America's Lend Lease Empire/Okinawa

I think it is interesting to note that both articles emphasized that, while people were decrying the US's basing policies as imperialistic, they were not part of the traditional model of "Empire", at least my take on the definition of Empire. But I do think that there are elements of imperialism in the method of US foreign basing. But because there are some sorts of lend lease and negotiations, I don't think that basing can be called imperialism. I think that because there are many, many reasons why there are US bases where there are, it would be oversimplification to label all of them as "imperial outposts". Because of the original imperial expansion that started the whole foreign base process with "coaling stations", there was an aspect of competition of superpowers and geographic posturing, but that does not mean that those are the only reasons for basing today. The reasons now seem to be strategic convenience and maintaining or shoring up stability of the region, but also for the protection of US energy interests. I think that energy dependence is one, if not the, reason for modern basing in most cases, and I think that that is a particularly pathetic reason, we should be able to find our own energy and not fight for oil.

The main problem I have with the US's presence in Okinawa is that the Okinawans are trying to follow the democratic ideals of the US in removing them from their land, but the US is ignoring them and claiming they don't have the authority to work within the democratic structure of Japan. I think that that is a cop-out answer, we could leave (or at least minimize) our bases if we really wanted to, but its easy and cheap to stay there. It is hypocritical for the US to promote democracy and freedom around the world and then ignore Okinawa's plea for democratic resolution. But I guess it took (and we're not quite there) a long time for the US to enforce most of the democratic/freedom ideals espoused in the Constitution, so maybe its not surprising that the US hasn't helped the Okinawans. It doesn't help that the Okinawans are being trampled on by the Japanese's democratic government as well.