

A screenshot of the map application from the page linked in the post. It's the first global view that appeared when I opened the link. I hovered the mouse over one of the pins and in the info box next to the globe map showed data for Bosasso (Somalia).

Another screenshot from the mapping application on the page linked in the post. This is the view provided by zooming in around the area of the Straits of Hormuz and shows bases in Saudi Arabia, Oman and other countries. The mouse was hovered over Al Mussanah Air Base (Oman)

Another screenshot from the mapping application on the page linked in the post. This is the view from zooming in on the area around the Strait of Malacca and shows pins in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The mouse hovered over one of the pins filled the info box with data on Balabac Island (Philippines).

Another screenshot from the mapping application from MapBox on the World Beyond War page. Zooming down for a closer view of South Korea and Japan shows a large number of pins. South Korea seems especially overwhelmed with Military Bases. Hovering the mouse over one of the pins in South Korea filled the info box with data for Kwang-Ju Air Base.

Following up on the graphics from #DavidVine's book, #UnitedStatesOfWar and notices the "sources" notes under the graphics. The #CostsOfWar site from #BrownUniversity , #WatsonInstitute of Internation & Public Affairs looks interesting. The site links to articles from #WIlliamHartung and #TomDispatch
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/

Screenshot of the page linked in the post. It shows a line graph visualization of "Military Spending In Perspective: U.S. and China". The title below the line graph is "Reality Check: Chinese Military Spending in Context". The while lines representing Chinese Military spending all seem to be about a half to a third the size of the red lines representing U.S. military spending. The graph compares 3 estimates, "Official estimates (U.S. Dept. of Defence) 2022", "Sipri estimates additional military items) 2022", and "More inclusive estimates with currency conversion (PPP) 2021". The biggest difference is among the official estimates where Chinese spending seems to be about a fourth of U.S. spending: about 220 billion to 800 billion I guess. The difference gets smallest with the "more inclusive estimates" from 2021: where the estimates seem to be about 440 billion vs. 800 billion.

The #BaseNation book by #DavidVine is important and I forgot it a bit. Thertags on earlier posts let me find the on-line pages and maps from on this Fediverse account. At the Free Night School there are gatherings to see on-line maps and hear talks about foreign countries. A camouflage (hiding?) expert from the nearby Japanese military (Self Defense? 自衛隊) base does events too. Organizers asked me to join the camouflage events. It's interesting but I get qualms.
https://www.basenation.us/maps.html
#BaseMaps

A collage of four maps available from the page (or from the "Multimedia Maps" link) linked in the post. The four maps in the collage are 'Encircling "Enemies"', 'US Military Bases in East Asia', 'Protests and Evictions at U.S. Bases Abroad, 1950-202', and 'Okinawa, Japan'. The maps show that a number of US bases seem to contain, or circle Russia, China, and Iran and that many places all over he world would prefer not become militarized and are sometimes able to evict. There are several bases close to China's border, and much of Okinawa's land is contained within US military bases.

> .. to focus almost exclusively on “extraterritorial” sites is practical, but it is also political.. the division implied by this word is unsustainable... claiming that the condition of Guam or Puerto Rico hinders “our country’s ability to be a model for democracy.” ..[in] popular political speech.. [is] is familiar prose.. a fictional aspiration.. frustrating because it seems to be the result of authorial or editorial pragmatism.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/baseworld/
#PluralisticIgnorance ? #DavidVine

> No one is objective. Like the anthropologist David Graeber, I tend to think that if anyone tells you she or he is objective, that person is probably trying to sell you something.1 Still, I believe we can and must strive for objectivity, even if it’s an unattainable goal.
#DavidVine's mention of #DavidGraeber reminded me of another Awesome #Anthropoligist,, decades ago I engjoy #JackWeatherford's #IndianGivers.

#DavidVine's book Base Nation looks really good. I lapsed from reading #TomDispatch for a few years but #TomEngelhardt's work with #ChalmersJohnson makes it easier to appreciate the maps in #BaseNation. #InformationDesign techniques can be used for worthy causes, like learning #Geography it prevent wars before they happen. God won't have to use wars to teach us anymore, we can be proactive. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
https://www.basenation.us/maps.html

> Base Nation[2015], the sequel to Vine’s.. #IslandOfShame (2009)..his project on what the late #ChalmersJohnson called the #Baseworld. Base Nation is.. a work of huge ambition..commendable and..inhibiting..the book..[is] a distressing and..helpful resource for grappling with the #GlobalGeography of the #AmericanArmedForces. #BaseNation also contains some of the most effective original #maps I have encountered in a study of such scale.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/baseworld/
#USA #MilitaryBases #DavidVine

> There has been quite a bit of news both in the US and over here about #China building air strips in the #SpratlyIslands in the #SouthChinaSea and almost nothing about the fact that the #USA has surrounded China with some four hundred military bases that stretch all the way from #Australia through the Pacific up through #Asia, #Korea, #Japan and across #Eurasia.
https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2016/12/transcript-john-pilger-coming-war-china-9-december-16
#JohnPilger and #ThomHartmann on #ComingWarOnChina #China #BaseNation #DavidVine

#DavidVine

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