China may be trying to take over a critical US air base in the Atlantic

Greetings,

Note: Why is every US base located on another nation’s territory labeled as “Vital” or “Critical?” Why is is it alright in the eyes of Americans for their nation to occupy other nations, yet just a hint at someone training on US soil is Heresy?

Is that because of white privilege, imperial hubris, or anglo pride? Why does America, with her stockpile of thousands of nukes and advance armory, need overseas bases if it is not for imperial aims?

These are questions that never get ask, but should!!!!

China may be trying to take over a critical US air base in the Atlantic

Over Thanksgiving, I briefly visited the Azores, an archipelago in the middle of the North Atlantic, home to Lajes Field, a Portuguese Air Force Base that’s also home to the US Air Force’s 65th Air Base Wing.

The US has had almost a century of interaction with the Azores. During World War I, the US Navy briefly occupied Ponta Delgada, from which it flew hydroplanes to help spot German submarines. With the end of the war, the American contingent returned home, but various Azores airfields served as waypoints as transatlantic aviation developed.

During World War II, however, Lajes Field became a significant base under British control from which both US and British planes flew missions to protect Atlantic shipping. The US Navy also used it as a blimp waystation.

In 1946, Lajes reverted to Portuguese control, but Washington and Lisbon agreed that the US could continue to use the field. With the creation of NATO, Lajes became Portugal’s greatest military asset and contribution to the alliance.

By the 1950s, tanker aircraft at Lajes became important for aerial refueling for US military aircraft and, as the Cold War solidified, the Azores became an important asset to enable US forces to better track Soviet submarines and naval movements. During the 1980s, Lajes also was home to an airborne command post for the commander of US forces Europe.

Lajes was also crucial to Operation Nickel Grass, the US airlift to supply Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, and as a way station as US forces moved assets to the Persian Gulf to liberate Kuwait in 1991. Just days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was in the US-run club house at Lajes Field that President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, and Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso met to cement the “coalition of the willing.”….More Here

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