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While arguments rage over whether this country can afford to tackle domestic problems such as health care for all Americans and combating climate change, we ignore the real stumbling block. This country is almost perpetually at war, and a nation always at war can afford little else. What’s worse is once these battles are over, American soldiers never really leave. We can debate whether we have a real exit strategy in Afghanistan, but we haven’t really had one since World War II.
Consider these facts gleaned from official sources and on the Web — 64 years after we fought and achieved victory in World War II, we still have 190 bases in Europe with more than 100,000 troops stationed there, 75,000 of them in Germany. We have more than 80 bases in the area comprised of Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean. This accounts for about 100,000 more troops (47,000 in Japan and 37,000 in South Korea). Believe it or not, we still have 41 bases in Okinawa with 30,000 troops. There are 16 American military bases in Latin America. In the Middle East and North Africa, we have bases in Iraq (with 130,000 troops supposedly poised to exit), Turkey, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and, perhaps most importantly, in Afghanistan, where, if the Pentagon gets its way with its request for 45,000 additional troops, the total swell to that magical figure of 100,000.
Anytime someone argues we should be reassessing our need to keep troops stationed in friendly nations where a war ended long ago, the Establishment hurls the charge of isolationism. According to the considered wisdom of those who have been running foreign policy in this country for seven decades, America cannot withdraw from the world or it will be seen as a sign of weakness. It is the same reason given by those "wise" counselors for continuing a pointless war in Vietnam and for the more recent problems we have encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan. Saving face becomes the sole reason for losing American blood and treasure.
Surely by now, we don’t need all 73,000 troops in Germany and the entire 47,000 in Japan, two countries that are successful democracies and able to defend themselves now that World War II is safely behind us. Why are we still there? No administration — Democrat or Republican — ever provides an answer. They don’t even ask the question. What good are the 37,000 American troops stationed in South Korea when they easily could be overrun by hordes of North Korean soldiers should Little Kim ever decide to cross the 37th parallel again? If we can’t figure out an exit strategy for our troops in wars long since passed, how can we ever figure out how to leave Iraq or Afghanistan?
President Dwight Eisenhower, upon leaving office, famously warned against the undue influence on our foreign policy in his "Military-Industrial Complex" speech. This unholy influence continues to drive our foreign policy today. With our economy rebounding ever so slowly could President Barack Obama really have the political will to significantly reduce the American presence overseas when the ripple effect would cause a loss of jobs here at home? Would the shrill voices of the Right cry "surrender" as soon as he tried to do so? Does the wild bear do you know what in the woods? Yet, if we don’t figure out a way to leave, or at least reduce our worldwide presence, we ensure we can never devote the proper resources to solving our problems at home.
There are other good reasons for figuring out how to exit when the rationale for our presence is no longer discernible. Our all-volunteer Army is stretched almost beyond the breaking point. Too many American soldiers are on their third or fourth deployments. We say these wars are necessary, but no politician has the gonads to suggest the reinstatement of the draft as an answer to the problem of dwindling military resources. Washington well realizes drafting Americans into fighting what are already unpopular fights in Iraq and Afghanistan would probably reignite demonstrations reminding us of the chaotic 1960s. A draft, where middle- and upper-class sons would be sent off to fight and die, would rip this nation apart as it did during Vietnam.
There also is a good political reason for drawing down our overseas deployments. Americans do not want to believe we are imperialists, but that is the perception in foreign countries when we never leave. We are an occupying superpower whose very presence around the globe provokes resentment and is a recruiting tool for Jihadists.
We are the global guest who came for dinner and never left.
