I am talking all bases around the globe, we would never be without military men all over and also in Germany, the EU, Qatar, Afghanistan, S.K, etc. ; we are all over not just to protect Europe from Russia, but we would be there anyway, regardless if we collected one red cent from the nations.
Interesting that you mention Qatar. Are you even aware of the history of the US military there?
Back in 1990, Qatar, UAE, and many other Gulf region nations got a huge shock after Iraq took out and annexed Kuwait in under a week. They realized that there was no way they could protect themselves against their larger neighbors in the event they decided to attack. And Qatar came up with a rather interesting solution.
In 1996, they built Al Udeid Air Force Base. At a cost of over $1.5 billion. And it is a massive base, with some of the largest and longest runways in the Middle East. It rivaled even the facilities of King Khalid Air Base and King Khalid Military City in Saudi Arabia.
All for a country that has a total of 15 fighters and 12 transport aircraft. Who's entire military composes of less than 36,000 personnel.
No, we called it the "Field of Dreams" base. As in "If you build it, they will come". They spent a lot of money to build a massive air base, and pretty much immediately asked the US military to step in and occupy it. And of course that is what they have done.
And there is another side effect of doing this. Because Qatar is a peninsula off of Saudi Arabia, they have been their biggest threat. And the entire border between the two nations used to be a heavily armed area, with guard towers, land mines, and row after row of barbed wire and anti-tank obstacles.
And since 2001, that border has largely become demilitarized. The last time I was there, we were using a rifle range that literally was overlooking the border itself, a few hundred meters from SA. The towers were long abandoned, we had to get out of our vehicles and walk 200 meters to the range (formerly a fortified machine gun position) because sand dunes had blown in and blocked the road.
All because they knew that there was no way that Saudi Arabia would ever attack them if the US had military personnel there.
And the cost to the US? Well, nothing really. We have around 15,000 people stationed there (and another 2-3,000 at any given time as it is the main hub to and from the ME). The Qatari government provides all food, fuel, water, and their own security at their own cost. And because the base is still "theirs", if any new buildings are needed, they build and pay for them.
And they pay the US around $750 million a year in addition to that. It is also the home for our Pre-position Storage in the region, where a number of tanks, artillery, and other equipment is maintained and stored for future use.
Oh, and it is the same at Camp As Sayliyah, the former home of the Qatari Army. They built and moved to a new location, and turned over that location to the US Army (with the agreement that there always be PATRIOT missiles there to protect the capitol of Doha). CAS actually predates "The Deid", having been in place since 2000.
And it is also the home of the militaries from several other countries. British Royal Air Force, French Air Force, pretty much every member of NATO has operated out of it at one point or another.
Oh, and the Aussies. They even have their own encampment there, with their own bar.
South Korea, Qatar, Japan, UAE, Bahrain, we are in those and many other countries because we are wanted there. Each of those countries learned either long ago or after 1990 that the US is a good "big brother" to court. And believe it or not, we also have a pretty solid reputation for leaving when asked.
When we were asked to leave Saudi Arabia, we left. When Kuwait asked us to reduce our presence in their country, we did so (closing over 20 facilities, with only 5 remaining). And the ones left they want us at. Primarily Ali Al Salem Air Base, their version of Al Udeid. The home of their Air Force, they do not want the US to leave that base, even though they moved their main embarkation and debarkation port from there to AL Udeid.
Ironically, whenever people go on about the "American Empire" as you have, it is with a very warped view. The US actually has a rather solid reputation of leaving when a country asks. The Philippines, large numbers of bases in countries like Japan and Germany. Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, when asked to leave we simply leave.
In fact, the only exception I can think of is Cuba. But that is because we have a long term lease on the place. I think it is still open for three reasons. First, is to spite the Castro regime. Secondly, it is a good location for picking up intelligence. And finally, because it really is our only military base in the region that protects a large area. Which BTW includes the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. If we were to close it, we would simply have to rebuild a similar facility somewhere else in the region.
But hey, continue with your propaganda all you want. Just do not expect me to believe it, or to stop correcting you.
