I’m a huge supporter of the men and women of the US Military. I served, my father served, my grand fathers served. My Brother is serving now and has completed a tour of duty in Iraq. I have many friends and other family that are either serving now or have recently completed their service. I have nothing but the highest respect for those that serve. I want them to have the very best training, equipment and support so they can remain the best and most effective fighting force in the world.
That being said, it’s time to bring them home. ALL of them.
We have armed forces personnel deployed to over 130 countries world wide. The US spends 54% of the total world wide military spending, six times the amount of the next most China. Who are we defending ourselves from? What country is capable, never mind willing to attack the US militarily? Seriously, we can reach out and strike anywhere at any time, and we can do it from the US. Our enemies aren’t what our military is built for. That should be obvious from Afghanistan and to a somewhat lesser degree Iraq. Even our friends are getting tired of our “help”. How much of our peace keeping efforts are making matters worse rather than better? Suicide, PTSD, divorce and abuse rates are up across the board in our military families. What are we getting for the cost both financially and in human terms? Are we really that much safer to justify the cost? I don’t think so.
The problem is we can’t just pull everyone out and bring them home. We have long term strategic relationships with friends around the world that count on our military presence, like Israel for example. They need time to adjust to the fact we are drawing down our forces for their support. In places like Iraq and Afghanistan we have people that have been our friends that would be in danger if we simply abandoned them, so time will be needed to remove them from potential danger. As unlikely as it may seem, if there is any chance for some kind of democratic self rule in these countries, then we should conduct our pull out in such a way that it allows for that possibility. Regardless what we think is best for a country, we have to respect their choice, even if it’s not democracy. If they want our help, they can ask for it.
We have to change our mindset about our culture of war. We need to examine EVERY deployed unit outside of the United States and specifically identify EXACTLY what that deployment means in terms of security for the American people. Some can remain deployed as part of a United Nations or North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but those deployments should be greatly reduced to no more than 20% of the total deployed. We have to reject the normalcy of overseas deployments and the permanent state of war.
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