America’s foreign troop deployments are yet again causing international incidents. Citizens in nations hosting these bases are increasingly demanding US soldiers out of their country, but their leadership is unresponsive.
Soldiers typically engage in elevated levels of criminal activity during war, but what makes US military personnel unusual is their long and sordid history of assaulting, murdering and raping the nearby population during peacetime.
In the latest outrage, a 25-year-old black US Air Force mechanic stationed in Okinawa, Brennon Washington, has been indicted for the abduction and rape of a Japanese girl believed to be 13 or 14-years-old.
Last December, Washington allegedly lured the girl into his car at a public park then raped her at his off-base residence. Under the US’ Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Japan, local authorities are not allowed to detain and question American soldiers suspected of committing crimes against Japanese citizens until they are formally charged, with the sole exception being rape and murder. This arrangement often prevents local prosecutors from holding American criminals accountable, leading to a sense of impunity.
Approximately 26,000 US troops are stationed on the islands of Okinawa. American authorities routinely ignore or even refuse to accept complaints filed by the Okinawan Prefecture demanding they crack down on the violent and chaotic behaviour of their troops and civilian contractors. American soldiers engage in multiple sex crimes against Japanese women every year, but military authorities generally refuse to punish them beyond rank demotions and fines.
Japanese civil society groups and the foreign ministry have asked US ambassador Rahm Emmanuel to condemn violence by American servicemen against Japanese citizens to no avail. Emmanuel, who is Jewish, has previously taken to X to promote the thoroughly debunked Hamas rape hoax.
The lack of respect for the basic dignity of local people has stirred controversy and resentment. Last year, authorities sentenced American soldier Ridge Alkonis to three years in prison for reckless driving after he fell asleep at the wheel and killed an elderly Japanese woman and her son-in-law. Alkonis nodded off after a long hike with his family, neglecting his legal obligation to pull his car over.
The soldier’s lawyers brought in a US Navy doctor who testified that he may have fallen unconscious after suffering from acute mountain sickness, a dubious claim refuted in advance by medical reports showing he was descending from the mountain and simply drove while drowsy. This bad faith American-style defence strategy enraged the Japanese judge, who interpreted it as a lack of remorse, leading to a stiff sentence.
After serving 507 days in a local prison, President Joe Biden asked the Japanese government to transfer Alkonis to the United States under an agreement where he would serve the remainder of his three-year sentence in California. Upon return to the US, this understanding was quickly betrayed and Alkonis was freed 30 days later.
In Germany, the NATO SOFA grants law enforcement even less power over US soldier conduct, as even murderers must be handed over to military authorities for internal punishment. Last summer, a group of American soldiers descended upon the small Rhineland-Palatinate town of Wittlich, where they began terrorising people at the family-friendly Säubrennerkirmes fair. Following a dispute, the annoying thugs stabbed a young German security guard to death.
The identities of the two suspects remains a mystery due to German privacy laws and the opacity of the US military court system. Following their detention by German police, they were handed over to American military officials for prosecution and the case was closed, infuriating relatives of the victim and locals. The incident rattled the town, prompting Mayor Joachim Rodenkirch to declare, “We’ve never experienced anything like this here.”
In the United States, the media has created the impression that people in Germany, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere see American soldiers as liberators and protectors, but the facts show otherwise.
Okinawans have twice elected Denny Tamaki, the mixed-race son of an American Marine who abandoned him as a baby, on a platform of removing US forces from the region.
The pro-US Liberal Democratic Party has spent enormous amounts of money to defeat Tamaki, but he remains popular. The LDP, which was created by the CIA and has ruled Japan on Washington’s behalf as a one-party state since 1955, has repeatedly held that the World War II American military occupation’s presence is non-negotiable.
Germans face a similar challenge on this matter. Surveys show Germans want the US troop presence in their land reduced or removed completely. Foreign policy analysts have warned Donald Trump to stop threatening Western Europe with removal of NATO forces if they don’t start subsidising them because the people don’t want them there to begin with. In Foreign Policy, Michael John Williams put it succinctly: “Bases in Europe have always aided American hegemony more than local defence.”
As in the case of Japan’s LDP, Germany’s two post-war institutional parties — the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party — were created by the Allies and propped up by the CIA to manage the country in Washington’s interest. The founder of the CDU, Konrad Adenauer, was installed into power by American authorities following an informal agreement to support the Atlanticist project against parties seeking greater German sovereignty. Separating the German state from the American one is difficult due to the long chancellorships pro-US CDU officials have typically had, with Adenauer serving for 14 years and both Angela Merkel and Helmut Kohl ruling for 16 years each.
Institutional anti-White racism appears to be playing a role in the permissiveness of military officials and the anarchy being exported. The Rand Corporation, which was tasked earlier this year with uncovering hidden bias against minorities in the military’s judicial system, instead found that while blacks and Mexicans were more likely to be tried for violations and crimes, they suffered court martials and expulsions at lower rates than Whites accused of the same offenses.
It is a matter of time before China and Russia, whose immediate national security interests are threatened by these bases, start making the case that US soldiers are a demonstrably greater threat to the safety and well-being of the people of Germany, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. If the rapes and murders continue at the current rate, a surge of global anti-Americanism is imminent.
