How do you measure empire? 600 secret Military bases mapped.

How do you measure an empire? How much is too much?

I ran across this earlier today and was blown away. I knew the numbers actually from other research I have done. I knew in Africa alone there is over 300 US Military installations. I shudder to think of how much money this costs taxpayers. I wonder about the actual benefits. There is over 5000 US military installations worldwide. Just think about that for a second. Is there 5000 Hospitals in the US? Is there 5000 Homeless shelters? I do not know. I know this is a country who's represenatives care more about baseball players commiting perjury concerning steroids then it does about James Clapper and Gen. Keith Alexander commiting perjury (lying under oath) concerning the police surveillance state they put in place. We are more concerned Roger Clemens lied about taking PEDs than the fact the NSA, CIA etc disregarded the Constitution and direct FISA court rulings concerning privacy and the law.


"Mapping the Blind Spots"

If you look closely enough on Google or Bing Maps, some places are blanked out, hidden from public view. Many of those places disguise secret or sensitive American military facilities. The United States military has a foothold in every corner of the world, with military bases on every continent. It's not even clear how many there are out there. The Pentagon says there are around 5,000 in total, and 598 in foreign countries, but those numbers are disputed by the media. But how do these facilities look from above? To answer that question, you first need to locate the bases. Which, as it turns out, is relatively easy. That's what Josh Begley, a data artist, found out when he embarked on a project to map all known U.S. military bases around the world, collect satellite pictures of them using Google Maps and Bing Maps, and display them all online. The project, which he warns is ongoing, was inspired by Trevor Paglen's book "Blank Spots on the Map" which goes inside the world of secret military bases that are sometimes censored on maps. "I wanted to apply this to a digital landscape," Begley told Mashable. "What are the actual blind spots of Google Maps or Bing Maps? Which installations are secret and which can be viewed on the open Internet?" Begley has found the coordinates for 650 bases, and published pictures for 644 of them — although a few are blacked out, not displayed, or blurred. He started working on the project at the beginning of November, simply armed with the Department of Defense 2013 Base Structure Report, an inventory of all the real estate owned by the Pentagon around the world, a few media reports that uncovered secret bases, and a computer script he had used last year to make another mapping project that displayed aerial pictures of U.S. prisons.

mashable.com...

mashable.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Mapping the Blind Spots


The actual site...

empire.is...

Empire


To see these bases and the map is absolutely mind numbing. Unreal.


Can someone upload a few of the base photos? I cannot figure out how to do it on my phone. A lesson would be cool as well. Yes I did try search and it was not immediately apparent to me.

reply to post by GArnold


World girdling empire. Makes you think the Americans have been preparing for WW3 for a while.

reply to post by GArnold


Countries around The World ( especially the poorer ones) want these bases because it brings in additional revenue.
They don't see it as a military issue but an economic one.

alldaylong
reply to post by GArnold

 

Countries around The World ( especially the poorer ones) want these bases because it brings in additional revenue.
They don't see it as a military issue but an economic one.

Not much revenue, those bases fly or ship in, everything they need, from food to gasoline, I bet every base has a PX,
so the local income does not get much.

There's a US base about 2miles from my house that isn't on that map. It works alongside RAF Croughton which is on the map, part of the GCHQ, NSA shiz.

me thinks that's one of the ways to keep the dollar as fiat currency

woodwardjnr
There's a US base about 2miles from my house that isn't on that map. It works alongside RAF Croughton which is on the map, part of the GCHQ, NSA shiz.

I would point out there are 5000 US military installations according to the article. He has only mapped those which fit his definition of secret in some respect. I think he is trying to map those facilities that are blurred out or obscured in some fashion on the popular mapping programs (Bing, Google).

Hope that Helps.

With that many US Military bases there is most likely one downstairs from me in my Apt Building.

reply to post by GArnold


Defense industry welfare pretty much covers it. And the U.S. also wants quick mobility if something happens that the world's policeman have to handle quickly, like a genocide in Africa. Oh, wait. Never mind.

reply to post by GArnold


I have a secret, and you don't know about it.
If you knew about it, it wouldn't be much of a secret.
These bases are secret?

reply to post by GArnold

I bet that number doesn't include the facilities they couldn't find.

Once I went to google earth and searched around Boscombe down, and near what appeared to be a wheat crop, someone posted a photo of a door that was marked "M.O.D-no unauthorized entry" which was clearly an underground entrance.

I should've saved the photo because it was removed the next time I searched for it. It could've been a hoax for all I know, but given the location and actual proof that England has D.U.M.B.S I doubt it.

But if you want ultimate secrecy there is one place that no one would take at second glance at...

72.0000° N, 40.0000° W

pikestaff

alldaylong
reply to post by GArnold

 

Countries around The World ( especially the poorer ones) want these bases because it brings in additional revenue.
They don't see it as a military issue but an economic one.

Not much revenue, those bases fly or ship in, everything they need, from food to gasoline, I bet every base has a PX,
so the local income does not get much.

Most of those "bases" are a local building the US uses lease free. They do not fly in anything and live on the local economy. Theses are not bases like your thinking of them. Or they are local bases that the US has access to. Many Airbases are like this, say its a Spanish Airbase but, allows the US to use it so you have a dozen guys assigned to help fuel and repair aircraft that might come to. You see this at most major ports that US navy visits as well. This list also include things like unmanned radar sites, communication antennas, supply depots etc. Take Italy for example where the US has one of its largest presence outside the US. Italy has 5 real US bases of any size. These are all mostly shared bases with the Italians though. These list would tell you that their are 113 "bases" in Italy yet only 9000 military personel in Italy. 95% of active US forces are in the US and its territories plus the Reserve and National Guard. In the end these lists hold little water.

It must be more than that, I know a couple of SAPs that aren't on the map. If you are going to call that a base.

Thecakeisalie
reply to post by GArnold

 

But if you want ultimate secrecy there is one place that no one would take at second glance at...

72.0000° N, 40.0000° W


What "ultimate secrecy" do you propose is hidden in the middle of Greenland?

Well, the United States wastes more on Defense than not just any single nation on Earth, but the next closest world powers COMBINED. It's still projected over 600 billion for operational expenses and rises to around 800 billion for the coming fiscal year when VA and Veterans expenses are taken into account.

I guess we had to be wasting that unbelievable amount of treasure on something. Bases all over the known world would explain it. We, as a nation, REALLY need to work on this fixation with domination. It's...sick.

We have a nation of problems all our own to dominate and conquer, if conquering is what these men are so deeply in love with. Their glory with our childrens guts....and the band plays on.

reply to post by Thecakeisalie


Britain has tons of DUMBS they sit in parliment.


Na on a serous note yes they are dotted about. They have been since the napolionic wars. Most are emergancy ammo and supply dumps, in my area there are so many ww2 and old cold war ones i think they lost track as its not uncommon from what i hear for a new housing development to accidently find a huge stash of old weapon or equipment thats been forgotton.

My whole area is a honycomb of napolionic wars, ww2 and cold tunnels and bunkers.

GArnold
Is there 5000 Hospitals in the US?

according to the American Hospital Association, in 2009 with all the different kinds of hospitals combined there are a total of 5,795 hospitals in the us. Of those over 5,000 are community hospitals.

Source

Is there 5000 Homeless shelters?

That's a very good question. I cannot find that number anywhere.

www.nationalhomeless.org...

The bottom line, the military does a better job of helping other countries then helping it's own. Maybe they think that job is better relegated to the many agencies qualified to help people in various ways. Something the military does to a smaller degree in countries overseas.

What they fail to realize, or just don't care about in the name of job security, is that all of these different agencies in the U.S. that are dependent on Federal money in order to operate, cannot operate at an effective level because the military get's the lions share of all funding. That being the case, these agencies constantly see a higher workload because of the lack of funding needed to, at least, keep problems like homelessness from getting worse.

And to make this comedy of errors even more sickening, the military fails to realize, or doesn't care about in the name of job security, that if they stopped meddling in others' affairs, got our oil domestically ( or at the very least, in the western hemisphere), and just minded our own business on our own borders, we might not HAVE any enemies that would "justify" more spending in the name of national security.

If this is an empire, it's an empire with it's foundation on greed and the ignorance that is borne of it.

Whenever the US opens a military base outside of a war zone, it always stimulates the income of a few key members of the local population. Hookers, drug dealers, liquor stores and fast food joints.

reply to post by MrSpad


Stop trying to derail this thread with facts!

allenidaho
Whenever the US opens a military base outside of a war zone, it always stimulates the income of a few key members of the local population. Hookers, drug dealers, liquor stores and fast food joints.

The meek shall inherit the Earth.

SLAYER69
reply to post by MrSpad

 

Stop trying to derail this thread with facts!

allenidaho
Whenever the US opens a military base outside of a war zone, it always stimulates the income of a few key members of the local population. Hookers, drug dealers, liquor stores and fast food joints.

The meek shall inherit the Earth.

You forgot tat shops and strip joints.

/Pump House FTW!

Wrabbit2000
I guess we had to be wasting that unbelievable amount of treasure on something.

Running an off-the-books space fleet ain't cheap, bucko.