eli5: Why does USA have military bases and soldiers in many foreign countries?
In: Other
Because it is the only army currently that projects power globally. Projecting power globally means that you have infantry, aircraft and naval vessels able to operate in any part of the world. In practice this means that it’s much more practical to have permanent bases of infantry, aircraft and naval vessels all across the world, and they do that by placing them wherever they’re allowed, namely in Europe due to the NATO alliance, most notably Germany which is a holdover from the Cold War, Japan due to alliance with Japan, South Korea due to an alliance with them, the Middle East due to alliances of the governments they backed there (whether these governments have any actual control or not), the Pacific in various locations due to various complicated reasons, Africa in Djibouti due to a special arrangement which multiple countries take advantage of, and the list goes on.
Basically they have bases wherever they can. This allows them to operate everywhere.
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