Re: possibly OT... US forces around the world... Is this really true....?

In article 
<e76d809e-d3dc-4dae-a1e6-3d4cc3046437@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 patmpowers@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

> On Jul 23, 11:10 am, "Katt" <kahgfgh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > Saw this somewhere and wondered if it's actually accurate...
> > -----
> > "Wa****ngton and its apologists continually insist that the US is 'not
an
> > imperial power'. Yet of the 192 supposedly 'sovereign' states
recognised by
> > the United Nations, no fewer than *133* have a US military presence --
 
> > which, in each and every case, the population was not consulted about;
did
> > not vote for; and cannot choose to remove..."
> > -----
> > Anyone know how I can confirm the figures...? The '192' does appear in
the
> > wikipedia page for the UN...
> >
> > Ta.
> >
> > K.
> 
> It's a load of BS.  In many cases the locals want the troops there
> because they can make money off of them, example Germany.  The
> Phillipines had the huge US naval base at Subic Bay removed, and all
> US troops are out of Saudi Arabia because the Saudis didn't want them.

That's not the reason US troops were moved out of Saudi. They had been 
there for 12 years after the first gulf war. The Saudis didn't want 
them there after 1991. The US said **** you. They were finally pulled 
out in 2003 because a few thousand troops in S.A. aren't needed when 
you have a full invasion force next door, and because their presence 
had been one of bin Laden's selling points in his jihad against the 
US. Of course this was hardly discussed in the good ole USA, because 
it raises questions that go beyond "they hate our freedoms" and other 
comic-book notions.