Q: What do all these places have in common?

Vet and citizen diplomat Ann Wright supporting pro-democracy movement in Bahrain 2/20/11.

A: U.S. taxpayer supported military bases and weapons systems.

"Democracy" or dictatorship, they are all markets for Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, et al.

from the Rethink Afghanistan blog:
Bringing Home 150 Troops from Afghanistan Would Fix Wisconsin’s Budget “Crisis”
Posted by robertgreenwald on February 19th, 2011

Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker is using phony budget projections to manufacture a staged “fiscal emergency” in his state so that he can whack programs and political opponents, but even his fake “emergency” pales in comparison to the cost of the Afghanistan War to his state. In fact, the U.S. would only have to bring home 151 troops from Afghanistan to save more money than Walker’s ridiculous union-busting plan. Better yet, ending the Afghanistan War altogether would save taxpayers in Wisconsin $1.7 billion this year alone, more than ten times the amount “saved” in Walker’s attack on state employee rights.  Read more...