MB Civic

Grandin in The Nation …

Responding to criticism from South America on the Colombian [military base] deal, the White House insists it merely formalizes existing military cooperation between the two countries under Plan Colombia and will not increase the offensive capabilities of the US Southern Command. The Pentagon says otherwise, writing in its 2009 budget request that it needed funds to upgrade one of the bases to conduct “full spectrum operations throughout South America” to counter, among other threats, “anti-U.S. governments” and to “expand expeditionary warfare capability.” That ominous language, since scrubbed from the budget document, might be a case of hyping the threat to justify spending during austere times. But the Obama administration’s decision to go forward with the bases does accelerate a dangerous trend in US hemispheric policy.

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