US Bases in the Arab World: A Colonial Occupation in Disguise
By Khaled Barakat – Jun 27, 2025
The recent US aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran has laid bare, long-ignored truth: US military bases are among the most serious threats to the peoples of our region. Today, much of the Arab world remains under occupation through foreign domination enforced by military presence, political control, and economic subjugation. Where direct US or Western military domination ends, internal occupation begins, through World Bank dictates, systems of dependency, normalization, and a suffocating helplessness.
From the Atlantic ocean to the shores of the Gulf, US military bases stretch across the Arab world like the fangs of a “modern” colonial beast. Under false slogans like “cooperation,” “stability,” and “protection”, these outposts have long masked their true purpose. These bases are nothing less than military occupations, brazen, shameless, and no different in essence from traditional colonialism. No free people would ever tolerate a foreign military presence imposed on their land, against their will and dignity.
Over 40,000 US troops are now stationed across at least 19 military bases and outposts in the Arab homeland, a number that has doubled in recent years. From al-Udeid base in Qatar, now a command hub for regional wars, to the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, invasion platform in Kuwait, air installations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and covert sites in Jordan, Iraq, and Syria, the Arab land has become a launchpad for attacks on our peoples. These bases operate as spy centers, weapons depots defending the Zionist entity, and tools of domination to control our economies and politics. They are supported by mobile warships in our waters, and anchored by the largest outpost of them all: the Israeli entity itself.
The US, British, and French bases are not mere concrete structures or weapons stockpiles. They are the spearhead of the US-Zionist domination project. From those very bases, strikes are launched on Iran and Yemen. From them, security coordination is managed to weaken resistance in Palestine and Lebanon. Inside their walls, spy networks are built, normalization deals are signed, and the maps of devastation are drawn, just as they were when our region was carved up in the past, only now with even more destruction.
Expelling these bases is not an option. It is a national and revolutionary obligation, a critical chapter in our collective resistance.
The regimes that welcomed these bases under the banners of dependency, normalization, and surrender, have sold their nations for the survival of a paid elite. They have handed over every port, airport, and airspace to foreign militaries, trading sovereignty for power. But as the pace of confrontation accelerates, the voice of the people grows louder: “Isn’t it time to expel every last US base from Arab soil?”
Masar Badil Statement: US Military Bases Out of Our Homelands!
The ongoing genocide in Gaza, the recent assault on Iran, and the daily assassinations of resistance leaders expose these bases as more sinister than even traditional colonialism. Their existence ensures a continuous cycle of violence and control. No Arab state will know safety while they remain. No nation will enjoy stability under their shadow. No people will taste sovereignty as long as US warplanes fly overhead.
Palestine will never be liberated while a single US base remains in the region. Neither Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, nor Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco will be free under the weight of US military occupation. The battle is one. Our fate is shared. The enemy is known.
Let the banners of Arab resistance rise once again, this time against US imperialism, as they once rose against the Zionist project. Let us ignite popular campaigns, national uprisings, and revolutionary movements across the region with a single cry: “US bases out of our land, immediately!”
Launching an armed and popular campaign against these bases will not only strike at the heart of imperial control, it will expose the alliance between US imperialism, Zionism, and Arab reactionary regimes. It will disrupt the balance of the enemy camp and open the door to a new phase in the Arab liberation struggle.
Expelling these bases is not an option. It is a national and revolutionary obligation, a critical chapter in our collective resistance. We will never reclaim a free future, Arab unity, or human dignity until we dismantle this foreign occupation, sever the chains of submission, and return sovereignty to where it belongs: in the hands of the Arab people, not the generals of the Pentagon.
