"U.S. Opens A Massive $11 Billion Military Base In ..." Topic

…South Korea.

"This small American city has four schools and five churches, an Arby's, a Taco Bell and a Burger King. The grocery store is offering a deal on Budweiser as the temperature soars, and out front there's a promotion for Ford Mustangs.

But for all its invocations of the American heartland, this growing town is in the middle of the South Korean countryside, in an area that was famous for growing huge grapes.

"We built an entire city from scratch," said Col. Scott W. Mueller, garrison commander of Camp Humphreys, one of the U.S. military's largest overseas construction projects. If it were laid across Washington, the 3,454-acre base would stretch from Key Bridge to Nationals Park, from Arlington National Cemetery to the Capitol…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Hmmm. Arby's, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Budweiser. This reminds of the "American Soldiers Getting Fatter" topic on another thread!

But of course, how can anyone be expected to fight a war without a junk food supply line?

It's sort of unseemly the way American military bases become these weird little islands of American cultural colonization and primacy in foreign countries.

Everyone wants to be reminded of home a little bit when stuck at a base on the other side of the world and specially when they just got there and don't yet understand the language and the culture.

The British have historically done exactly the same thing in India and elsewhere. Except that now, instead of living on military bases, the expats live within their own enclosed/gated residential communities, with their own British schools, shops and other familiar things.

The problem really comes when we only wish to function within those artificial bubbles of familiarity, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to explore new foods, languages, etc.

Dan
PS. Of course, if the base or residential community is suddenly in the middle of an increasingly more hostile population, there might be no choice but to remain in those bubbles unless absolutely necessary.

Agree!.

Amicalement
Armand

>>It's sort of unseemly the way American military bases become these weird little islands of American cultural colonization and primacy in foreign countries.<<

Unseemly, hell, it's fair give and take. Take a look around New York City and then ask yourself if a handful of burger joints is really "cultural colonization". (Which we call, "enrichment".)

blog.daum.net/pbh9/102