What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
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- ghaib, on 05/18/2008, -92/+413Educational budget: $45 billion.
Military budget: $400 billion.
Being the most hated country in the world: Priceless. - blackjack75, on 05/18/2008, -26/+224I really don't understand what the iranians are flipping about. If I were them I would feel absolutely no threat. All is fine and dandy in the region.
Do you see any threat to Iran on this map?
http://lifesabit.ch/wp-content/usbases.jpeg
I mean it's not like the world's most powerful army is building military bases on every inch of their bordering countries. - internetcoward, on 05/18/2008, -7/+160this is such a crappily made map.
- sgiffy, on 05/18/2008, -13/+99You forgot those pesky little entities called states and school districts. When you factor their spending in the total is 525 billion.
- purelithium, on 05/18/2008, -5/+87That's not quite fair how the map was made. I think it's showing countries that have bases and/or troops. There are NO american military bases here in Canada, but there are plenty of exchange officers and liason officers, alongside those from almost every other NATO country. Buried for inaccuracy.
- proliance, on 05/18/2008, -9/+83To the best of my knowledge, there are no US owned bases overseas. For example I was stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Notice the name "Air Base" and not "Air Force Base." The bases do not belong to the US and the US would be required to leave if asked, such as happened in the Philippines. The one exception I can think of is Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The US signed an open ended agreement with the former government and the US pays its rent on time each year per the treaty. As much as it gets under Fidel's (and Raul's) skin, the US is honoring the treaty.
(BTW, the US has said that if it were asked to leave Iraq by the govt., it would do so.) - beingdevious, on 05/18/2008, -3/+53all your base are belong to U.S.
- BassMastr, on 05/18/2008, -4/+51When did we get rid of all our bases in Europe?
- Terr01, on 05/18/2008, -11/+52Dang, I was expecting lots of pushpins or something. Even if they were slightly out of date, it'dve be sort of cool.
- Tangaroa, on 05/18/2008, -4/+44This map is *****, let me count the ways...
First, we can all have a good laugh at the URL "nonviolenceworks.com". Non-violence only works where the authorities have respect for you or the practice of nonviolence. If someone's intention already was to harm you, practicing nonviolence just makes it easy for them. It's clear from the start that these people do not have the firmest grasp on reality. We can mock them again for buying a commercial URL.
Others have already discussed how the map has ***** data (no Americans in Rammstein AFB, lots of them in Moscow), so I will just observe the pro-Taliban propaganda text below it. The text blames the USA for the "seven million Afghan internal and external refugees" of a country that has suffered a nearly continuous series of civil wars for 30 years. That is just some anti-American idiocy before the concentrated evil of the next line: "The U.S. has put back in power the murderous Northern Alliance whom the Afghans threw out some years ago."
The Northern Alliance is the alliance of everyone who was not the Taliban. The Taliban was known for killing people left and right for the most minor of reasons, but only the Northern Alliance is here described as "murderous". Furthermore, the Northern Alliance is delegitimized as not "the Afghans". It is assumed that all good and true Afghans are Taliban.
That all leads to the question of "who are these *****?" A whois query shows the site is owned by organization called "Common Peace", managed by Jesse Wechsler of Santa Monica, California. Oddly, the site is registered through an Australian company, Melbourne IT. The site also calls itself the Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence and lists its founder as Eisha Mason.
The PDF was produced by QuarkXPress 4.1 for the Mac on February 2, 2003, which means the group was expressly pro-Taliban that shortly after the Taliban were overthrown. Idiots today in 2008 have the excuse of not having been aware of events that happened five years ago, but to be pro-Taliban only a year and a half after the Taliban became a household name takes an extra degree of stupidity.
Unsurprisingly, Common Peace links to ANSWER as a "peace organization":
http://www.nonviolenceworks.com/snv/anti_warcal/pe ...
More on ANSWER.
http://www.infoshop.org/texts/wwp.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0211-06.htm
Common scenes from an ANSWER protest:
http://www.zombietime.com/stop_the_us_israeli_war_ ...
The website went down as I was looking for more information. Either the Digg effect hit it or someone hacked it. - wtfmate112, on 05/18/2008, -2/+39This map is totally off. The US has bases in both turkey and Germany but they are both white in the map.
- inactive, on 05/18/2008, -39/+73Ron Paul brought this up repeatedly during the debates. Apparently Amerikans are OK with this.
- rocketman42, on 05/18/2008, -7/+40This came up before, and I still don't quite understand it. How are they defining "U.S. troops"? Because there is no way we have troops stationed in Russia and China, but the map says we do.
- tomsentest, on 05/18/2008, -12/+42Americans don't even know this. They don't know those countries exist.
- mark076h, on 05/18/2008, -1/+28that went down fast, i found another link http://www.unitedforpeace.org/downloads/military_m ...
- inactive, on 05/18/2008, -5/+30[***** factor ] x [power] = [hatred]
Many countries are substantially bigger *****. The US spends more money on military than the rest of the world combined. - masterm1nd, on 05/18/2008, -7/+30Military base != Running the country.
- fuze44, on 05/18/2008, -3/+26It's great to see all of these military experts coming together on Digg.
- sgiffy, on 05/18/2008, -4/+26Russia has, China has, to many African nations to count have, Columbia has, along with a few others in Central and South America, and thats just to name a few.
The Us might be the most successful, but we are hardly the most evil. - mikedmoon, on 05/18/2008, -1/+20It's including embassies and consulates that have troops as security.
- BigW, on 05/18/2008, -4/+23Good for you. But it is interesting that when the subject of imperialism comes up, the US doesn't even hold a candle to the imperialism of Europe in the 18th-20th centuries.
- jer105, on 05/18/2008, -3/+22We have had troops in almost every country for longer than Bush has been in office. Even before Clinton, even before Bush Sr., Even before Regan. Get a clue, it takes an act of Congress to get anything done in the military...literally. Everybody saying how bad America is on here is probably sitting at home in their suburban McMansion on their $3000 laptops, watching their 50" plasma TVs with the 2 new cars in the garage. If you don't like it then go live in another country and live on $2 a day if you think it's so bad here. Then a week later call your daddy and have him send you the 1st class ticket back home. Here are the two options for the US, be the biggest kid on the block with the biggest stick because we are already and we'd like to keep our standard of living...or become a 3rd world country...in which case everybody here would complain because the government didn't do anything to stop it. We can't just stop having a military presence in this world and all hug and get along. It won't ever happen because there are always people who want to be in power and those who want to take it away. Wars have been fought for everything from land, spices, oil, religion, power and pride. And they always will be. It's been that way since the beginning of time. Go have your little peace march if it make you feel better but it's not going to change anything.
- TheSabre, on 05/18/2008, -1/+19It is not the federal government's job to fund education. The federal government was established primarily to provide for the common defense and promote for the GENERAL welfare. They don't get into the nitty-gritty details of state-controlled activities, such as funding schools or hospitals.
- sgiffy, on 05/18/2008, -3/+21That'll show us!
- kylere, on 05/18/2008, -22/+40Calling the US the most hated country in the world is not accurate. Nor is it really valid, many nations deserve to be hated much more than the US.
- BassMastr, on 05/18/2008, -2/+20Tell that to Japan, Germany, South Korea, Kuwait, Israel, France, England etc...but who gives ***** about reality...(you also might want to notice who comprises the G-8...coincidence?)
- BassMastr, on 05/18/2008, -2/+19While you're digging me down try and give me an answer, and while you're at it when did the Chinese govt and Russian govt allow us to station troops in their country? Or is this map a complete made up piece of...
- inactive, on 05/18/2008, -2/+19Don't know. Then again, what are the Sunnis and Shiites butchering each other over. What was the Bosnian conflict all about. Darfur? Sudan? Somolia?
Hows things going in Tibet?
Those Catholics and Protestants seem to have had fun in Northern Ireland.
Britain wasn't that popular during their empire age. - pzarker, on 05/18/2008, -3/+19I'd be interested to know what country your from. If you look at the US in terms of imperialism, it wasn't until we had to save Europe from its own imperialism in the first part of the 20th century did the US "imperialism" start. Before that point, ironically, the US was accused for having a policy of isolationism.
typical European hypocrisy. - sgiffy, on 05/18/2008, -3/+19It all comes from the same place. If we are talking about societal preferences, then we should count all the ways society allocates resources, not just the ones funneled through government. Especially when we are comparing something that is, and by law only can be, funded by government, and only one level of government, with something that has multiple funding sources.
- inactive, on 05/18/2008, -15/+31The poster also left out military retirement, the nuclear material in nuclear warheads owned by the DOE and the insane billions wasted in Iraq that are off-budget.
- BassMastr, on 05/18/2008, -7/+22Must be nice to be so naive... How many of those countries govts have asked us to leave?
- Tangaroa, on 05/18/2008, -1/+16Those are places where the evil imperialist Americans have set up Wal-Marts and Costcos.
- sgiffy, on 05/18/2008, -7/+22But then I also left out the billions spent by private actors on education as well as teacher pensions...
- GrodyChamp, on 05/18/2008, -3/+17Most all of the bases overseas are not US property. I was in Kuwait in an Air Base that was a KUWAITI base. Funny how that same base is on this map.
WE DON'T OWN THE BASES. THE HOST COUNTRIES LET US PUT TROOPS THERE. - BigCheezy, on 05/18/2008, -12/+26737 U.S. military bases != global empire
Come on people, really? Do you even know what an empire is? Do you think we have an "empire" in Germany? Wow, this is a prime example of why the average political Digg submitter is not considered an "ethical journalist." - unpolloloco, on 05/18/2008, -0/+14What are all the white boxes? (like the one in Alaska, western canada, the middle east, and europe)
- mark076h, on 05/18/2008, -0/+13i put it on filedropper in case that other site goes down http://www.filedropper.com/militarymap
- tolbs, on 05/18/2008, -2/+14we need the get these US Americans some maps.
- aserer511, on 05/18/2008, -16/+28empire? Maintaining influence abroad and AIDING NATIONS IN THEIR SECURITY is not a 'global empire'. ***** you.
- BassMastr, on 05/18/2008, -3/+15They are called treaties and we are supposed to honor them. Pointless? Ever heard of a power vaccum? Sorry the whole world isn't as peaceful as you, and I do mean that.
- BigW, on 05/18/2008, -0/+11And that is how it should be. NCLB has been a complete bust in improving schools, but a real boon for standardized test makers...
- kylere, on 05/18/2008, -14/+25I am all for isolationism, let's cut all foreign aid and military involvement and only focus on domestic issues. The last few times we have tried it, it worked well. The only downsides were World War 1 and 2.
- gym7rjm, on 05/18/2008, -0/+11I understand why other countries hate us, justified or not. What I don't understand is why it is becoming so popular for AMERICANS to bash the U.S.? It's like in order to be considered "progressive" in the US, you have to hate the US. Has the world convinced us to hate ourselves?
Yeah, there are a lot of problems in the United States, but i sure as hell wouldn't trade my citizenship to live in China (or any other country).
So what do we do? Say we completely change our mentality and become Isolationists, the minute we pull all our troops back to the States is the minute total chaos throughout the world would ensue. The same people around the world that are continually bashing the US now would be the people begging for us to Help when Kim Jong-il drops nukes. But no, we would be isolationists and not come to the aid....and then the same Americans that are bashing the US for being an "evil empire" would start bashing the US again for not coming to the World's aid.
We are in a lose-lose situation no matter what we do... - inactive, on 05/18/2008, -1/+12We're hardly the worst, but we should do better.
- inactive, on 05/18/2008, -5/+16"the most hated country in the world" - are you in third grade? That is just absolutely ridiculous.
- palehorse864, on 05/18/2008, -2/+13The federal government was originally forbidden by constitutional law from having any say in the education system. After a certain point, they got lax on that and allowed more, but it is still local and state governments that make up the majority of school spending. The federal government can do more, such as the NCLB act, but the funding is still largely local and state run. That's why there is so little federal spending on education. It's been this way for a very long time.
- Irlande, on 05/19/2008, -0/+10It also doesnt count the troops in the UK or Germany where there are actually bases.
And says Ireland has a base, which it doesn't.
All in all, very flawed map. - BassMastr, on 05/18/2008, -1/+11What about the billions and billions of dollars in debt forgiveness by Europe and the US a few years back? (Way to go Bono.) So would you rather they not give them any capital? Or do you just want us to give them aid with no over sight? By having to pay it back it ensures that it is invested in capital expenses rather than wasted on lap dances and bong hits. If they don't have to pay you back their is no accountablity. I have no idea what interest rates they are charging, but since much of the debt was forgiven all together it kinda makes your statement...100% wrong. (Except for the part about the US being and economic empire.)
- proliance, on 05/18/2008, -0/+10The shortest route to the US from the former Soviet Union was over the Arctic and across Canada. Fighters based in Texas may be a little slow to respond.
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