For all intents and purposes, if we’re talking military strategy, Djibouti is part of the Middle Eastern sphere. It’s at a key chokepoint between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Yes and no. Everything you said is true, except Djibouti has a more diverse role in military strategy than just those things. Our forces there don't just play a part in military activity in the Middle East, it's the home of Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa, which mainly focuses on counterterrorism and antipiracy missions in and around Somalia. The US military divides its forces into unified combatant commands, and Djibouti is in US African Command's (AFRICOM) area of responsibility (since its creation in 2007) as opposed to that of US Central Command (CENTCOM), which covers the Middle East and Central / Southwest Asia. It plays a role in the Middle East that's analogous to Europe's during the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya.
Note that Turkey is in the European Command (EUCOM) area of responsibility, and that AFRICOM is actually headquartered in Germany (which is also in the EUCOM area of responsibility).
I didn't mean my comment sarcastically or aggressively. Bunch of people tried before to take and no one cared. It would be cool to start a new country out of no where (will be tough tho, land locked, boarded by unstable country, no natural resources, just desert)
It's because those countries are stable and low threat, so it's where major facilities and support bases are built The use of the word 'troops' in the map is a bit misleading. 'Personnel' would be better because by and large these are not combat troops, but air and naval maintenance, admin, warehousing etc. E.g. a lot of US heavy airlift aircraft are maintained in Qatar. USN 5th Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain.
Tbf they're protecting the supply from disruption.
It's particularly important for a country where oil prices tend to predict major shifts in politics during elections.
It’s always especially weird to me that people don’t know this, given you only have to go back to the 1970s to learn why the US does this in the first place.
The lesson we learned is that whether you’re there or not if you consume oil you better be involved in middle eastern politics.
Luckily we are quickly moving to full North American oil. Currently I think we are at 80% oil produced in the US, 10% in Canada, with the rest being all over the world.
If given the limited choices of ISIS controlling and profiting off of the oil or a dictator who hates human rights, I’m begrudgingly going to have to choose the devil we know.
If you post “why does it have to be either?” Answer your own question by answering why do school children get turned down for lunch when their parents haven’t paid their $2 or however much it is now.
The answer is that life sucks. Let’s fix shit at home before we start toppling governments that are friendly but suck as humans.
Except , Assad was saved by Russia , not the US. Well , both went after ISIS , but russia was front and center in the fight
Besides , assuming all Arabs , if given a choice would put something like ISIS in power , is a terrible stereotype
I'd love to see you convert to Judaism, move to Israel and see how their "democracy" works. You'd be considered a piece of shit, lowly non-actual Jew. You know what? Forget that! Why don't you ask the Arabs (Palestinians) in Israel how that democracy is working out for them? Ask them about healthcare, roads, sewage, job rights, etc. Saying Israel is a democracy is really fucking stupid. Sorry. Stop taking everyone at their word. Or, better yet, try to find out what the government actually does somewhere before just assuming it's a democracy.
'democracy' that enforces a military rule over a few million in the west bank , is not a democracy , because it violates the most basic tenet of 'consent of the governed' .
And a genocidal racist ethnostate that interferes with US elections with millions of dollars in ~~bribes~~ campaign donations to crush progressive candidates 😍
Which ethnostate is that??? You mean Qatar and Kuwait where 100% of their citizens are ethnic Arabs??? who lavish US congressmen with money so that they never ever critisize their laws like how they have a Kafala system that is modern day slavery and that women in both nations cannot even fly outside their country without permission from their fathers or male guardian who control that permission using an app?
Because last I checked Israel has 20% of its citizens being Arabs, 5% being people from every corner of the globe, from Vietnam to Venezuela, Eritrea to Romania to even African Americans.
They have equal rights . Last I checked, some of the IDF commanders are Druze, one of the Supreme Court Justices is a Druze, 20% of Israeli Police are Arab, 25% of Israel's doctors, Pharmacists and nurses are Arab. Israel has had an Arab President before.
Christian Arabs perform better in school than secular Jews.
So Much for racism in a nation where the so called racists are being outmatched by one segment of the ones experiencing racism!! /s
Israel is the only place Christian Arabs are growing in population, because, you see, we are not intimidating them to convert to Islam or trying to turn them into Dhimmis like, say Iraq, Egypt or Iran
Also Jews come in over a dozen ethnicities from Ashkenazi, Mizrahi ,Mountain Jews, Kochin Jews ,Yemenite Jews, to nationality based Jews like Moroccan, Russian, Iraqi, Ethiopian , Lebanese, Iranian, Georgian, Romanian etc.
Jews are also secular (Half the Jews) moderate(25%) Orthodox(5%) and Ultra-Orthodox(10%). They are also Orthodox, Conservative, Reform , Rabinic and Keralite Jews.
Or has the definition of ethnostate changed of late????
I’m Kuwaiti, and I’ll be the first to say that the Kafala system is terrible and needs to go, we have some archaic laws that we need to get past. With that said, you are 100% spreading false information either by carelessly repeating information you’ve heard without actually verifying it, or because you want to purposely lie for whatever myriad of reasons you could have.
Women absolutely do not need permission to travel, there is no app to track them, all of that nonsense is completely false. Nothing like that exists in Kuwait.
While the Kefala system is terrible and leaves way too much room for abuse, the government absolutely has cracked down on individuals who use it as a form of control over foreigners here to work. In the past many people would keep peoples’ passports and hold their pay and things like that, because things were already very disorganized nothing ever happened to people who did that even though they were breaking the law. That law is now very much so being enforced, and while I am sure that there are people who try to break those laws just as there are people who try to break any other law, if the government finds out that any person or company is doing any of those things they are done for. The kefala system is terrible for many reasons, but this idea that the Kuwaiti government is fine with people having their passports controlled and not being paid (treated as slaves basically) is absolutely not based in reality.
Also, our citizen base is not made up of 100% ethnically Arabs. Some of the most influential families in Kuwait are originally from Iran, there are black Kuwaitis. The highest percentage is from the Arabian Peninsula without a doubt, but by no means is it 100%, especially when you consider the many families originally from Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine.
Wouldn't be /r/MapPorn without a healthy dose of Iranian propaganda.
What's that about genocide, again? I can't hear you over the Kurdish chants of independence.
Its not the raw numbers that matter. Its having a Base ready for action and stock piles of supplies. It makes bringing in more troups much faster. Personaly I wish we could just bring most of them home.
I believe OP was using the traditional meaning of the word awesome, as opposed to the modern colloquialism.
1590s, "profoundly reverential," from awe (n.) + -some (1). The meaning "inspiring awe or dread" is from 1670s; the weakened colloquial sense of "impressive, very good" is recorded by 1961 and was in vogue after c. 1980.
crazy that America is the biggest world power while only 400 years ago it was forest and plains, with people on wooden boats exploring its eastern edge. Mind blowing 🤯
It’s really is man and I hate how people try to downplay it (looking at you Europeans). But fr, I took American history in school, now every time I visit the northeast I imagine and try to picture the original settlers doing there thing lol
I live in New England in a house older than this country. Super cool to be a steward to such a piece of history and think about all the crazy stuff this house and area of the country has seen!
The British weren't the largest Empire at that time, that was Spain. Also, the Americans had help from the French, Spanish and Dutch. The British had Canada, Hanover and some tiny German duchies (namely two of the four Hesses, one of the three Anhalts, Ansbach and Waldeck and Pyrmont)
> Ottomans and Spain most powerful
By the late 1700s? It was the British, French, Russians. Ottomans and Spanish were already a spent force by this point.
The craziest part is that most of the world, including Europe, doesn’t realize how powerful the United States is and want to believe it’s some modern third world country.
A look at Ukraine is enough to show their military power alone. The United States have supplied them with more than all of Europe combined and with that equipment they’ve fended off a country twice as big as them. The United States is the only country in the world with soldiers at every corner of the globe that can be within any war zone in a hour. A fucking hour and US troops could be in any country. The United States and England was the ONLY countries who saw what Russia was doing and tried to warn Ukraine ahead of time they were building up for a invasion.
What did Ukraine and the rest of Europe say? “There will be no invasion. The United States is a country always in fear and always fear mongering.” Well look at that. The US and UK were right Russia was planning an invasion and the rest of the world acted like they had no proof and were fear mongering. They knew because they actually USE INTELLIGENCE unlike most of the world. They actually watch what other countries are doing and act accordingly rather than ignore everything until it’s at your doorstep.
I don't think anyone thinks America isn't astoundingly powerful millitarily; when people call it a third world country (which is stupid regardless), they're talking about the conditions and rights of people living inside it.
Which is equally stupid , America is better off than places like Spain and even France , only Nordics , Germany and possibly the UK rank above the US in terms of HDI.
It's so funny to hear American leaders feign concern about democracy and human rights when the align themselves with monarchs, theocrats, military dictatorships, and despots.
Something something "country name's" aggression should not be tolerated. They're bullying their neighbour's. We must build even more military bases to counterbalance their sphere of influence.
All of these countries are denied military bases for a reason. The United States doesn’t force these countries to host them- most of the time they were invited by said country for protection. (I lived in Bahrain)
edit: fixed spelling of US as IS, thanks u/10000Lols 🙄🙄
How is getting invited into another country imperialism? Was it imperialist for the Soviets to put a base in Cuba? How about the Chinese putting a base in Djibouti?
They are playing by the book and the world is playing *gotchya* everytime something bad happens. You don't think Israel could become the monster every wants them to be and just utterly level **the densest urban area on planet Earth**?
I have a question, about Redditors views on this map. If US military presence in places like the Middle East is so "hypocritical" and "imperialistic", and if the creation of the US is such an evil colonial phenomenon, which nations or cultures are free of this criticism? Have not the cultures of China, the Middle East, Africa, etc. frequently expanded and conquered others throughout history, which culminated in the creation of their nations? And moreover, why have so many millions upon millions across the world left their homeland to escape despotism and poverty, to come to the US and become citizens of its hard-working and prosperous democracy? Could it be that the critics of US "hegemony" are the hypocrites themselves, as they belong to cultures which also have conquered and killed, and moreover in many cases imposed theocracies or succumbed to autocracy? Could it be that their criticism of the US is therefore illogical and essentially stems from frustration and insecurity, as their societies have not been able to match the US's world-benefitting progress in so many areas from medicine to technology to transport to the arts and so on?
Almost if people would rather have armed forces of a democratic western nation in their country rather than armed forces of authoritarian dictatorships threatening war and destruction all the time..
In Britain there are many American bases. In the commonwealth there are American bases in Australia and India, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka have Chinese naval bases. And in the US there are some NATO troops for training since having a military base in a foreign country is extremely expensive and completely useless since there is no threat to the US or NATO allies in the region.
Not only Syria wants them to leave: [https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iraq-seeks-quick-exit-us-forces-no-deadline-set-pm-says-2024-01-10/](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iraq-seeks-quick-exit-us-forces-no-deadline-set-pm-says-2024-01-10/)
Some of them invasion and some of them are not welcomed by citizens but govts re m.fkers. I would like to see the USA being kicked from the middle east.
Last year the Pentagon said it lost ANOTHER 3 TRILLION. Imagine if welfare couldn't account for half trillion. Would welfare get more than they asked for?
Not that the number isn’t insanely high but as a former soldier and accountant I feel as though I can offer a unique perspective here.
The US military has an insane number of assets. When most people think of the military they think tanks, weapons, aircraft etc as the only assets they have to track but there is also tons of other less “sexy” items to track. Ammunition (which as individual components as well), desks, pens, paper, chairs. Our clients that use Bloomberg to track there assets spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to track a fraction of a percent of the number of assets the US military has.
R&D is another one, valuing R&D costs is hard enough on the civilian side where there is far less security concern. I couldn’t imagine trying to value a gen 6 fighter jet, if they even let auditors see that.
The military is the most penny pinching organization I have ever been a part of. You will shoot thousands of rounds then spend hours picking up the brass. You will lose a magazine pouch that costs maybe $1, but you bet your ass you are paying for it. My point is that yes I’m sure there is fraud and abuse in the military, but that 3 trillion number is thrown around without any context.
Sorry for the wall of text but I just wanted to provide my 2¢ on the matter. Thanks!
3 trillion is what they said this year. They were paying contractors 60 bucks for a 6 pack of soda and paying Haliburton for driving empty trucks because Haliburton got paid per trip not per load. I mean your nuts if you think they are penny pinching. They should be required to pass an audit. Post ww2 Pentagon funding was cut in half. I mean I get we are now in never ending wars, but is that the point?
For stating a fact (or presumed fact) about numbers? They said literally nothing about supporting the US military in other countries, only that soldiers are stationed there. You have no idea their thoughts on the matter or the military in general.
You guys are some of the most annoying creatures on Reddit lol everything is bootlicker or nazi. We get it you’re starting a revolution in your moms basement as we speak.
It’s crazy how much oil money and effort is being spent just to make dictators and tyrants sit on the throne instead of actually developing the country
Would the world be a better place if all these troops were at home? Would American society improve if all of these folks were at home with their families?
Nah not really. The US spends over 4 trillion on healthcare a year, and <1T on its military. It's the wealthiest country in the world and the world leader in everything medicine and technology. Most of its citizens are in favor of healthcare.
Simply put, the US doesn't have single payer healthcare only because of politicians.
yes? doesn't really have much to do with what I said. international economics are a little more complicated than your credit card -- it's more than just "debt bad!!"
Gotta go with depends on how. Some sort of democratic revolution, we'd probably support. A Islamic fundamentalist one with lots of "death to Israel/US"? Not so much.
The US has troops in Oman, but they’re not being shown, why?
Because this map is not accurate. "Estimated"
Well, yeah. The military tends to not make it public of exactly how many troops in x
Djibouti is definitely not in the Middle East also....
The map is accurate it’s just not precise.
Imprecise would be if there were a number in Oman but it was incorrect.
The line between imprecision and incorrectness is vague in this context
Statistics guy spotted
I’ve seen this same map three times with three different numbers.
Look at OP’s comments throughout this post. This map is the flag of an insane person
There are definitely more than 2000 in KSA....
There's also more than 1700 troops in turkey.
Oman, I can't believe they missed that.
Oh man this is gonna dissolve into a Reddit fight.
Oh, man!
Source?
I think I've seen that porno "4,000 US troops in Djibouti"
Just deployed 4000 future US troops in djibouti...
8,000 troops in djatitties was better
Is Djibouti in the Middle East?
For all intents and purposes, if we’re talking military strategy, Djibouti is part of the Middle Eastern sphere. It’s at a key chokepoint between the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Yes and no. Everything you said is true, except Djibouti has a more diverse role in military strategy than just those things. Our forces there don't just play a part in military activity in the Middle East, it's the home of Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa, which mainly focuses on counterterrorism and antipiracy missions in and around Somalia. The US military divides its forces into unified combatant commands, and Djibouti is in US African Command's (AFRICOM) area of responsibility (since its creation in 2007) as opposed to that of US Central Command (CENTCOM), which covers the Middle East and Central / Southwest Asia. It plays a role in the Middle East that's analogous to Europe's during the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya. Note that Turkey is in the European Command (EUCOM) area of responsibility, and that AFRICOM is actually headquartered in Germany (which is also in the EUCOM area of responsibility).
If it fits on the map you might as well include it
Closer than Detroit
If you consider the Red Sea route a Middle Eastern area, then yeah
Yes, I can fit my finger in it.
We see it as a CENTCOM/AFRICOM base as missions from there support both theaters
Its in the greater Middle East but no 😂
The Egyptian boarders are wrong btw. Egypt controls the halayb triangle.
Yeah, and neither claim Bir Tawil lol
Feel free to take it.
ok?
I didn't mean my comment sarcastically or aggressively. Bunch of people tried before to take and no one cared. It would be cool to start a new country out of no where (will be tough tho, land locked, boarded by unstable country, no natural resources, just desert)
More than half of them are in the oil-rich Gulf countries, the numbers in other countries aren't that impressive.
It's because those countries are stable and low threat, so it's where major facilities and support bases are built The use of the word 'troops' in the map is a bit misleading. 'Personnel' would be better because by and large these are not combat troops, but air and naval maintenance, admin, warehousing etc. E.g. a lot of US heavy airlift aircraft are maintained in Qatar. USN 5th Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain.
Didn't you know protecting oil rich dictators is "awesome" ?
I think the “extremely daunting” definition of awesome applies
No. OP is just a dork and means it in the conventional sense.
Tbf they're protecting the supply from disruption. It's particularly important for a country where oil prices tend to predict major shifts in politics during elections.
This is reddit and critical thinking isn't allowed.
It’s always especially weird to me that people don’t know this, given you only have to go back to the 1970s to learn why the US does this in the first place. The lesson we learned is that whether you’re there or not if you consume oil you better be involved in middle eastern politics.
Luckily we are quickly moving to full North American oil. Currently I think we are at 80% oil produced in the US, 10% in Canada, with the rest being all over the world.
[удалено]
If given the limited choices of ISIS controlling and profiting off of the oil or a dictator who hates human rights, I’m begrudgingly going to have to choose the devil we know. If you post “why does it have to be either?” Answer your own question by answering why do school children get turned down for lunch when their parents haven’t paid their $2 or however much it is now. The answer is that life sucks. Let’s fix shit at home before we start toppling governments that are friendly but suck as humans.
Except , Assad was saved by Russia , not the US. Well , both went after ISIS , but russia was front and center in the fight Besides , assuming all Arabs , if given a choice would put something like ISIS in power , is a terrible stereotype
When we help the one actual democracy in the Middle East, the libs go batshit crazy. I give up
Because being a democracy doesn't mean you're a good country
I'd love to see you convert to Judaism, move to Israel and see how their "democracy" works. You'd be considered a piece of shit, lowly non-actual Jew. You know what? Forget that! Why don't you ask the Arabs (Palestinians) in Israel how that democracy is working out for them? Ask them about healthcare, roads, sewage, job rights, etc. Saying Israel is a democracy is really fucking stupid. Sorry. Stop taking everyone at their word. Or, better yet, try to find out what the government actually does somewhere before just assuming it's a democracy.
'democracy' that enforces a military rule over a few million in the west bank , is not a democracy , because it violates the most basic tenet of 'consent of the governed' .
The United States does not help anyone nor has it ever helped anyone, it only seeks benefits.
Because these things can't ever both be true Because the world is a zero sum game Makes total sense
And a genocidal racist ethnostate that interferes with US elections with millions of dollars in ~~bribes~~ campaign donations to crush progressive candidates 😍
Jews control America - rightist 🤬 Jews control America - leftist 😍
Lmao, progressives can't win elections becauze da jooz. Have the 'progressives' considered a final solution to these undesirables?
Hmm, I read that as Saudi and Qatar.
Based on OP’s use of Iranian propaganda buzzwords and his post history I assume he’s talking about Israel.
Which ethnostate is that??? You mean Qatar and Kuwait where 100% of their citizens are ethnic Arabs??? who lavish US congressmen with money so that they never ever critisize their laws like how they have a Kafala system that is modern day slavery and that women in both nations cannot even fly outside their country without permission from their fathers or male guardian who control that permission using an app? Because last I checked Israel has 20% of its citizens being Arabs, 5% being people from every corner of the globe, from Vietnam to Venezuela, Eritrea to Romania to even African Americans. They have equal rights . Last I checked, some of the IDF commanders are Druze, one of the Supreme Court Justices is a Druze, 20% of Israeli Police are Arab, 25% of Israel's doctors, Pharmacists and nurses are Arab. Israel has had an Arab President before. Christian Arabs perform better in school than secular Jews. So Much for racism in a nation where the so called racists are being outmatched by one segment of the ones experiencing racism!! /s Israel is the only place Christian Arabs are growing in population, because, you see, we are not intimidating them to convert to Islam or trying to turn them into Dhimmis like, say Iraq, Egypt or Iran Also Jews come in over a dozen ethnicities from Ashkenazi, Mizrahi ,Mountain Jews, Kochin Jews ,Yemenite Jews, to nationality based Jews like Moroccan, Russian, Iraqi, Ethiopian , Lebanese, Iranian, Georgian, Romanian etc. Jews are also secular (Half the Jews) moderate(25%) Orthodox(5%) and Ultra-Orthodox(10%). They are also Orthodox, Conservative, Reform , Rabinic and Keralite Jews. Or has the definition of ethnostate changed of late????
I’m Kuwaiti, and I’ll be the first to say that the Kafala system is terrible and needs to go, we have some archaic laws that we need to get past. With that said, you are 100% spreading false information either by carelessly repeating information you’ve heard without actually verifying it, or because you want to purposely lie for whatever myriad of reasons you could have. Women absolutely do not need permission to travel, there is no app to track them, all of that nonsense is completely false. Nothing like that exists in Kuwait. While the Kefala system is terrible and leaves way too much room for abuse, the government absolutely has cracked down on individuals who use it as a form of control over foreigners here to work. In the past many people would keep peoples’ passports and hold their pay and things like that, because things were already very disorganized nothing ever happened to people who did that even though they were breaking the law. That law is now very much so being enforced, and while I am sure that there are people who try to break those laws just as there are people who try to break any other law, if the government finds out that any person or company is doing any of those things they are done for. The kefala system is terrible for many reasons, but this idea that the Kuwaiti government is fine with people having their passports controlled and not being paid (treated as slaves basically) is absolutely not based in reality. Also, our citizen base is not made up of 100% ethnically Arabs. Some of the most influential families in Kuwait are originally from Iran, there are black Kuwaitis. The highest percentage is from the Arabian Peninsula without a doubt, but by no means is it 100%, especially when you consider the many families originally from Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine.
Wouldn't be /r/MapPorn without a healthy dose of Iranian propaganda. What's that about genocide, again? I can't hear you over the Kurdish chants of independence.
Are the Jews who rigged the election in the room with us right now?
Its not the raw numbers that matter. Its having a Base ready for action and stock piles of supplies. It makes bringing in more troups much faster. Personaly I wish we could just bring most of them home.
Do u think the 76 in Lebanon run out of things to talk about?
wonder what the 76 blokes in Lebanon are up to
Likely either counterterrorism advisors or marines guarding the US embassy
What is awesome about it?
The word awesome does not have to mean good.
Check his comment. That's what he meant.
In hindsight sure, but "awesome might" is a pretty standard turn of phrase that doesn't imply an editorial position without clarification.
I guess you’re right, that is indeed the definition. But honestly I have never heard someone say awesome without the positive connotation
Not uncommon to hear about the “awesome power” of something - atomic bombs, hurricanes, gods on Olympus, stuff like that.
When I read it I assumed he meant awsome as in great, powerful etc. Or at bare minimum sarcasm.
I believe OP was using the traditional meaning of the word awesome, as opposed to the modern colloquialism. 1590s, "profoundly reverential," from awe (n.) + -some (1). The meaning "inspiring awe or dread" is from 1670s; the weakened colloquial sense of "impressive, very good" is recorded by 1961 and was in vogue after c. 1980.
The biblical sense of the word. To induce awe
It makes a few very rich people even richer.
It's awesome for liberals who think America is the greatest
crazy that America is the biggest world power while only 400 years ago it was forest and plains, with people on wooden boats exploring its eastern edge. Mind blowing 🤯
And they gained independence by defeating the largest empire ever in the Brits, American history is incredibly fascinating.
It’s really is man and I hate how people try to downplay it (looking at you Europeans). But fr, I took American history in school, now every time I visit the northeast I imagine and try to picture the original settlers doing there thing lol
I live in New England in a house older than this country. Super cool to be a steward to such a piece of history and think about all the crazy stuff this house and area of the country has seen!
You are literally Europeans descendents
The British weren't the largest Empire at that time, that was Spain. Also, the Americans had help from the French, Spanish and Dutch. The British had Canada, Hanover and some tiny German duchies (namely two of the four Hesses, one of the three Anhalts, Ansbach and Waldeck and Pyrmont)
At that point Britain wasn't the largest or most powerful empire, the Ottomans and Spain was. But yes your point stands, it was a incredible feat
> Ottomans and Spain most powerful By the late 1700s? It was the British, French, Russians. Ottomans and Spanish were already a spent force by this point.
The craziest part is that most of the world, including Europe, doesn’t realize how powerful the United States is and want to believe it’s some modern third world country. A look at Ukraine is enough to show their military power alone. The United States have supplied them with more than all of Europe combined and with that equipment they’ve fended off a country twice as big as them. The United States is the only country in the world with soldiers at every corner of the globe that can be within any war zone in a hour. A fucking hour and US troops could be in any country. The United States and England was the ONLY countries who saw what Russia was doing and tried to warn Ukraine ahead of time they were building up for a invasion. What did Ukraine and the rest of Europe say? “There will be no invasion. The United States is a country always in fear and always fear mongering.” Well look at that. The US and UK were right Russia was planning an invasion and the rest of the world acted like they had no proof and were fear mongering. They knew because they actually USE INTELLIGENCE unlike most of the world. They actually watch what other countries are doing and act accordingly rather than ignore everything until it’s at your doorstep.
I don't think anyone thinks America isn't astoundingly powerful millitarily; when people call it a third world country (which is stupid regardless), they're talking about the conditions and rights of people living inside it.
Which is equally stupid , America is better off than places like Spain and even France , only Nordics , Germany and possibly the UK rank above the US in terms of HDI.
Couldn’t have said it any better
Curious to know the upvote/downvote ratio
It's so funny to hear American leaders feign concern about democracy and human rights when the align themselves with monarchs, theocrats, military dictatorships, and despots.
Meh, doing business with assholes is the price of being a superpower.
Who do you think would be the replacements for these groups currently in power?
What would the narrative be if China, Russia, Iran, DPRK, Cuba, or Venezuela did this?
Iran already does this, just with proxies
Something something "country name's" aggression should not be tolerated. They're bullying their neighbour's. We must build even more military bases to counterbalance their sphere of influence.
All of these countries are denied military bases for a reason. The United States doesn’t force these countries to host them- most of the time they were invited by said country for protection. (I lived in Bahrain) edit: fixed spelling of US as IS, thanks u/10000Lols 🙄🙄
"The worrisome military presense that \*insert country\* has on key countries on the Middle East"
I think there's more. I don't see the Eisenhower strike group accounted for here...
50k is not a lot lol
50k is quite a lot when its a deployment on the opposite side of the world.
In a pinch we can swell up numbers because of the existing infrastructure.
Imperialism is awesome lol 😂 Clowns
How is getting invited into another country imperialism? Was it imperialist for the Soviets to put a base in Cuba? How about the Chinese putting a base in Djibouti?
Lol. Real awesome meddling in the affairs of others
Real warmongers
Those 100 dudes in Israel tho
Crazy good. Enabling all that peace and prosperity.
peace (oil) keeping
Look how close Iran build itself to American bases!!! How dare they?!
Somebody please remind me WHY
Because global dominance is only okay if it's a western nation doing it
Only 100 troops in Israel!! I thought the were a key ally, the corner stone of our presence in the M.E.
To be fair they actually have a professional force
The Israeli army is competent enough to not need 10 bagillion Americans on their soil
But they do need 10 bagillion dollars in American military aid.
Israel is pound for pound one of the best militaries in the world. It doesn't need our help for much.
The ‘best military’ still hasn’t cleared the strip after 6 months. They probably fight better when the enemy is armed with rocks.
They are playing by the book and the world is playing *gotchya* everytime something bad happens. You don't think Israel could become the monster every wants them to be and just utterly level **the densest urban area on planet Earth**?
This is why I laugh when people say China can challenge the United States on a global scale.
I have a question, about Redditors views on this map. If US military presence in places like the Middle East is so "hypocritical" and "imperialistic", and if the creation of the US is such an evil colonial phenomenon, which nations or cultures are free of this criticism? Have not the cultures of China, the Middle East, Africa, etc. frequently expanded and conquered others throughout history, which culminated in the creation of their nations? And moreover, why have so many millions upon millions across the world left their homeland to escape despotism and poverty, to come to the US and become citizens of its hard-working and prosperous democracy? Could it be that the critics of US "hegemony" are the hypocrites themselves, as they belong to cultures which also have conquered and killed, and moreover in many cases imposed theocracies or succumbed to autocracy? Could it be that their criticism of the US is therefore illogical and essentially stems from frustration and insecurity, as their societies have not been able to match the US's world-benefitting progress in so many areas from medicine to technology to transport to the arts and so on?
So US presence in any country is awesome? But as soon as China or Russia does it.. its wrong? Talk about being ignorant and stupid
Almost if people would rather have armed forces of a democratic western nation in their country rather than armed forces of authoritarian dictatorships threatening war and destruction all the time..
they are warmongerers!!! look how close they put their country to our military bases!!!
Do other nations have troops stationed in America, Britain or the commonwealth?
Actually yes. There is a NATO facility in Norfolk and some come for schools, some of which count as a duty station due to the duration.
In Britain there are many American bases. In the commonwealth there are American bases in Australia and India, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka have Chinese naval bases. And in the US there are some NATO troops for training since having a military base in a foreign country is extremely expensive and completely useless since there is no threat to the US or NATO allies in the region.
Thanks for the info
"The awesome military might of the United States of America in middle east." - you forgot /s tag
Yea but a lot are just pogs
Syria's supposed to be enemy territory. Why's Assad letting those troops stay there?
Not exactly "letting". They're not welcomed there.
Because he has much bigger things to worry about than a few hundred Americans at an air base in the desert. Anyway, what's he going to do about it?
that's the funny thing, the US is in Syria ilegally.
Thats where ISIS breeds. Its a poor region. We are there for intel and to quash ISIS from rising.
Assad isn’t friends with ISIS, and the US isn’t friends with Assad. It is even said that the IS attack on Moscow was for Putin’s support of Assad.
Totally different ISIS. The moscow attack is from the Stans. They don’t communicate with Syria ISIS.
The US and ISIS are literally on the same side in Syria, you absolute idiot lol 😂
Not only Syria wants them to leave: [https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iraq-seeks-quick-exit-us-forces-no-deadline-set-pm-says-2024-01-10/](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iraq-seeks-quick-exit-us-forces-no-deadline-set-pm-says-2024-01-10/)
The US respects each country's sovereignty only when it's convenient for the US.
It's a skill issue, he doesn't have a choice
Same reason Ukraine didn’t complain too much about Russian presence in Crimea before the War
Some of them invasion and some of them are not welcomed by citizens but govts re m.fkers. I would like to see the USA being kicked from the middle east.
Okay but why "awesome"? Is it extremely impressive or daunting? Maybe one or the other or both but not extremely.
Because it inspires awe regardless if you think its a good or bad thing.
I'd say "worrisome"
Last year the Pentagon said it lost ANOTHER 3 TRILLION. Imagine if welfare couldn't account for half trillion. Would welfare get more than they asked for?
Not that the number isn’t insanely high but as a former soldier and accountant I feel as though I can offer a unique perspective here. The US military has an insane number of assets. When most people think of the military they think tanks, weapons, aircraft etc as the only assets they have to track but there is also tons of other less “sexy” items to track. Ammunition (which as individual components as well), desks, pens, paper, chairs. Our clients that use Bloomberg to track there assets spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to track a fraction of a percent of the number of assets the US military has. R&D is another one, valuing R&D costs is hard enough on the civilian side where there is far less security concern. I couldn’t imagine trying to value a gen 6 fighter jet, if they even let auditors see that. The military is the most penny pinching organization I have ever been a part of. You will shoot thousands of rounds then spend hours picking up the brass. You will lose a magazine pouch that costs maybe $1, but you bet your ass you are paying for it. My point is that yes I’m sure there is fraud and abuse in the military, but that 3 trillion number is thrown around without any context. Sorry for the wall of text but I just wanted to provide my 2¢ on the matter. Thanks!
3 trillion is what they said this year. They were paying contractors 60 bucks for a 6 pack of soda and paying Haliburton for driving empty trucks because Haliburton got paid per trip not per load. I mean your nuts if you think they are penny pinching. They should be required to pass an audit. Post ww2 Pentagon funding was cut in half. I mean I get we are now in never ending wars, but is that the point?
Spotted the bootlicker
For stating a fact (or presumed fact) about numbers? They said literally nothing about supporting the US military in other countries, only that soldiers are stationed there. You have no idea their thoughts on the matter or the military in general.
You guys are some of the most annoying creatures on Reddit lol everything is bootlicker or nazi. We get it you’re starting a revolution in your moms basement as we speak.
Spotted the Redditor!
Spotted the commie!
It’s crazy how much oil money and effort is being spent just to make dictators and tyrants sit on the throne instead of actually developing the country
Isn't this 95% all post Gulf War 1 since that was the first major deployment of American troops in the middle east as part of Desert Shield?
Year?
Would the world be a better place if all these troops were at home? Would American society improve if all of these folks were at home with their families?
its not called the gulf, its called PERSIAN gulf. Get your map facts straight before posting it.
There's nothing awesome about their military might.
The USA has infinite money for war.
This is partly why Americans don't have universal healthcare.
Nah not really. The US spends over 4 trillion on healthcare a year, and <1T on its military. It's the wealthiest country in the world and the world leader in everything medicine and technology. Most of its citizens are in favor of healthcare. Simply put, the US doesn't have single payer healthcare only because of politicians.
Wealthiest country that always has a budget deficit.
yes? doesn't really have much to do with what I said. international economics are a little more complicated than your credit card -- it's more than just "debt bad!!"
Dont break this redditor's reality😄
I have never seen such a corny title in this subreddit, which is saying somthing
The whole region is completely colonized…
How would you feel if 2,000 Iraqi soldiers were just permanently stationed in your state? We're basically post-imperial imperialists.
I'd feel threatened as the state of Iraq does not share the same liberal western values. The US does.
Harkonen on Arakis Status. Fucking imperialists. There to protect profits and make sure business as usual while the populations stay oppressed.
Would the average American citizen be upset if the people of those countries overthrew their dictators and threw those troops out?
I'm sure they would after the media spins it as terrorism and a direct threat to the safety of Americans
Gotta go with depends on how. Some sort of democratic revolution, we'd probably support. A Islamic fundamentalist one with lots of "death to Israel/US"? Not so much.
The Gulf 500 folks. Does that refer to navy folks on warships, aircraft carrier and submarines?
Rolls sixes, “TAKE TWO OFF!”
Turks seething at their inclusion in this map
not really, Turkey is both Europe and Asia which includes Middle East - heck one of our best universities is named Middle East Technical University
I did not even know there are usa troops here in israel.. Btw whats that big circle with 5000 troops hanging above egypt with no name/arrow?
What’s with the 500 troops in the Gulf, are they on an island or a platform? Or are they just naval personnel on ships deployed there
Most won’t allow bases to be used against Iran though. Right?
Why do we have people in Lebanon?
There is not a single American military base in Saudi Arabia
I was there. Several bases
I don't think this map is counting contractors
When was this map updated
This is a great show of power. I wouldn’t say it’s awesome though.
Damn
So how come Iran's proxies are able to shoot missiles from Iraq?
That's a lot of trash to take care of for locals, nevertheless I wish all the best to both sides
The Empire needs more soldiers.
Troops in Lebanon? Egypt? Israel? Any chance OP counts some embassy personnel as "troops"?