Why does America have military bases in other countries?

[Gwarr]

Military mobility . Iran decides to get naughty? Send your troops to your bases in South-Eastern Europe , get supplied to maximum and strike them with full force as opposed to flying all the way from the USA west coast to strike them . That's what I always thought they're for.

 

[Anezay]

It's convenient. We have a history of stomping out anyone who looks at us funny, and it lets America get to said stomping out in a hurry. Many bases are for the benefit of the country they're in, though, like the US military presence in South Korea.

 

[templargunman]

Because we are the world police.

 

[JWAN]

to respond to threats abroad.

 

[William Ossiss]

think of the worlds countries as pies. america is a fat kid. he has his fingers in all these pies. he wants them all to himself.

 

[JWAN]

1: Cold War.

2: Treaty Agreements.

3: Keeping countries who we've had issues with before from getting too bold or us being unable to react.

4: Protect foreign interests.

5: Its fun.

6: Because shut the hell up, thats why.

Yes the the first 4 and the 5th one totally, I loved my time in Japan.

 

[Windupferrari]

Simplest answer is because the US has treaties that say it can have the land to station military personal in.

NATO obligations make having personnel stationed in Europe a no brainier, and other areas where or are hotbeds the US wants readiness in. You might notice the US has pulled out of areas where there is no longer a need to keep personnel there. Places like the Philippines.

As for no other country having bases in the US, pretty much true. As for not having personnel stationed in the US, that's just false.

Most training bases have a large number of South American troops being trained. Whole training commands exist on most training bases for Eastern European countries. Canadian troops have joint exercises with US troops all the time, almost always on US soil. So there are plenty of troops on US soil, just no bases.

I can confirm that second part. My best friend back in early elementary school was the son of a Canadian Royal Air Force pilot who was stationed in northern Virginia. It was a long time ago so I don't know what exactly he was doing here, but he does represent a Canadian military presence on US soil.

 

[JWAN]

think of the worlds countries as pies. america is a fat kid. he has his fingers in all these pies. he wants them all to himself.

I would suggest picking up a history book not written by bitter communists.
During the cold war its pretty obvious why we had bases all over the world and after the cold war its because we still need to respond to threats quickly and decisively. The US isn't interested in collecting money from the local economies or taking over territory. If someone decides to threaten our nation or its people we tend to like to stomp them out before they can make good on their threats and plenty of other countries do the exact same thing.

Remember the nuclear reactor problems in Japan? Who sent the most troops in under 14 hours to help get APC's with NBC protection to help get people out of the danger zone? What country sent the most medically capable aircraft carriers to Hati to help treat the sick and wounded after the earthquake?
we also have an obligation to NATO and the UN, two organizations that demand we keep forces overseas.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

Some we've gained as the spoils of war, and some we've asked our allies to let us have. We don't have any bases on our soil because we've never had to allow for them as a condition of surrender and our allies don't desire to build here (though it could be that we won't let them).

 

[Ham_authority95]

Yet no other countries have a military base on American soil?

Always wondered that...

Because in the last century it was the biggest military superpower and showed it. Pretty much the reason why.

 

[derob]

the best answer is simply to use those countries which the bases are located as satellite states. Both the U.S. and Stalinist Russia have maintained bases in foreign lands and the U.S. continues to do so.

This is the kind of question which requires a rather lengthy, exhaustively sourced answer which I really don't feel like providing due to a lack of drive.

the following link (and yes, it's a wikipedia link, I know...) should provide a small primer on the issue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_state

 

[Canid117]

A combination of WW2 and the resulting cold war. "Oh, we leave you alone for what, 20 years, and you start another huge war? Great, we're just going to occupy everywhere once we and these Russian dudes clean up this mess(which was kind of our fault for shafting Germany at the end of WW1)."

Correction it was France and Britains fault. We wanted to rebuild the place but noooooooo they had to be punished for what they (or the Austrians but whatevs) did. Also those are countries that we have either occupied or need to deploy from. Since no one is going to deploy to North America (thats our job) and no one has successfully occupied our soil no one gets a base here.

 

[TheLoneBeet]

They're compensating for something. HAH!

 

[sibrenfetter]

It is because of WW2. The price we had to pay for the American help was to allow for autonomous American military bases throughout Europe. This was something we welcomed mind you, especially with dangerous Russia around the corner as well.

 

[Zhukov]

In a word: expedience.

Those bases allow for faster deployment and logistical support for any US troops in the area. The bases are usually obtained via treaty agreements or by just straight-out paying the host nation.

As for why other countries don't have bases on US territory... well, it's partly because the US is powerful enough to simply forbid that from happening. But more importantly, what would the point be? For example, why would France want a base in the US? It's not like they have any plans to deploy troops in the area. Same could be said of almost any other nation.

 

[Rottweiler]

It's due to Treaty. It's also because then, the countries who have said bases:

A) make tons of money from them
B) can count on the US to take military action so they don't have to

Guess which one keeps the bases there most often? (A)

 

[mik1]

Our military i expecting WW3 to happen at any moment
with that said it's for tactical advantage if shit ever goes down.


Which it won't...
...so yea their basically worthless

 

[Dense_Electric]

I don't know, why do any countries have bases on their allies' soil? The US is hardly the only country that does that.

 

[William Ossiss]

think of the worlds countries as pies. america is a fat kid. he has his fingers in all these pies. he wants them all to himself.

I would suggest picking up a history book not written by bitter communists.
During the cold war its pretty obvious why we had bases all over the world and after the cold war its because we still need to respond to threats quickly and decisively. The US isn't interested in collecting money from the local economies or taking over territory. If someone decides to threaten our nation or its people we tend to like to stomp them out before they can make good on their threats and plenty of other countries do the exact same thing.

Remember the nuclear reactor problems in Japan? Who sent the most troops in under 14 hours to help get APC's with NBC protection to help get people out of the danger zone? What country sent the most medically capable aircraft carriers to Hati to help treat the sick and wounded after the earthquake?
we also have an obligation to NATO and the UN, two organizations that demand we keep forces overseas.

oh yes, let us praise our military. our armed forces are SO great and should be revered.

i bet your one of the people who danced in the street when osama was murdered. oh yeah, THAT'S positive!

america is a fat kid. the mere fact that you cannot see it means your just blind to all the bullshit our glorious government covers you in. have you even READ any history book other than the convoluted one the united states gives you?

did you know that the reason pearl harbor was bombed was because the united states didnt allow any oil to get to japan?

and how a lot of fights the united states are in they start? or how about the fact that a president in a time of war can veto anything he damn well pleases? so it is wise for a president to be a war president. why do you think we have yet to get out of fighting out east? i think you need to take a huge step back and actually look at our government.