We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, January 10, 2011

The Pentagon's Planet of Bases

by Nick Turse from TomDispatch. (You may want to skip Engelhardt's introduction by scrolling down to the article.)
In a world of statistics and precision, a world in which “accountability” is now a Washington buzzword, a world where all information is available at the click of a mouse, there’s one number no American knows.  Not the president.  Not the Pentagon.  Not the experts.  No one. 
This has puzzled me also. There have been so many widely varying numbers thrown out about the number of bases that it has been hard to know what to believe. I once tried to access data and ended up with total confusion. However, this is the best coverage on this question that I have seen.
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