September 11th marks the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks when four passenger airliners were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists - charged with the mission of flying them into buildings on U.S. soil.
In his new book, Base Nation, author David Vine examines how the existence of U.S. bases abroad, particularly in Saudi Arabia, were part of Osama bin Laden’s professed motivation for the 9/11 attacks.
Furthermore, Vine looks to demonstrate that America’s sprawling network of overseas bases imposes costs— not only financial but also political, environmental, and moral— that far exceed what the Pentagon is prepared to acknowledge. David Vine is an associate professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C.