What does empire look like?

Like this:

And this:

This, too:

But there are no empires anymore today, right? That all ended after WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Oops!

The official statistics:
The U.S. maintains 716 operational military bases in 110 countries. There are 250,000 military personnel, men and women, employed on those bases. The annual cost of the US military presence is in the billions.

In this 2011 report by the Department of Defense on restructuring of military bases, the vast network of US Military holdings overseas can be seen, especially on pages 84-101. It's stunning and mind-numbing at the same time.

Here's what it looks like on a map. Pretty hard to miss the resemblance to the previous maps, even if we don't like to admit it.

The reach of the US Military is truly staggering. Not to mention unconscionably expensive.

Personally, I would like to get all that money back which is spent on maintaining our military installations overseas. Imagine what could be done with it here at home. I would speculate that our "dependence on foreign oil", so oft assailed by presidents and candidates, could be obliterated with a hundred billion dollars or so every year re-focused in the direction of either nuclear or natural energy.

Eisenhower was right.

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

----- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961