Sadly Over-hyped

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This is about the hundreds of U.S. military bases scattered across the globe. According to various sources the U.S. has anywhere from 662 bases in 38 countries (from the Wikipedia article) to something like 700 (according to this documentary) to 800 (according to an article in The Nation Magazine). The question is why?It's been 71 years since the end of World War II and yet there are still hundreds of bases in Germany and Japan. The documentary shows protests against some of these bases. In particular Kadena Air Base in Okinawa faces daily protests. Japanese citizens claim that the land on which the base stands belongs to them and should be returned. Of course Osama bin Laden used the presence of U.S. military bases on Islamic lands as justification for the murders of thousands of Americans.The documentary basically asks how would we feel if there were foreign military bases in the United States? It is easy to say, well, we didn't suffer unconditional surrender, and yes Japan attacked the U.S., etc., but that was then. This is now, and Germany and Japan are our allies. Regardless of how other people feel about the bases the question we should ask ourselves—and it's a question this documentary asks—is isn't this a great waste of taxpayer money?Directors Thomas Fazi and Enrico Parenti use interviews and film footage to show what a waste these bases are and why there are continuing to be maintained. Naturally Eisenhower's famous warning about the "industrial military complex" comes into play. In short, this production argues that the bases are not only a waste of money but do not add to our national security. Indeed David Vine in his article in The Nation claims the bases are "doing us more harm than good."Personally I agree that the bases add little to our national security. Some bases, such as the one in the middle of the Indian Ocean and others in the Middle East may allow us to respond quickly to terrorists and pirates. This is good since it facilitates global trade which is beneficial to the U.S. But why should the price be so high, and why shouldn't other countries pay more for their defense and keeping the trade routes open? Good questions, but the fact remains that, as this interesting and compelling documentary makes clear, we have far, far too many bases overseas at a cost well beyond their value. One could say it's time to bring the troops home. One would guess that we could be just as safe with perhaps a quarter of the bases. As the headline in The Nation puts it: "The United States Probably Has More Foreign Military Bases Than Any Other People, Nation, or Empire in History."The importance of this documentary is in the fact that the vast majority of Americans have no idea how great and expensive is our military presence globally. This should open some eyes. Spend 76 minutes watching this documentary and decide for yourself: Do we really to spend an estimated $156 billion or more a year while incurring some serious animosity and ill will?--Dennis Littrell, author of "The World Is Not as We Think It Is"

Just rewrite history & ignore facts. Here is just a few of the dumb things presented:Osama Bin Laden developed his hate for the U.S. because of the the First Gulf War. Bin Laden hates Saudi's for choosing the west's help in Kuwait. He went to the Saudi's begging to let Al Quaeda liberate Kuwait and Iraq. The Saudi's were justified in their decision because had they taken the offer, we would have seen what is going on now. A terrorist army committing crimes against humanity. Saddam would have used chemical weapons, and Iran would have streamed in on mass. The war for oil theme is in full effect.War for oil is actually a legitimate. The problem with crying about that? Oil is a commodity that effects every aspect of every thing. Not just the USA. Why do you think Russia annexed the Crimea and will do the same to the rest of the Ukraine. Why do you think the EU pushes "Climate Change." The EU pays more for oil.M ost of our oil is bought from our own sources and Canada. We have oil but our strength keeps the entire market stable.We have bases everywhere but no other countries have bases in the U.S.That is because we have the resources to do so, and since the end of WWII we have felt a moral obligation to make sure a WWIII doesn't happen.German lost a war and that is why we are there. We learned from WWI and spent a lot of our money rebuilding those countries and making sure the Soviet Union didn't do to western Europe what they did with places like Poland. I didn't see a lot of West Germans trying to climb the Berlin Wall to get into East Germany. Bases in Korea.Our bases in Korea are there because the Korean War never ended! The North Koreans threaten war on a daily basis. South Korea has a darn good economy and standard of living and when they have a recession they know we have their back.Japan.Again, like German Japan lost a war in which atrocities were committed on a scale never seen before. The were not signers of the Geneva convention and used POWs as slave labor, starved them, and executed them and that isn't even touching what they did in China. Now, China is in major disputes with Japan. We are again protecting a country that a lot of blood and money were invested to rebuild. Lastly, the grand "military industrial complex."That is a real thing. Not always a bad thing either. We got caught with our pants down on 2 world wars. A lot of lives may have been saved if we didn't start from scratch. No where in this trash is it acknowledged that the MIC quite possibly saved an untold number of lives. Cuba allowed Soviet Nukes to be parked 50 miles from our coast.The fact that the U.S. has bases all over the world is to protect us and our interests. Host countries benefit deeply from it as well. How well did those Warsaw Pact countries do in comparison to NATO countries. Who would have stopped the Genocide in the Balkans? We waited so long on that one because we were hoping Europe would intervene. Instead they ignored it. People also forget that a majority of operations the Military has run in peace time, and places you never hear about were of the Humanitarian missions. People cry a river about the evils of sending "Special Ops," into foreign countries. DO you know what a majority of Army Special Forces missions are in peace time and in war? Training foreign armies to defend themselves, conducting vaccinations, and building bridges, and irrigation.The Military industrial complex does keep people employed. The right is always portrayed as the bad guy but it is the left that support the Unions that are manufacturers of Military equipment. So it would cost jobs to cut forces and operations. That is a truth, but that is one of the things that the Constitution expressly tasks the government with, defending the nation. Not entitlement programs, not Climate change, not hand outs, not birth control pills, but defense. Look around, because you are seeing what happens when the U.S. doesn't get involved. Russia with Putin are on the march, Syria still is bogged down into a 3 way war and none are good guys. Iraq is being turned into a 13th century/Mad Max scene out of some nightmare. China is conducting cyber warfare against us and buzzing our ships with their fighter jets, of which they created through the use of spies. Obama negotiates with Iran with the same strategy Clinton used to keep a nuke away from North Korea, which failed. England tried in the past to negotiate with Hitler and 100 million deaths later we can safely say appeasement is a failed strategy. Since the rest of the world refuses to stand up to anything, then someone needs to do it. I've been to some of these bases. The sampling of locals they used for this piece of anti-U.S. garbage, are not representatives of the majority of those people. I give it one star for the fact that watching it you can see who the deaf, dumb, and blind people who have no understanding of the world come up with the things they do. If you like this trash, you probably where a tin foil hat to bed in your mom's basement.

This "documentary" was interesting and does have some good information to be taken away. Overall it is very biased and has an overwhelmingly negative tone in regards to America's Military projection around the world. It leaves out the what if questions as far as "what if these other countries had won the wars".Any sane person should realize that if America was occupied that our people and land would be treated exponentially worse than these other peoples complaining about our presence around the world. Take what information you can but also remember that the US does try far more than anyone else would to be fair to feasible extents and to care for the lands and peoples we utilize for our world security interests. We are the lesser evil in the world and while we definitely screw our fair share of things up, we are far better than the alternative choices.So in summary watch this for some good information and perspective but also question everything and remember what I have mentioned as well.Really think realistically about it all. There is no peace except through superior force.

This film takes an objective view of military spending around the world. Can the US afford to keep expanding their military presence in foreign countries? Japan, Italy, Iraq and many others are saturated with US bases and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The documentary gives insight into why the US deficit is over $16 Trillion!!!! and growing. Even Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama increased the military budget as soon as he was elected! Gore Vidal RIP "Perpetual war for perpetual peace has been the American dream. Once we were launched upon Empire we would never go back." Cathrine Lutz "When soldiers come, war comes." Noam Chomsky "Bases are the Empire. They're the point of projection of power and the expansion of power."