Resolution of the Conference on US Foreign Military Bases, held at Learning Commons Town Hall, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, 12–14 January 2018
WHEREAS the United States has been in a state of perpetual war and has been using its unrivalled military might in every corner of the world to subdue, dominate and exploit sovereign nations for the benefit of its rich and powerful elite and corporations in violation of international law; and
WHEREAS it is widely recognized that the Pentagon itself, its 1,000 bases worldwide, its endless wars, its enormous use of fossil fuels, toxic substances and massive pollution around its bases has made the US military machine the world’s biggest institutional consumer of petroleum products, the world’s worst polluter of greenhouse gas emission, and this huge military waste footprint from US bases is sickening both people and the earth; and
WHEREAS the US military and war budget almost equals that of the rest of the world combined, reaching $700 billion in the Pentagon alone, not counting nuclear weapons, so-called Homeland Security, mercenaries employed by the State Department, debt for past wars, and many other expenses totalling well over $1 trillion; and
WHEREAS, while the United States ranks first by far in military spending, it ranks 7th in literacy, 20th in education, 25th in infrastructure quality, 37th in quality of health care, 31st in life expectancy, and 56th in infant mortality; and
WHEREAS the bipartisan militaristic foreign policy and spending has enriched the coffers of the war industry, causing ever-higher levels of economic inequality, racial, ethnic and gender discrimination and oppression, poverty, hunger and homelessness; and
WHEREAS the global militarization and racism of US war policy has greatly increased the militarization of the police, attacks on civil liberties and the growth of White Supremacy at home; and
WHEREAS since 2001 the United States has used its military force for invading and bombing in numerous countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan—eventually costing the American taxpayers $4 trillion in Afghanistan and Iraq alone, and is now threatening to attack Iran and North Korea; and
WHEREAS the United States maintains close to 1,000 foreign military bases and tens of thousands of troops in more than 175 countries of the world at the cost of over $150 billion a year; and
WHEREAS the bipartisan militarization of our foreign policy has led to the death of an untold number of civilians, terror by drones, destruction of infrastructure and the environment, massive number of refugees, creating chaos and terrorism by destabilizing sovereign nations; and
WHEREAS, in addition to hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties caused by US wars, 6,831 US military personnel have died in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about one million have been injured; and
WHEREAS there are over 39,000 homeless military veterans, on any night more than 1.4 million are at high risk of homelessness, of which 9 per cent are female veterans, and 20 military veterans or active duty military take their own lives each day; and
WHEREAS the development and enlargement of nuclear armaments has heightened the threat of nuclear annihilation; and
WHEREAS it is vital that the workers, unions and peace, social justice and environmentalist forces unite in a joint movement to promote a foreign policy independent of the political and economic interests of Wall Street, corporate America and the military-industrial complex;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the organizations endorsing the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases, including those present at the Conference on US Foreign Military Bases convened in Baltimore, Maryland, call upon all peace, social justice and environmental forces in the United States to join hands in organizing a United National Day of Anti-War Action in the spring of 2018 to demand:
- Ending all US wars, bombings and drone attacks and other forms of US aggression, including economic sanctions and weapons sales;
- Closing of all US bases on foreign soil;
- Bringing all US troops home;
- Using the funds of the massive military budget for human needs and protection of the environment;
- Dismantling all nuclear weapons.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Coordinating Committee of the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases and the organizations and activists present at this Conference commit ourselves to helping with the organization of this United National Day of Anti-War Action, and we invite our international friends to join us.
