Been awhile since I did one of these. By the way, Happy Labor Day. I wish I could say that I was happy, but I'm not. Last night was a very bad night. I couldn't sleep because I am worried sick. Look at these numbers of US Military Personnel Overseas
By the way, I include a link to a map so to make it easier to see the point I am trying to make, which is only unknown to us stupid Americans who don't pay attention nor think about what our leaders are doing. Also, I apologize because I should really know HTML well enough to make my own map instead of using this one:
Afghanistan 90,000. Notice anything about the countries that surround this map? All the countries in that region are not on the most friendly terms with the United States. Actually, there are politicians who may assure us that this is not the case--- that they are all our friends. BULLSHIT. These troops are in a very precarious position if a war breaks out, which is very, very possible now. This is why I have little confidence in our leadership. If these troops have to fight their way out, then it is clear why morale is low and a lot of troops are killing themselves. Our leadership is literally going to get these troops killed. They know it. We all should know it, but we are being sold a fantasy.
Token numbers of troops in eight Middle East countries (total of all --- I count 19331 of which 15000 are in Kuwait. Kuwait and Afghanistan are going to feel the brunt of Iranian retaliation if a war breaks out there. What exactly are we going to do if Iran marches about a half million troops into Afghanistan and Kuwait? I'm not sure that they can do this, but they got a lot more people there than we do. Whatever they can do, they can bring a lot more to the region than we can. I don't like those odds. I think this is a fool's game, and we are playing it.
Asia Pacific Japan and South Korea host about 65k troops. Next door is China and Russia. Big, first class military type adversaries. We have been fighting Third World countries. How would we do against the big bad Russian bear, and the big bad Chinese panda? I am not particularly confident that this will end well either. I understand that Australia is a big friend of ours, but what can we do when they are half a world away? We are stretched very, very thin. Another fool's game.
In Europe, Germany, Italy and the UK take up about 73660 troops. With Germany on par economically or more than par with us, why they hell are we defending them? Same for UK and Italy. We are being bled white defending these nations when we should be defending ourselves.
Now, let me be clear about something. I understand to pull out and leave these countries to themselves will put us into even a more precarious position. But we may be put there anyway if we lose a major confrontation, which from these numbers, is a very real threat. What is better, to be defeated in a war, or to accept a strategic defeat and do a strategic retreat?
I'd say this country, over the next several years, and in negotiations with our adversaries, should negotiate our withdrawal from these countries and bring our troops home. This will mean isolationalism again. Sure, and this will not be accepted by our leadership. But how the hell do they really expect this situation to continue?
It can't.
Somebody might say this: You are a Republican and you say this? Aren't you just as big a traitor as the Democrats? There are those who think this is treason. No. It is reality and we are not facing reality in this country. That is our biggest problem. Forget everything else. If we don't get reality on our side, there is no hope for this country.
Now you know why I didn't sleep last night.
George Washington warned against entangling alliances. We are relatively weak again like we were as a young country. The world has caught up. We cannot continue to act as if we are on top of the world and we can still do this kind of stuff. Reality time, people.
One more consideration. The US Dollar is the world's reserve currency because of this worldwide straddling of the US Military like a Colossus across the world. If we go, our reserve currency status also goes. Which is why we may be going back on the gold standard. That ought to tell you something. We are going to be defending the whole world against the other half of the whole world. We can't do it.
Draw your own conclusions. I think our leadership is barking mad.
Update:
Looking at the Romney website on the issue of Iran, I'd say odds of a military confrontation is near certain. Combined with what I've heard with respect to Israel, an attack is probably imminent. But our leaders, what are they doing but talking big and carrying a little stick? If you mean this, it means a draft and a couple million men under arms and a doubling the size of our navy and so forth. They are not about to say anything like that. Just more fantasy. How are you going to pay for a doubling of the military budget? Insane.
You could propose to the Russians that if they guarantee the security of the Israelies, we will withdraw from the region. I don't know, the Russians may take that deal, or they may want to rub our noses in it.
Are you people in Washington really, really sure about this? I don't think they give a shit. If they lose a war and can keep their power and rule over us with an iron fist, they won't give a shit.
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