Glenn Reynolds thinks it’s time to bring our troops home…from Europe:
I’d like to see a timetable for getting troops out of Europe. It’s time they took responsibility for their own security and stopped their childlike dependence upon / resentment of America. They need to work on more responsible democratic institutions, too. The Iraqis I’ll give a bit longer.
Me too.
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From the Investor’s Business Daily article referenced by Reynolds:
We’ve been Europe’s security blanket for six decades. We are Japan’s security blanket. We are South Korea’s. It’s been said that were it not for us, the French would be speaking German and the Germans would be speaking Russian. In 1938, the West decided it couldn’t be Czechoslovakia’s security blanket and sold out that country in Munich, Germany. The rest, as they say, is history.
Yep.
…and spoil a nice trip abroad for thousands of Americans?
Eh…I spent some time in Germany (REFORGER) and in Bosnia. Neither of those two trips were nearly as enjoyable as you might think.
I have since been back to Germany as a civilian, and I enjoyed my trip abroad much more the second go round.
My cousin did a stint in Kosovo, came home, and then re-upped for another year in Kosovo.
I guess it’s nicer than it sounds.
We should have been out of Europe twenty years ago, after the Soiet Union fell. Maybe not immediately, but within five years of that time. All our troops should be home, and stationed at our damn borders. Repeal the damn Pussy Commontitties Law. Let the world take care of its own damn problems. Sink or swim. Of course, that means that the Big Business entities won’t have Uncle Sam to protect their piracy in the world, so it’s never going to happen, I know that. But I can dream.
No one’s going to accuse you of keeping your opinions to yourself, Patrick.
I’m also a little wary of the use of American soldiers to protect the investments of Wall Street but I still see a role for the US and the American military in the world. There is simply no country with the moral standing of the US to act as a negotiator, a peacekeeper, or a soldier if necessary. Of course that’s one of the reason’s I have opposed this war- it has damaged our ability to influence the world in positive ways.
That said, I agree that we should have been drawing down our troops for some time in Europe. I’d imagine Clinton knew that a Republican Congress would jump on that as being ‘weak on defense’ and Bush clearly has no desire to reduce American military influence anywhere. (An opinion reinforced yesterday by his comment that 20 years and the lives of 1 million Vietnamese and 58,209 soldiers is evidence that Americans are ‘quitters’.)
But I have to part ways on the use of American soldiers on US soil. We can put up a fence for all I care but the idea of soldiers asking Americans for papers strikes a little too close to totalitarianism for my taste.
i have recently been in Germany and i heard that soon, soldiers would be coming home from germany. So maybe there is some hope.
Wait…do we still have federal troops stationed in the south?
Yes. We do. There are still ~1500 Texas National Guardsmen stationed on the border. However, they are not tasked with patrolling border crossing stations (thus, they are not asking US Citizens for their papers).
They are assisting the Border Patrol agents with patrolling the rest of the vast and open border.
Well, I meant from Civil War reconstruction days, haha.
[...] …of Europe. Hat Tip: Urbangrounds.com Glenn Reynolds wants to get out: [...]