Here we have different presentations or sometimes bands that come or we even have talent night If people wanna show off their t

STANDING ARMY ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT

VOICE OVER

Beginning in the 1980s, a belief has slowly taken over the world: that neo-liberal globalization, with its built-in self-regulating mechanisms, would finally do away with old institutions like the state and the military, and would usher the planet into an era of relative peace and prosperity.

9/11, and the current economic crisis, have shown that belief to be largely a myth.

But many signs where already there: markets have always relied on state power and military might.

Americas transformation from republic to economic superpower, following World War II, was accompanied by the creation of a global network of military bases unlike any other in history.

According to the Pentagons Base Structure Report, today these amount to 716, in 38 countries.

More than 250.000 soldiers are stationed on these bases.

In addition to this, the US has a military presence in 110 countries around the world.

A year after his election Barack Obama approved the new administrations first military budget.

This amounts to 680 billion dollar. 30 billion more than Bushs last defense budget.

And almost equalling the 787 billion dollars set aside by the new administration for the economic crisis stimulus package.

Why, despite the crisis, does the military budget keep growing?

Are crises and military expansion related in some way?

SOLDIER

Here we have different presentations or sometimes bands that come.

We even have talent night, if people want to show off their talent.

We have a stage.

Weve done all sorts of things here, from Halloween parties, Christmas parties.

There are other events that happen here at this centre as well.

They have salsa classes, Ive never taken the salsa classes.

PHYLLIS

In the early 21sty century, military bases, the network of military bases all around the world, forms the new empire that the US is trying to build.

When you look at the Pentagons website and their public information, they acknowledge having somewhere over 700 military bases scattered amongst about 130 countries.

Thats astonishing.

Most Americans have no idea.

There are more than a quarter of a million, more than 250.000 US troops stationed on these bases all around the world.

SOLDIER

Its not illegal to tape but I got to respect the managers point of view.

Those are the movies that we have and the movies are free.

JOHNSON

The unit of empire in the classic European empire was the colony.

The unit for the American empire is not the colony, its the military base.

CHOMSKY

Bases are the empire.

Theyre the point of projection of power and expansion of power.

GERSON

Most people dont understand that the bases exist, dont understand the functions of military bases.

And frankly its much easier for people to engage in things like an atrocious war in Iraq, questions of torture, things that immediately outrage them.

SOLDIER

These are Internet stations where the soldiers can not only check the Internet but they also have the capability of doing webcams back home.

You can go in.

LUTZ

To focus on war and not war preparation is to simply shovel after the elephant.

One has to look at the war preparations that are going on around the world, which military bases are central to.

One has to look at the military-industrial complex in the US and the weapons trade of a number of nations around the world.

If one doesnt pay attention to that then again we can only deal with the symptoms, which is warfare.

Theres a saying that goes When soldiers come, war comes.

LANDOWNDER

In the past when the American soldiers came we would ring this bell to scare them away.

We would scream: Yankee go home!.

The American bases havent only stolen our lands but our whole way of life.

Our culture, our history and everything else.

Such a thing can't be tolerated.

They say the bases are here to guarantee world peace.

But theyve been used in the Korean War, in Vietnam and now in Iraq.

In war people die, thats obvious.

I feel a great pain in my heart because our lands are being used to kill people.

If a cook asks you for a knife there's nothing wrong in lending it to him.

But if he asks you for a knife to murder someone lending it to him would make you a murderer.

On this photograph it says: Give me back my land.

VOICE OVER

World War II marked the birth of Americas global empire of bases.

For Germany, Italy and Japan, the defeat was followed by the establishment of a permanent American presence that continues to this day.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Okinawa, a little island south of the Japanese mainland, which after the war remained under US administration until 1972, when the island was returned to Japan.

In those years, the US established dozens of military bases on the island. Today, along with South Korea and due to its proximity to China and Taiwan, Okinawa still represents America's military stronghold in East Asia.

The island hosts 38 US bases, which house a force of 35.000 soldiers.

The growing tension between the US and the Soviet Union, following the war, led to an unprecedented global military build-up and to a strategy of exploitation of people's fears that in various forms has continued to this day.

In those years, America expanded into new territories, first and foremost South Korea, which still hosts 26 major US bases.

But not all new bases were the consequence of war.

Some were the result of simple power politics.

Such is the case of Diego Garcia, a small island in the Indian Ocean, part of the British overseas territories, whose inhabitants got caught up in the global power struggle.

JOHNSON

Nobody seems to know that Diego Garcia used to have a considerable population that was entirely bungled up and shipped out in order to, as the US Navy put it, sanitize the place.

VINCATASSIN

The US wanted a base in the Indian Ocean at all costs, because of the Cold War.

Diego Garcia has a wonderful lagoon that would really be the ideal place for a base.

So we where at the wrong place, you know, at the wrong place at that time, because that place was the best place for the most sophisticated US/UK base outside of the US and the UK.

VOICE OVER

In 1971, due to an agreement between the UK and the US, the British made the island available to the Americans as a military base, because of its geostrategic position, and deported its 2.000 inhabitants.

Today, according to the Pentagon, Diego Garcia is one the 13 major US military bases in the world and has played a crucial role in all post-9/11 conflicts.

The Diego Garcia exiles today live scattered between Mauritius and the United Kingdom, where for years they have been fighting a legal battle to return to their island.

In 2008, though, the House of Lords overruled all the cases previously won by the islanders, which upheld their right of return.

DIEGO GARCIA ISLANDER

The US government is responsible.

They knew perfectly well that the island was inhabited.

They can see anything that happens anywhere in the world.

They can't say they didn't know we were living on Diego Garcia.

VINCATASSIN

We had to suffer exile for defense purposes.

And we paid that price, and that price was to be exiled from your homeland for the defense of the West.

ARCHIVE

To a substantial degree, in one form or another, socialism has spread the shadow of human regimentation over most of the nations of the Earth, and the shadow is encroaching upon our own liberty.

ARCHIVE

Our businesses have continued to provide a better life for our increasing population, in spite of destructive forces which have pounded against our foundation of freedoms with no avail.

However wars, or the threat of wars, interrupt the normal operations of our competitive business system.

JOHNSON

I was certainly a Cold Warrior.

I thought that the Soviet Union was a menace, I still do, I still believe that we had every right to try and defend ourselves against the power of the Soviet Union.

I began to change, I got new information after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Above all how fast our country, the US, moved to find a replacement enemy, to keep the military-industrial complex functioning, to serve the vested interests in the Cold War system.

I was appalled by this.

I believed that we should have, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, eliminated any bases for this global apparatus.

There was no further reason for it, it was irrelevant. Instead they moved at once to find another enemy:

China, terrorism, drug lords, even instability.

Anything to keep it going.

BLUM

We needed an enemy.

Its as if we were a football team and we were practicing to play a game, we were learning certain plays, and now we didnt have any opponent.

How can we play this game anymore?

And so they needed a new enemy.

And the new enemy, well, for a while it was drugs.

We had a War on Drugs.

But then it became terrorism.

And that was a very good substitute in the minds of our leaders.

ARCHIVE

Sometimes were afraid of big things.

And sometimes were afraid of very little ones.

But now, theres something else about fear that I dont think you quite understand, Billy.

Whats that?

Well, sometimes when you become afraid there isnt anything thats really dangerous.

Sometimes you think things are dangerous when theyre not.

GROSSMAN

John Stockwell, former CIA agent, wrote a very pressing book called In Search of Enemies, in which he identified different eras in US history when the propaganda machine was geared up to identify a particular enemy of the moment, in order that the US public would support a military build-up or support a particular war.

So today we have, for instance, Chavez in Venezuela, who really hasnt worked out too well as an enemy, so I think they really had to go to Ahmadinejad in Iran.

Before that it was Ortega in Nicaragua and Khomeini in Iran, there was Ho Chi Minh and Castro for instance.

So there always has to be a set of enemies that justifies US military build-up, particularly at a time when, for instance, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was the danger that the US public would no longer support continual war, continual military build-up.

GERSON

What then becomes the rationale for continuing to keep these military bases, for continuing to have the military alliances and continuing to have a military budget thats equal to that of the rest of the world combined?

VIDAL

What a worldwide network of bases means is that you have at your fingertips, if you are the emperor of the West, the means of perpetual war.

Theres always somebody we dont like and somebody who must be stopped.

Perpetual war for perpetual peace being the American dream.

Once we were launched upon empire we would never look back.

And we would always find a pretext to attack an enemy.

ARCHIVE

Targeting is an intricate process.

Many things are considered.

We have advanced weapon systems with precision munitions and we take care in matching the appropriate ordnance to produce the desired effect on the target.

VOICE OVER

The foundations for the New World Order were laid in the Middle East in 1991.

Following the First Gulf War the US established a permanent military presence in the Middle East, much like it had done 50 years earlier in Europe and East Asia.

The true consequences of this policy would be seen only 10 years later.

In 2001 Osama bin Laden cited the US military presence in his homeland, Saudi Arabia, as a reason for his hatred of the United States.

In a curious twist of fate, though, the 9/11 attacks and America's military response paved the way for the birth of new military bases in Iraq and Central Asia, first and foremost in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon's Base Structure Report doesn't include the bases present in war zones or those considered politically sensitive, such as the ones in Israel.

The actual number of US bases around the world is thus much larger than the 716 admitted by the US government.

ARCHIVE

Before engineers and contractors can begin construction on buildings here at the 380th they first need a good foundation to build upon.

SOLDIER

We are in charge of keeping the base clean, fence repair, concrete pads.

ARCHIVE

The heavy repair shop is currently working on pouring the concrete foundation for the bases new temporary gym.

This job requires a whole unite to come together to get the job done.

LUTZ

The relationship between bases and war is a hand and glove relationship.

Most of the US bases, I would say the majority, are the result of war.

They are the booty or loot of war, in the sense that they were captured during wartime and never given back.

When a very large, burly man comes and makes you an offer you cant refuse you end up with a military base.

BLUM

One of the main reasons of US intervenes in various parts of the world is to add bases.

For example, following the US bombing of Iraq in 1991, the United States wound up with military bases in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and United Arab Emirates.

Following its bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 the US wound up with military bases in Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Bosnia, and Croatia.

Following its bombing of Afghanistan in 2002 the US wound up with military bases in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kurdistan, Georgia, Yemen, and Djibouti.

And following its bombing and invasion of Iraq in 2003 the US wound up with Iraq.

GROSSMAN

Staying behind, I believe, is the ultimate purpose of many of these wars.

We used to think of military bases being built in order to wage the wars, and I think increasingly we see the wars themselves as convenient opportunities to station the bases and to have a more permanent presence in countries such as Iraq, such as Afghanistan, such as Kosovo.

SOLDIER

What we have in here is videogames.

SOLDIER

My name is McIntosh.

Im with Task Force Bayonet, first platoon.

We run patrols daily, keeping a safe and secure environment.

Ive wanted to be in the army for quite a long time.

And when I hit that age I was like: well, its a good way to pay for college, to get to do something Ive been wanting to do for a long time. Guns, being active, Ive never wanted a desk job, so it had to be infantry for me.

Something where I could be moving around, constantly doing something active.

INTERVIEWER

How do you feel about being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan?

SOLDIER

Im nervous but Im ready.

If I get called to go, that could be another exciting experience for me.

CLINTON

The US-Japan security alliance is the cornerstone of Americas defense posture in the Asia Pacific.

The US is both a trans-Pacific and a trans-Atlantic power but we couldnt project that power without the men and women who serve here in Japan.

As we look at the region, it is at peace but we have threats like what we hear every day from North Korea.

And the security mission and the humanitarian mission that has been carried out from here in Japan with respect to tsunamis and cyclones and so much else is essential to continuing to undergird Americas leadership and being prepared for the kind of challenges we face but also to seize the opportunities for a better future.

VOICE OVER

In 2009, after years of local protests, US Secretary of State Clinton signed an agreement with the Japanese government to move the 8.000 troops stationed in the Futenma Air Base to the island of Guam, a US territory.

The move, though, is tied to the construction of a new airstrip on the eastern coast of Okinawa, in Henoko Bay.

This project follows the decision to expand the Jungle Warfare Training Centre in Takae, further north.

In short, the US has agreed to return some land to the locals but only if they accept to give up more land elsewhere on the island.

PROFESSOR

The US takes no responsibility for its impact on people and the environment.

Now they are planning the construction of a huge airstrip that would reclaim a large portion of sea.

Since many rare species live here this would have very serious consequences.

The dugongs in Okinawa are the only ones in all of Eastern Asia, and there are less than fifty left.

HENOKO ACTIVIST

This is an ideal habitat for the dugongs.

We have to do all we can to take care of it.

The reef is right here! It protects the bay and enables the sea grass that the dugongs eat to flourish.

This is Camp Schwab military base.

The US established it in the midst of World War II.

The marines who come here are very young.

They're 17 or 18 years old. They come here because this place the army uses this place to recruit new soldiers.

This is why they come here.

As you can see, it looks like a real sea resort.

TAKAE ACTIVIST 1.

We now find ourselves in the Yambaru forest.

This is the last major forest left in Okinawa and we want it to be returned to us.

I find it strange that even if we are in Japan I can't enter an area where a US flag is flying.

This is the only place in the world where the US soldiers can train in the jungle.

That's why they don't want to give it up.

To protect the forest and our own lives we now picket this place 24 hours a day.

These dots here: they are all US heliports.

According to their plans they should already have built 3 new helipads.

But until now weve prevented them to do so with our pickets.

TAKAE ACTIVIST 2.

I sat in front of Camp Schwab for one year, from morning to night.

I held up a sign saying: No New Bases.

A lot of soldiers came out to talk to me.

They offered me hamburgers for breakfast.

They were so young.

I couldn't believe they would be sent to Iraq to murder other people.

Here these kids are trained to kill.

We must stop this!

We believe we can prevent the construction of these helipads with our actions.

Obviously we only resort to peaceful means of protest.

CLINTON

We have a lot of challenges but we also have some real opportunities and its up to each of us to determine the role that we will play on behalf of our country and our leadership.

But I have every confidence that when it comes to defending Americas security and advancing our interests, we have nobody better than all of you.

So thank you, and thanks to your families, thanks for the service and the sacrifice, and thanks for making a difference every day.

ARCHIVE

Many of us fuss over how we look.

Some dont worry at all.

And theyre free to do that too.

But only because other shape up, step forward and serve our country.

JOHNSON

By militarism we do not mean national defense, or the obligation of citizenship for able body people to defend the country in times of national emergency.

We mean a way of life, a way of making a living, an ideological position.

Originally our conception of American military was like the early Roman legions of the republic: they where raised for emergency, farmers left their fields, went to war and were instantaneously demobilized.

They where not long-service forces of any sort.

As the Roman republic slowly, inadvertently, thoughtlessly acquired themselves an empire they began to realize they needed standing armies.

Something like that happened in America after World War II, as we began to build an arms industry and an apparatus to support a huge standing army that suddenly altered the political structure of the US.

LUTZ

The authors of the US Constitution made a strong point that the military had to be under the control of civilian leadership, that they always would present a threat to democracy because they are not a democratic institution, they are an authoritarian institution themselves.

And so, in general, when military institutions become more powerful their hierarchical values, their authoritarian values come to dominate.

And the claims of national security come to be seen as trumping the claims of democratic decision-making.

JOHNSON

This takes us back to probably the most famous warning in the history of the US: George Washingtons farewell address that used to be read at each opening session of Congress and that is that the great enemy of republicanism, of republican liberty is standing armies: standing armies destroy federalism, they bring power to Washington DC, they require more wealth in order to maintain these armies.

These are long-service armies, 20 years or so. They have to be taken care of when they become redundant, things of these sorts.

It alters the power picture radically and thats of course what ultimately brought down the Roman republic

LUTZ

When we talk about the military-industrial complex we have to include bases as a part of that complex.

And observers have noted that there is something called a carry on imperative and the carry on imperative is that institutional momentum, and its based in part on profit, particularly when you privatize.

Theres a profit motive for these corporations who are helping to build and run the bases and provide the weaponry that is then stored in those bases.

Theres a huge number of corporations who are profiting by all the equipment and the operations that go on.

ARCHIVE

To protect the future of America, the defense techniques of tomorrow had to be discovered now.

They were discovered in electronics.

That is how SAGE brought computers into military service.

Electronics for combat means new concepts, new tools, new weapons.

You are listening to the heartbeat of the SAGE computers.

Every instrument in this room is constantly monitoring, testing, pulse-taking, controlling.

VIDAL

Who owns this place?

Who owns General Electric?

They make atom bombs.

Well how do they get the money to make them?

And whos giving it them?

And why?

To protect us from what?

These are all questions that someone like Obama should have been asking himself.

It didnt just happen, the empire.

It was designed.

And those bases just came along like some terrible cancer.

LUTZ

When you see how much money is at stake in the operations that go on everyday, its phenomenal.

The number of flights that take off from Kadena Air Force base every single day, just that one base in that one country on one day will have involved thousands of gallons of jet fuel, repair and maintenance and parts for those aircraft.

The rationale for these bases is that theyre continually practicing and training and using the equipment and running the personnel through their paces and feeding them and so on.

And that is an incredibly expensive operation.

JOHNSON

This is what president Eisenhower was warning about in his farewell address in 1961, when he invented the phrase military-industrial complex, meaning hidden power, power that was not really under the supervision of Congress, that was often out of control, represented private interests rather than the national interest.

I am sorry to say that we America did not pay attention to the warning he gave to us, and today it is close to out of control.

America is not a powerhouse of manufacturing anymore.

The one area where we are predominant is in weapons and munitions in which easily we outclass every other nation in supplying them to the world.

VOICE OVER

Many companies that operate in the defense sector benefit from this system.

One of these is KBR, tied to the former US Vice President Dick Cheney.

In 1999, following the conflict in ex-Yugoslavia, KBR signed a multibillion contract with the US Department of Defense to build Camp Bondsteel, in Kosovo, one of the largest US bases in the world.

SOLDIER

One of the questions I get asked a lot is about Camp Bondsteels size.

People ask me if Camp Bondsteel is the largest military installation in Europe for the US.

The answer is no: this is certainly a good base and able to support the missions that we have here and the troops.

But as you can see it is designed not to be permanent.

And should the time come that its time for us to leave we can pack this up and bring the buildings down.

VOICE OVER

In Macedonia, just a few miles away from Camp Bondsteel and from the border with Kosovo, the US is sponsoring the construction of a pipeline called AMBO.

The pipeline was initially conceived by a Macedonian architect living in the US and is today pursued by his son.

TASHKOVICH

My late father was a designer builder, an architect, of luxury contemporary estates in New York state and Connecticut state in America.

And he used to get this question a lot: what do you know about building a pipeline across three countries halfway around the world?

And his answer was: look at the complexity of the houses I have designed and built.

And then ask yourself: what is so difficult about digging a whole in the ground and putting a pipeline in it?

And the answer, of course, is: its not difficult. Whats hard about it is the politics.

The AMBO project seeks to move between 35 and 45 million tons of oil per year, for about 1 dollar and 30 cents a barrel, from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Albanian Adriatic Sea port of Vlore.

The fact of the matter is that even at a dollar and 30 a barrel its a profitable pipeline and cheaper than going through the Bosphorus straits.

Its a real win-win situation, not only for the three Balkan countries.

Everyone wins: its a win for the environment, its a win for the oil companies, its a win for the countries.

It has to be built. I want to very strongly and sharply condemn anybody who suggests that Dick Cheney and Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo have anything to do with this.

This project is so independent of all this stuff its not even funny.

Ive been involved in the project since the beginning and I can tell you that its absolutely laughable, the assertions they make that Camp Bondsteel exists to secure the route of the oil pipeline project or that Dick Cheney had anything to do with it whatsoever.

So let me be categorical in my denial about this.

And I should know, because Ive been there since the beginning.

VOICE OVER

KBR, though, did not only build Camp Bondsteel.

The company was also responsible for the AMBO pipeline feasibility study.

And one of KBRs former managers is today CEO of AMBO corporation.

Are these simple coincidences?

Or is it a case of corporate and military interests working hand in hand?

KLARE

The US consumes one fourth of the worlds oil everyday, more than any other country, far more than any other country!

The US Department of Defense alone consumes as much petroleum as Sweden does on a daily bases.

Thats a huge amount that has to be procured, day in, day out, 365 days a year.

To safeguard that oil the US must have some capacityto protect it and in this country that job has been given to the military, and the military must have bases, naval bases, Air Force bases,and Army bases in the areas where that oil is locatedor along the supply routes.

GROSSMAN

If you look at the map, collectively, there is an almost continuous strain of US military bases from Poland to Pakistan in this really strategic middle ground between the emerging economic competitors of the US, the EU on one hand and China an Japan on the other.

KLARE

The US has a formal policy of maintaining political dominance of the Persian Gulf area.

Its called the Carter doctrine.

He said: protection of the Persian Gulf oil is a vital interest of the US and to protect that flow we will use any means necessary, including military force.

To that end, he said, we will need military bases in the Persian Gulf area.

And he established military bases to support this policy of protecting the flow of Persian Gulf oil, and then wars were fought as well in line with that policy.

ARCHIVE

East and West are united in pioneering a new frontier of progress.

Serving the interests of the Saudi Arabs.

Serving the interests of the US.

And demonstrating the vitality of the American system of free enterprise.

A system which from this new frontier is pumping into the trade of the world oil, one of the materials that is making a truly great contribution to our modern civilization.

CHOMSKY

One of the reasons, the reason in fact, for the US invasion of Iraq is to ensure US control over the major energy resources of the world.

The embassy which is being built inside Baghdad is a city, its like no other embassy in history or in the world.

Theyre not building the embassy in Iraq and the huge bases around with an intention to leave, theyre building them with an intention to maintain control.

LUTTWAK

Were not in the process of building bases in the Middle East.

There will be an American base at Camp Victory.

Right now it occupies the whole area of the old Baghdad international airport.

There will remain something there.

But in the Middle East we are not going to develop any strategic cooperation.

Remember: a base is a strategic cooperation.

The model in the Middle East is: those are bad guys.

So with bad guys you dont sit there.

You may bomb those countries but you dont sit there.

VETERAN

The base I was located on was Forward Operating Base Warrior in Kirkuk, Iraq.

And while I was there they had a brand new gymnasium built, they were in the process of starting a new dining facility.

We had Burger King, Pizza Hut, we had our own coffee shop.

It really became a joke.

I mean, there were no qualms.

People knew that if youre continuing to put this much money into things and youve got contractors who have been here 3 years, 4 years, they just follow the military around wherever they go.

These arent things that I cant see the US government just leaving and abandoning.

I mean, thats a lot of money that theyve put into some of these forward operating bases in Iraq.

VOICE OVER

Since 2003 the US has built dozens of military bases in Iraq.

In 2008, the US and Iraqi governments signed an agreement that states that all foreign troops should leave the country by 2011.

The agreement also says that the US will not seek permanent bases or a "permanent military presence in Iraq".

Obama's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, though, has stated that even after 2011 he expects to see several tens of thousands of American troops as part of a residual force in Iraq.

Hence, many fear that Iraq may be used as a launching pad for future wars in the region.

Often, in fact, bases created in response to an imminent threat have ended up becoming permanent.

Diego Garcia, for example, born in the context of the Cold War, is still operational and has played a crucial role in the Iraq War.

ISLANDER

We're three families.

Me, my daughter and Francesca.

One bedroom.

It's very sad.

This is the church on Salomon island.

This was my house on Diego Garcia.

They destroyed it.

ISLANDER

Our children are asking: Where were you born, mummy?

What country was it?

What were you doing on this island?

And they think at how strangers are now living on this island, which is not for them anymore.

ISLANDER

They said in their feasibility study that the island is not safe for the people to go there, to return there.

But the thing is, Americans are living there.

They have developed the island.

I even heard that the island looks like a little New York.

And Americans are enjoying their lives there.

Why should we not have the right to go on our island and enjoy it the same way they are doing?

DIEGO GARCIA PROMO

Knowing by many as the Navys best-kept secret because of its remote location, Diego Garcia is actually home to about 3000 residents at any given time.

Theres also a unique assortments of quality of life opportunities to take advantage of on Diego Garcia.

The islands athletic centre is open around the clock with a wide range of workout equipment and a full size gymnasium.

Be sure to spend as much time as possible on this informative website to help you prepare for what will certainly be a memorable assignment abroad.

LUTZ

When you try and think about who should be held accountable for the violence thats waged from US military bases I think theres plenty of responsibility to go around.

It begins with US elites who make plans without consulting the people of the US about where these bases are going to go.

And the elites of the countries in which those bases are located, who make the decisions to comply with US requests for basing without consulting with their people.

In fact, there have been many critiques of the ways in which decisions are made between lower level functionaries.

In other words, that agreements are made that bypass the formal political structure of a country.

GERSON

By hosting US bases, countries lose their sovereignty in a number of ways.

For example, questions of crime.

In Korea you had a situation where a US tank ran over two schoolgirls who were on their way to a birthday party.

These soldiers who were in the tank or their officers, none of them was held accountable.

You can do a very interesting study in terms of the SOFA, the status of forces agreement.

This is what is negotiated between the US and so-called host nations and it determines what kinds of access the US will have, what kind of political powers, what happens when US soldiers commit crimes in these countries.

And what you find is that the countries that have less power or leverage in relation to the US have much thinner SOFAs.

In these countries youll find that when US soldiers commit crimes theyre not held accountable, theyre not tried under the law of the host nation, theyre not put in prison in the host nations.

Often theyre just brought out of the country, back to the US, or theyre deployed to a war zone, because as they say boys wills be boys and these guys have been trained to be more aggressive and so they were aggressive.

NELSON

Youre pumped, man.

Youre like shot up with steroids, you know.

Youre working out every day.

Youve got guns, youve got stuff, man.

So when you leave the base youre feeling pretty good about yourself.

Youre feeling like youre a tough guy, you can kick anybody in the butt.

So coming into town with that sort of attitude and getting drunk, if theres someone looking at you the wrong way you just knock the hell out of them, you know.

Youre a soldier, youre a marine.

They like that stuff, the military likes that stuff.

They might say: we dont want our guys breaking local laws and causing problems for the local people.

Bullcrap! Thats garbage.

If thats the case, then you dont let us off the base.

If you let us off the base theres going to be issues.

NELSON

I heard on the news one day about an Okinawan girl that had been raped by US military men and I was very upset over this because I remembered how we treated the Okinawan people when I was here as an 18 year old.

And eventually some peace activist got in touch with me and they and had a contact here in Okinawa.

When they found out that I had been stationed here they let the anti-base people here know that theres an ex marine who was stationed here whos doing peace work now in America.

So they invited me to come back and do a week of lectures.

So that was 1996 and thats when I came back and as we moved around the island and I saw that the bases where still here, I just couldnt believe it.

Its almost like a cancer here for these people.

Since the end of World War II these bases have been here.

When I came here in 1966 to go to Vietnam, I dont even remember Okinawan people.

I dont even remember seeing them.

They were just shadows walking around.

What I do remember is the drinking, the women and the fighting.

Thats what I remember.

But in terms of Okinawan culture: I didnt eat their food, I eat cheeseburgers at the base.

I didnt drink their alcohol, I drank Budweiser at the base.

So this whole idea of Americanism stays within that base, it stays within the militarism of ourselves.

This is something the Americans should know: what happens when we open bases in other peoples countries.

What kind of problems does it solve, or does it cause more problems?

And I think it does.

I think people get really angry at this idea that we are policing the world, that we have a right to put bases anywhere we want.

We dont have foreign bases in America: we dont have any British base.

We dont have any Korean base.

We dont have any French base.

Theyre all American bases.

And for us, our bases are fine.

The noise is our noise, it doesnt bother us at all, because theyre our bases.

But for other people, its a real problem.

LANDOWNER

This is a list of the crimes and accidents caused by the US military in Okinawa.

The accidents are very frequent.

These are just a few.

I just didn't have time to write them all down.

NEWS REPORTER

The crash happened at 2:20 pm today.

The CH-53 helicopter from Futenma Air Base lost control while flying over Okinawa University and crashed into one of the school's buildings.

MAYOR

This is a CH-53.

Four years ago, a building of the local university was destroyed by the crash of a large helicopter.

It was a real calamity.

It was a miracle no one died.

The Futenma Air Base violates a law of the Americans themselves.

The point is that the airport is surrounded by houses.

Sometimes there are up to 40 take off and landings a day.

The noise caused by the planes ruins the lives of our citizens.

They fly right on top of heavily-populated residential areas.

This means that there's always a very high risk of disaster.

STUDENT

Here is a map of the base.

As you can see, it's right in the middle of the city.

TEACHER 1

This elementary school stands only 300 yards away from the base.

Here we are inside the "clear zone", where the planes take off and land.

That's why the planes fly so low.

And even the helicopters.

Sometimes they're so close we can see the pilot's face.

The noise is terrible.

They fly all day long. Non stop.

TEACHER 2

Some cry in the middle of the night.

Some even stopped coming to school.

When the accident at the Okinawa University happened, I was scared.

But at least they were grown-ups who could take care of themselves.

These are little kids, and it's up to us to protect them.

And that scares me, because I don't know how.

PROTESTERS

No No Dal Molin No No Dal Molin!

LEADER (OFF SCREEN)

We're here to say that Vicenza wont accept any more military bases.

And won't accept any more war machines on its land.

Therefore, we say no to all military facilities!

To those that come in arms we say: "go home"!

VOICE OVER

In 2007 the US revealed its plans for a new military base in Vicenza, Italy, just a few miles away from the citys historical centre.

Vicenza already hosts a U.S. military base: the Caserma Ederle, home to the Southern European Task Force and one of ten major US bases in Italy.

The area designated for the new base is the ex-civilian airport Dal Molin.

The plans for the new base include 48 buildings over 20 acres of land.

The new base will host the entire 173rd Airborne Brigade, an elite combat force which has played a crucial role in Iraq and Afghanistan.

LUTTWAK

I dont give a damn about Vicenza.

Because in Vicenza you have four people, three of whom are over the age of 90, and the base in Vicenza is a nothing of a base.

It doesnt generate smoke, noise, there are no planes landing.

So anyone who complains in Vicenza, from my point of view, is a dirty commie, ok? Why?

Because the Italian government, the region, the authorities have decided: yes.

And they want to make a noise even though these are entirely harmless people.

Its like having tourists.

They dont have tanks, they dont have helicopters, they dont crash aeroplanes on your head.

So its purely ideological and negativist by a bunch of people who dont do anything and are worthless.

CROWD

Referendum now! Referendum now!

VOICE OVER

In April 2008, Achille Variati is elected mayor of Vicenza with the promise of holding a referendum on the new base.

It is set to be held on October 5th.

But just a few days before, the Italian Supreme Court blocks the referendum.

MAYOR

A referendum is a chance for each citizen to express his or her will. And say whether they want the base or not.

It's a right granted to everyone, no one excluded!

What wrong has been done to us today?

What's happened is that someone in Rome has deprived every one of us of the right to express our will.

VOICE OVER

Despite the court's decision, the citizens of Vicenza decide to hold an autonomous referendum.

And on October 5th, 95% of the participants vote against the new base.

CITIZEN

I don't want the Americans in my town and this is a chance to say it our loud.

It's been almost 70 years since the end of the war and we still have occupation troops in our city.

VOICE OVER

Despite the clear opposition of the people of Vicenza, though, the Italian government gives the US the green light to go head with the new base.

It's not unusual for the normal democratic process to be subverted when it comes to military bases.

Most bases are in fact covered by secret treaties between the US and host nations.

In Italy's case, this is the 1954 US-Italy bilateral agreement, never made public nor ratified by the Italian parliament.

PROTESTOR

Another truck is arriving, let's try to stay together!

JAPANESE OFFICIAL

Open the gate! Move! You're breaking the Special Law on US military bases!

ACTIVIST

Do you know why we struggle like this?

Do you understand how we feel?

Even if the American and Japanese governments have bullied us for years, have we ever killed an American?

Various girls have been raped.

Planes and helicopters have repeatedly crashed.

This is what these bases bring to us.

They have oppressed us for 62 bitter years.

We realize you're only doing your job.

But ours is a historical duty.

We wont pass this legacy on to future generations.

GERSON

When you go to elementary school, youre taught the Declaration of Independence, and if youre paying attention on the day that its taught youll be taught that it says that King George the 3rd kept among us standing armies in times of peace that committed abuses and usurpations.

This is a language I cant make up.

This was a reason to declare independence from Britain and even to go to war.

VOICE OVER

Obamas election was hailed by many in the world as the beginning of a political phase radically different from that of the Bush administration.

And in many ways it has been.

But the ever-growing military budget, the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the US bases in Iraq and the plans for new military bases in a number of countries, show how hard it is for this or any other president to challenge those policies that benefit the military-industrial complex and perpetuate US hegemony over the rest of the world.

EISENHOWER

We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex.

The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

VOICE OVER

In 1961 US president Eisenhower warned the world against the threat posed by the growing commercial interests of the arms industry, with its continuous need for new wars to survive.

Today, 50 years later, his warning sounds more urgent than ever.

The global economic crisis has brought down all illusions that this huge military machine can continue to be fed without sacrificing other sectors of society.

The US must now choose: will it destine the countrys dwindling resources to strengthen social and democratic institutions or will it continue to fuel this parasitical complex that by definition can only produce new weapons and new wars?

LANDOWNER

That's my land over there.

I hope to get it back one day.

I'd use the land to grow lots of white radish.

I could grow millions of them in that little space.

I would then distribute them freely to the people of Okinawa.

In the name of peace!

If we all stay united in the struggle, I'm confident we can prevail.

If we don't speak out against the theft of our lands we will never be able to change the world!

TAKAE ACTIVIST

We have to keep our calm.

That's the only way we can prevail.

Ours is resistance, not terrorism! Resistance.

DIEGO GARCIA ISLANDER

If we were terrorists we would have attacked the base.

But we are not terrorists.

We're not against the bas in Diego Garcia if it's there for the benefit of the world.

But they should have thought about us.

SOLDIER

Were here to provide a safe and secure environment for everyone, regardless of what ethnic group they are and to make sure that people have freedom of movement, that kids can go to school, that people can go to work and that people can sleep safely.

And we would like to see Kosovo develop and continue to grow.

And there will be a point when KFOR is no longer needed.

And we look forward to that day.

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