The idea of US imperialism may be seen as a fiction of the ideological left, or as an overblown presentation of the presence of a few US bases in different countries. But the US military does indeed operate on a global scale. Australia is far from a unique position in the US empire of military bases.

Introduction by Richard Tanter

In the decade after the end of the Cold War, triumphalist U.S. public intellectuals, liberal and conservative alike, were trying on the mantle of empire for size. For many at the time, while US imperialism denoted kneejerk leftism, the American empire might just be an appropriate acknowledgement of achievement on a global scale, an accolade about reality rather than a matter of opprobrium.

As the world knows, that hubris led to three catastrophic wars of choice and the destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq. It also led to the American historian and political scientist, Chalmers Johnson, longtime Cold Warrior and doyen of US East Asian specialists, to astonish his more complaisant professional colleagues by publishing four extraordinary books between 2001 and his death in 2010 about the reality of American empire, together called the _Blowback_series:

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire(2001)

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic(2004)

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic(2007)

Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope(2010)

Johnsons political _volte face_and pathbreaking analysis of a new form of global empire came out of his close involvement with Okinawan resistance to one of the most enduring and oppressive peacetime expressions of the American empire of bases. Seven decades after the US military colonization of Okinawa began, US bases still amount to more than one-fourth of the prefectures land area. Such is the grotesque weight of American military occupation on Okinawan society and the consequent deeplyrooted resistance that it is still not possible for even a Tokyo-backed conservative to be elected governor of Okinawa without railing against the American bases.

In Nemesis, Johnson summed up the argument of the second book:

_The Sorrows of Empire_was written during the American preparations for and launching of the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. I began to study our continuous military buildup since World War II and the 737 military bases we currently maintain in other people’s countries. This empire of bases is the concrete manifestation of our global hegemony, and many of the blowback-inducing wars we have conducted had as their true purpose the sustaining and expanding of this network. We do not think of these overseas deployments as a form of empire; in fact, most Americans do not give them any thought at all until something truly shocking, such as the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, brings them to our attention. But the people living next door to these bases and dealing with the swaggering soldiers who brawl and sometimes rape their women certainly think of them as imperial enclaves, just as the people of ancient Iberia or nineteenth-century India knew that they were victims of foreign colonization.

Excellent younger researchers following on from Johnson have raised the count of US overseas military bases to well beyond 1,000 and deepened our understanding of technology-dense strategic islands such as Diego Garcia (Vines Island of Shame) and the rapidly proliferating lilypads of notionally light-footprint temporary or rotational bases in Africa and Asia of special forces or drone deployments (Nick Turse).

Yet, superb as these researchers are, sometimes the best representation of Johnsons argument comes from the words and images published by the United States military itself. Such a case is a series of media releases from the U.S. Marines a week or so ago, published in dozens of newspapers, websites, and television programs around the world to celebrate the 243rdbirthday of the Marines.

One version appeared on Business Insider India: under the heading The US Marine Corps turns 243 today check out these awesome photos of the Devil Dogs in action, with all words and images supplied by the U.S. Marines. This version of the article showed marines in action around the world today: in Syria, Afghanistan, Jordan, Bulgaria, Finland, Sweden, Thailand, Romania and of course, in Australia.

In reality, these amount to just a smidgeon of the 150-plus countries in which, as Nick Turse reported, US special forces operated between 2011 and 2014. But the imagery and the text make Johnsons point , and show Australias far from unique position in the US empire of bases.

Marines with 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division fire an M777 Howitzer at known targets during training on August 9, 2018 at Mount Bundey Training Area in Australia.

Marines fire an 81mm mortar during training in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Hajin, Syria on August 4, 2018.

A US Marine with Marine Rotational Force-Europe 18.1 shoots the Swedish Carl Gustaf M4 anti-tank recoilless rifle during Exercise Archipelago Endeavour with Swedish Marines of 1st Marine Regiment on the island of Uto, Harsfjarden, Sweden on Sept. 5, 2018.

Hospital Corpsman Jacob Adam drinks cobra blood at jungle survival training during Exercise Cobra Gold 2018 at Camp Ban Chan Khrem in the Kingdom of Thailand on Feb. 17, 2018.

Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force 18.1 fire an 81mm mortar system during Exercise Platinum Eagle 18 at Babadag Training Area in Romania on Sept. 5, 2018.

US Marine firefighters and Royal Thai firefighters work together to put out a simulated aircraft fire during Exercise Cobra Gold 2018.

Staff Sgt. Nathaniel McDonald, the motor transport operations chief with Combat Logistics Battalion 3, prepares to spar during the Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructors Courses culmination at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on September 27, 2018.

Cpl. Daniel Hopping, Assaultman, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and a native of Rogers, Arkansas, shields himself from dust being kicked up from a CH-53E Super Sea Stallion lifting off during a mission in Helmand province, Afghanistan on April 28, 2014.

Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force 18.1 advance to their objective during a patrol exercise at U.S. Army Base Nova Selo Forward Operating Site, Bulgaria.

Marines with Maritime Raid Force, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit swim under water during dive training in Aqaba, Jordan on July 8, 2018.

Pfc. Vincent Fiore with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment fires a Light Anti-Armour Weapon (LAW) during Exercise Bougainville II at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Island of Hawaii on Oct. 20, 2018.

US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Rey White, an aviation boatswains mate handler with the Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), launches an F-35B Lightning II with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), from the amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2), before the F-35Bs first combat strike on Sept. 27, 2018.

Combat Engineers with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit practice breaching techniques during a live fire demolition range at Theatre Amphibious Combat Rehearsal (TACR) 18.

A US Marine with 3d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, attached to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force, Crisis Response-Central Command, fires a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile at his target during a live-fire demonstration near At Tanf Garrison, Syria on Sept. 7, 2018.

Marines with Marine Rotational Force-Europe move toward their objective during Exercise Winter Sun 18 in Boden, Sweden on March 14, 2018.

Richard Tanteris Senior Research Associate,Nautilus Institute, and Honorary Professor in the School of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne,