10
10
0
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this opinion piece from Defense News. Has the DoD become a victim of its own success? Has the U.S. reached the point of overextending itself through incremental "scope creep" in its mission and purpose?
Why the US shouldn’t build more foreign bases
Posted from defensenews.com
DoD
Senior Leaders
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Policy
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
6
6
0
I think Poland is Justified. I just came back from a 6000 man exercise in Canada called Maple resolve. About 450 Canadians are going to replace the other 450 Canadians that are already in Latvia. The Canadians are sprinkled all over the globe. Even though they have only 1% of their GDP towards offense compared to our larger defense budget, they do help train soldiers in the western Ukraine and they do have Soldier stationed in Latvia. Russia carved up Poland with Germany at the beginning of World War II. Vladimir Putin has a sore Papa because Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were part of Russia after they were also negotiated away with the same pact that Hitler made with Russia in late August, 1939. That kaliningrad Enclave can probably over run those Baltic states in a day or two. Why not have 1,000 American troops there? We used to have 50-100K troops in Western Europe until about 1995.
Russia is on the warpath and they are now a mini Soviet Union. They purposely have an exercise and they lie about its size so we don't observe it. They are having an exercise of more than 14,000 troops because above that level, we have to observe it! We see it by airplane in Satellite as being much bigger than that more like 2 Division Exercise.
President Trump, as a populist, said that Western Europe or Eastern Europe should pay more for their defense. Poland is sacrificing their hard-earned money to to convince us to stay there. We should stay there! That is my honest opinion. Those who cannot remember the past, Circa before 1991, are condemned to repeat it!
SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas MAJ Montgomery Granger SPC Jack Stinson LTC Bill Koski CSM William DeWolf CPT Jack Durish SSG (Join to see) CPT Pedro Meza MAJ (Join to see) LTC Bill Koski
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/world/europe/russia-military-exercise-zapad-west.html
Russia is on the warpath and they are now a mini Soviet Union. They purposely have an exercise and they lie about its size so we don't observe it. They are having an exercise of more than 14,000 troops because above that level, we have to observe it! We see it by airplane in Satellite as being much bigger than that more like 2 Division Exercise.
President Trump, as a populist, said that Western Europe or Eastern Europe should pay more for their defense. Poland is sacrificing their hard-earned money to to convince us to stay there. We should stay there! That is my honest opinion. Those who cannot remember the past, Circa before 1991, are condemned to repeat it!
SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas MAJ Montgomery Granger SPC Jack Stinson LTC Bill Koski CSM William DeWolf CPT Jack Durish SSG (Join to see) CPT Pedro Meza MAJ (Join to see) LTC Bill Koski
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/world/europe/russia-military-exercise-zapad-west.html
Russia’s Military Drills Near NATO Border Raise Fears of Aggression
American military officials are concerned that Russia will use the maneuvers as a pretext to increase its presence in Belarus, which borders three NATO allies.
(6)
(0)
MAJ (Join to see)
LTC (Join to see) - The consensus on the Central and South America regarding the cause of mass immigration *to* the U.S. is a combination of economic crises, breakdowns of civil institutions, fear for one's safety, and desire to reunite with family members who have already settled in the U.S. I invite you to look at the below for some perspectives on the migration issue.
Have we (the U.S.) really addressed the root problems giving rise to the influx of illegal drugs across our borders? I'll agree to disagree with you about the political part about the drug war. Stamping out temptation with the "War on Drugs" like we attempted to do with Prohibition in the early 1900's drives the drug supply underground. The issue of drug addiction is far more complex and requires a public health approach with NGO involvement rather than just more of the same. We kicked this thing off since I was a kid in the 80's - fast-forward to today and I find little has changed, aside from the steady decrease of addiction rates in those states which have legalized marijuana and have collected enough data to conduct a preliminary analysis on any causal outcomes. The statistics point to prior history of addiction, rather than geographic origin or post-surgical exposure to opioids, as the critical precursor to addictive behavior.
Arbitrary labeling of people as "liberals", "druggies", and "idiots" when it comes to discussion on policy weakens your otherwise valid points, MAJ Conway. This country has grown too diverse to arbitrarily label groups you don't happen to agree with. We need to return to an environment where we can actively seek out commonalities and develop workable solutions to our national security and policy issues. Otherwise, we only risk repeating the same old tropes, reliving the same old history, and compromise our ability to actually discuss these issues freely.
https://justiceforimmigrants.org/what-we-are-working-on/immigration/root-causes-of-migration/
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/20/5916443/what-the-us-can-do-to-address-the-root-causes-of-the-migrant-crisis
https://www.lclaa.org/images/pdf/DISPOSABLE_WORKERS.pdf
https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/06/01/how-the-government-made-the-opioid-crisi
Have we (the U.S.) really addressed the root problems giving rise to the influx of illegal drugs across our borders? I'll agree to disagree with you about the political part about the drug war. Stamping out temptation with the "War on Drugs" like we attempted to do with Prohibition in the early 1900's drives the drug supply underground. The issue of drug addiction is far more complex and requires a public health approach with NGO involvement rather than just more of the same. We kicked this thing off since I was a kid in the 80's - fast-forward to today and I find little has changed, aside from the steady decrease of addiction rates in those states which have legalized marijuana and have collected enough data to conduct a preliminary analysis on any causal outcomes. The statistics point to prior history of addiction, rather than geographic origin or post-surgical exposure to opioids, as the critical precursor to addictive behavior.
Arbitrary labeling of people as "liberals", "druggies", and "idiots" when it comes to discussion on policy weakens your otherwise valid points, MAJ Conway. This country has grown too diverse to arbitrarily label groups you don't happen to agree with. We need to return to an environment where we can actively seek out commonalities and develop workable solutions to our national security and policy issues. Otherwise, we only risk repeating the same old tropes, reliving the same old history, and compromise our ability to actually discuss these issues freely.
https://justiceforimmigrants.org/what-we-are-working-on/immigration/root-causes-of-migration/
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/20/5916443/what-the-us-can-do-to-address-the-root-causes-of-the-migrant-crisis
https://www.lclaa.org/images/pdf/DISPOSABLE_WORKERS.pdf
https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/06/01/how-the-government-made-the-opioid-crisi
Root Causes of Migration - Justice for Immigrants
Download a copy of theRoot Causesbackgrounder “Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more.” -Pope Francis, World Day …
(0)
(0)
LTC (Join to see)
MAJ (Join to see) I don't know how the illegal aliens came in to be part of this conversation but I can tell you that many of them are fleeing those countries who have major parts of their large cities controlled by drug cartels. When I talk about druggies, I'm not talking about it from someone was up off 50 story building looking for a penthouse down to the ground. I'm talking about two stepdaughters of mine 22 and 20 who have been druggies off and on since age 15. Who are both on welfare and drop outs of from high school even though I put them in a junior Air Force ROTC and Catholic School. They have family members that have been involved in drugs even there grandmother, my mother-in-law, is a pothead period in Canada, both of them are on the welfare rolls and the government does not ask for verification of looking for jobs and they just pay the money out. They take the money and they go get drunk or Go on karaoke or they go by pot and they stay up all night and sleep all day. I'm off to do an errand but I will write more on this subject later. I meant to Alcoholics Anonymous, I support Narcotics Anonymous and I support sobriety because I am at Ground Zero dealing with two Walking Dead step daughter's that all they care about is music. They're not too different than Timothy Leary from the sixties who would say tune in, turn on, and drop out! Taking acid and other kinds of extreme drugs that affect your mind like mushrooms or magic mushrooms how fried the brains of both these 20-something kids and I mean kids because they live life from one cigarette to another. Yes, they have mental health problems but I think the mental health problems were fostered by an estranged father that raped one of them and who is now in jail and dealing with the family social structure that has been destroyed over time by drugs and alcohol. This was caused because of residential schools which basically destroyed a generation of people by forcing them to go to Catholic or Protestant parochial schools that were actually prisons where they were often abused and sexually abused and sometimes murdered. Anyway, I'm off topic I'm just saying that we should have bases worldwide. We used to have a hundred thousand troops in Germany, we have a lot less now. Germany should put in 2% of its GDP and get it's military up again. President Trump has made that clear and Poland wants us there. Anyways, I'll get back with you with some more. By the way, I can say liberals. I live in a liberal Utopia called Canada. I can call them stupid if I want to. There are such thing as smart liberals and smart Democrats. But there are also stupid people from all walks of life and all races, religion or sexual orientation. If they do drugs and are druggies, and they refuse to seek help even when help is given to them, then I can call them stupid. My 22 year old step-daughter has a heart problem probably caused by drug addictions yet she's too afraid to get a pacemaker with a promise will pay for but yet she smokes every single day and has a cough that I hear every 32 seconds to a minute and I know she's home. Some people are stupid by choice and not by accident.
(0)
(0)
MAJ (Join to see)
LTC (Join to see) - I can see the pain in your response wherein you talk about the tragic journey of your step-daughters' lives. The drugs were an escape from the hell that was their childhood tainted by the horror of sexual abuse by someone they were supposed to trust implicitly. My wife went through this hell in her own childhood; fortunately, she had the wherewithal to realize she was on a bad path after a near-death experience with drugs. She had since turned her life around significantly well before I ever met her.
Go ahead and say what you like, MAJ Conway. I'm not arguing about your right to say your piece. The story of your family experience is tragic, unfortunate, and was beyond your control to fix no matter what. However, I would contend that the downward spiral you described was borne of ignorance of a better alternative for a future, rather than just "stupidity". Some experiences are just so painful and terrible for some to endure, with an irreparably broken psyche as a consequence of the hopelessness they internalized from an early age. That hopelessness and pain can prove to be an insurmountable barrier to the most well-meaning of efforts to help. One of my sisters-in-law is a "shining" example of doing more of the same self-destructive things, yet expecting a different result every time. It's frustrating as hell, and I can understand your anger and frustration when you want something better for that person when that person can't seem to want it for themselves.
Go ahead and say what you like, MAJ Conway. I'm not arguing about your right to say your piece. The story of your family experience is tragic, unfortunate, and was beyond your control to fix no matter what. However, I would contend that the downward spiral you described was borne of ignorance of a better alternative for a future, rather than just "stupidity". Some experiences are just so painful and terrible for some to endure, with an irreparably broken psyche as a consequence of the hopelessness they internalized from an early age. That hopelessness and pain can prove to be an insurmountable barrier to the most well-meaning of efforts to help. One of my sisters-in-law is a "shining" example of doing more of the same self-destructive things, yet expecting a different result every time. It's frustrating as hell, and I can understand your anger and frustration when you want something better for that person when that person can't seem to want it for themselves.
(1)
(0)
2
2
0
It's a good question, but most people don't like the real answer. Because it would create a security vacuum. We still have troops in Germany, Japan and Italy nearly 74 years after the end of WWII. Why? We do not occupy those countries, we liberated them and are now good friends and allies with them. These countries are among the most peaceful and prosperous in the world, not despite the US, but because of US. Our bases in these countries form power projection platforms from which we project power and influence into places that are unstable or pose a national security interest to us and/or our allies. We left Iraq and Afghanistan too soon. We missed the lesson learned from WWII: stay and execute a Marshall Plan, subsidize defense until such time that the country is stable, peaceful and prosperous, and then use it for training and power projection. I realize there are limits, and 800 bases in 70 countries sounds like a lot, and we are actually militarily active in probably 200 countries world-wide. But for now, the cost of NOT being there outweighs the cost of being there. We are winning the Global War on Terror, and if we can assist with a Middle East Marshall Plan perhaps we could see more of the type of fantastic success we saw throughout Europe after WWII.
(2)
(0)
1
1
0
Disagree with the whole premise. American presence in an area serves the purpose of keeping us in touch with the people's of that country. Alliances and working together are the keys to success in today's world, be it military or civilian endeavors. American companies keep personnel in foreign countries and often have large 'American' compounds so that they can build lasting working relationships with a country to benefit their company objectives. This same concept applies to the military and having bases in other countries. The concept of isolation just does not cut the mustard in today's global economy.
(1)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google