Time To Choose
by Charley Reese
from Lew Rockwell.com
Most politicians, when they talk about reducing spending, chatter on about cutting waste and fraud. That's OK, but it's a mere nick on the federal budget. If you really want to reduce spending, you must dismantle the overseas empire.
Excluding Iraq, Afghanistan and the other facilities in the Gulf states that have been built since the Republican war, the Pentagon lists 702 overseas bases in 130 foreign countries on which are stationed more than 250,000 uniformed troops. There are also dependents and civilian employees on many of those bases.
One of the oldest military clichés is that the generals always want to fight the last war over again. Well, there's some truth to that. In fact, though, we will never again fight World War II, so why in the heck do we have bases still in Germany, Italy, Japan, Guam and South Korea?
Just whom do we expect to fight from these bases? How do they contribute to the defense of the U.S.? They don't. They are, frankly, a residue of World War II and a reminder that the military is, after all, a bureaucracy and hates the very idea of "losing" any facilities and billets. We don't need to have troops permanently stationed in any of these countries. Nor do we need to maintain our membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is a residue from the Cold War.
(Continued here.)
from Lew Rockwell.com
Most politicians, when they talk about reducing spending, chatter on about cutting waste and fraud. That's OK, but it's a mere nick on the federal budget. If you really want to reduce spending, you must dismantle the overseas empire.
Excluding Iraq, Afghanistan and the other facilities in the Gulf states that have been built since the Republican war, the Pentagon lists 702 overseas bases in 130 foreign countries on which are stationed more than 250,000 uniformed troops. There are also dependents and civilian employees on many of those bases.
One of the oldest military clichés is that the generals always want to fight the last war over again. Well, there's some truth to that. In fact, though, we will never again fight World War II, so why in the heck do we have bases still in Germany, Italy, Japan, Guam and South Korea?
Just whom do we expect to fight from these bases? How do they contribute to the defense of the U.S.? They don't. They are, frankly, a residue of World War II and a reminder that the military is, after all, a bureaucracy and hates the very idea of "losing" any facilities and billets. We don't need to have troops permanently stationed in any of these countries. Nor do we need to maintain our membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is a residue from the Cold War.
(Continued here.)
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