Reddit reviews The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle against U.S. Military Posts

I cannot tell you how misinformed you are of al-Qaeda's status in Afghanistan. I highly recommend you read Taliban by James Fergusson, to get a clearer picture of the Taliban-al-Qaeda relationship.

The Taliban had been willing to hand-over Osama bin Laden since 1998.

Also as for this comic, the reason why the Americans left the Philippines Clark Airbase, was because it was of no use to them anymore, as there were no more regional threats that they did not already have bases close enough to.
If this were to be true Italy, Cuba and Japan, three countries (amongst many others) that have protested the presence of American bases, but both of them obliged to retain their bases.

Also, and very shamefully violence has succeeded in kicking out an American Base, in Lebanon for example, when Hezbollah killed a couple hundred American and French marines, in 1983. This led to an immediate American evacuation from Lebanon.

The presence of bases is not black or white like this comic presents them to be, I turn you to Catherine Lutz's book [The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle against U.S. Military Posts](
http://www.amazon.com/Bases-Empire-Struggle-against-Military/dp/0814752446). Its a very good read.

Furthermore I'm not against America being the global police, in fact I think its the only way of maintaining the global status-quo of peace and prosperity; but to paint such a black/white image, is to have a very naive look at the world.

A lot of what you're asking about has to do with transnational social justice, which is an entire field of its own. There's a lot of resources about it, especially from postcolonial/decolonial theorists. If you're really interested in learning more, I would say look up folks like Gayatri Spivak, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Inderpal Grewal, and Caren Kaplan.

In particular, since I'm predominantly a Foucauldian theorist, I'll direct you to Foucault's theory of power/knowledge and discourse (from his History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish), for your questions on what qualifies as an institution.

As for specific questions...

> Could we construct a hypothetical community somewhere in the US where minorities could be racists?

As someone who grew up in a predominantly East Asian suburb, yes, but not against white folks. In my hometown, I've encountered fairly overt racism against Latinx and black folks. However, even as our population is around 70% Asian, those in power are still predominantly white, with half the City Council, and about 70-80% of our teachers. And there's no way not to be influenced by institutional racism on the national level. For instance, the media we consume (when I grew up, at least) was still predominantly white, and most of my classmates faced a lot of microaggressions when they had to go to the neighboring predominantly white suburb for whatever reason.

> What about on the international stage? The US is clearly a superpower, but it took us 11 years of intense searching to find Osama bin Laden AND we seem to be losing our 3 wars (poverty, drugs, and terror).

As others have mentioned, centuries of colonialism/imperialism matters. And the U.S. is still participating in neo-colonial endeavors. For instance, the U.S. has the the largest number of military bases of any country in the world. According to Bases of Empire, the U.S. has around 800 bases outside of the U.S. itself. Here's an article on it in politico.

Also, the U.S. is notorious for funding terrorists and dictators. There were even allegations of the CIA assisting (in a roundabout way) Osama bin Laden.

> but enjoys a privileged status similar to whites in the US in their own country, be racist towards whites in their own country?

As mentioned above, there are very little countries untouched by U.S. colonization. And, with the prevalence of Hollywood as a global phenomenon, whiteness is fairly exalted the world over. Speaking from someone who grew up in Taiwan, the western ideal of beauty is still fairly prevalent there, and a lot of colorism exists (i.e. putting down anyone whose skin is "too dark", elevating those whose skin is lighter, etc.). It's also a known phenomenon that it's easier to get a job if you're white in Taiwan than if you're, well, Taiwanese.

There are definitely privileged minorities in other countries who exerts power over the natives, though. In Taiwan, racism against the indigenous Taiwanese folks, while not quite as bad as in America, is still pretty darn terrible. So there definitely is privilege in being ethnically Chinese in Taiwan, but there's also still privilege in being white.

Well, let's see.

There's a professor based out of Washington, another professor - Harvard-educated, and a graduate in international security who writes for Time.

But hey, maybe all these guys are politically biased. That could happen, right? Let's see what the right-wing press has to say.

Oh, wait. Huh. Maybe someone with access to CIA data, then?

Well gosh and darn. Maybe the New York Times can provide a different answer?

No? Jeez, seems like ya can't trust anyone to toe the official line any more.