Monday, January 2, 2012

Why Should We Have Soldiers In All The Places We Have Them?

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I honestly can't some up with a good reason to have our soldiers stationed around the world, in hellholes in the Middle East, and otherwise, in Germany, France, England, Japan, Turkey, and others.

I personally feel all we need are Carrier Battle Groups stationed near all the hotspots in the world, where serious trouble can be addressed in a matter of hours with air power.

There is the all encompassing argument for continuing in Afghanistan or not, and my personal opinion there is that we're not going to purge the taliban from the Earth so we either commit to staying there forever, thousands of our sons and daughters maimed by IED's, RPGs and otherwise, or take another approach.  Like arm the opposition and let them have at it, supporting them with air power seems reasonable.  Afghanistan will never have a centralized government / security force to do the job themselves and Karzai himself often sides with the taliban.  So, wtf are we doing there?

If we're sitting somewhere protecting someone like S. Korea, then they should be paying us, and a bunch of that should go as compensation to the military members and their families who are actively involved.

Iran or country Xyz about to get nuclear weapons.  We don't have people on the ground in Iran nor will we.  We have also never stopped anyone from building nuclear weapons, even with the U.N.'s Nuclear Watchkitty on the case, so what would having people on the ground near Iran do exactly. 

Let Iran get a nuke, or help Israel take out the nuclear sites from the air, or wait until Iran actually uses a nuclear weapon and show them what a nuclear submarine in the are can do to make them regret their actions.  Again, none of this involves people on the ground.

I understand our military is made up of some fantastic people. People willing to go to some hellhole and risk having both legs blown off or death in the course of temporarily saving some civilian(s) from the torture of islamic maniacs.  But why send them.  We can give them much more profitable things to do.

So, I'm with Ron Paul here.  Bring them all back, Make our military healthy and protect America as a focus.

I'm updating this post at random so if it looks different from when you last looked. (you came back twice?!) that is the reason.   Like global climate - Embrace the change! 

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8 comments :

  1. There are areas where reasoned men/women can differ. I don't claim to know why we remain in so many of the areas we do. But there may be a good reason.

    Heck, even Mr. bring-em-home Obama has left almost all of them in place. Why is that.

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  2. Opus, that is a valid point. We both know I'm not omnipotent. :)

    I've heard lots of theories as I'm sure you have of why we go to war in less than crystal clear circumstances. I have just never heard anyone emphatically justify the why. And I realize I'm (we're) not necessarily privileged to know the reasons. I'm good with that most of the time. Nature of the beast.

    But it is a subject of importance. Especially for those directly involved on BOTH sides of the war. As in how would we feel if there was foreign military machinery in the USA? I know how I'd feel. And yes, the taliban IS evil and evil needs to be purged. Let's just do it then? Nukes?
    Shooting 7.62 ammo at each other ain't gettin it done.

    I don't have the answers, but I can recognize when nothing is being accomplished.

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  3. Hey kid, you're not omnipotent? WOW, I agree most hardheartedly. While I believe in having a strong military presence I believe a Nuclear powered and armed air craft carrier is an awesome deterrent. But, that's me and I know we do have some fantastic military bases around the globe. Grandfather always said this and God bless Grandpaw "Nuke Em"

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  4. DeanO, It sound's a little red-necky doesn't it? Nuke em. But then, how SHOULD evil be engaged?

    That's a big subject and deserves a post of it's own, but in the extremely brief:

    - We saved Many Japanese lives as well as the Japanese culture by using Nukes. No question.

    Imagine if we'd have used them in 1950-somehting against N Korea. Imagine all the people NOT having to suffer with starvation or freezing due to the maximum oppressive rule of N.Korea between then and 2011 ! I'm sure it's a subject of extreme sentiment, but I know I always lean toward purging the evil and allowing healthy tissue to survive.

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  5. Save the tree. You cannot save every leaf.

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  6. Hey Kid - Grandpa saw the war first hand, soldiers died in his arms and I believe he was weary and truly, a fan of bigger, more powerful weapons. Not always the answer but I agree - how do you engage the enemy who wants to see the total ruin and elimination of you, your family and your country? Indeed - Grandpa was a redneck but he was also wise!

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  7. DeanO, I wasn't accusing anyone of being a redneck. Sorry if it sounded otherwise. I for example am an anti-redneck, and I can get on board with Nuke em.

    I can see how people with direct first hand experience could easily adopt that stance.

    I can never forget the WWI soldiers. My God, what nonsense! So many were ordered to charge into certain death from machine gun fire. Most of the others, trench foot and other horrific diseases, Shell Shock. My God, what Nonsense!

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  8. Seriously, be a bully on the world stage, committing genocide or simply abusing a society somewhere - I have no problem with Nuke em. Kill all the dictators and all the assholes.

    LANGUAGE!!!!!!!!!!!

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