> http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/indexprint.mhtml?pid=1181
>
> America's Empire of Bases
> By Chalmers Johnson
>
> Our military deploys well over half a million soldiers, spies, technicians,
> teachers, dependents, and civilian contractors in other nations.
A little perspective on this: the WTO (not the trade group, the World Trade Organization) says 702.6 million international visits took place in 2002 alone, while the global tourism industry pulled in 501 billion EUR:
http://www.world-tourism.org/market_research/facts/menu.html
And the tourism biz keeps growing by leaps and bounds. The travel-hobbit is mightier than the oil-orc!
-- DRR