A Republic or an Empire?
by http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2113
Most politicians, when they talk about reducing spending, chatter on about cutting waste and fraud. That’s OK, but it’s a mere nick on the federal budget. If you really want to reduce spending, you must dismantle the overseas empire.
Excluding Iraq, Afghanistan and the other facilities in the Gulf states that have been built since the Republican war, the Pentagon lists 702 overseas bases in 130 foreign countries on which are stationed more than 250,000 uniformed troops. There are also dependents and civilian employees on many of those bases.
One of the oldest military clichés is that the generals want to fight the last war over again. Well, there’s some truth to that. In fact, though, we will never again fight World War II, so why in the heck do we have bases still in Germany, Italy, Japan, Guam and South Korea?
Just whom do we expect to fight from these bases? How do they contribute to the defense of the U.S.? They don’t. They are, frankly, a residue of World War II and a reminder that the military is, after all, a bureaucracy and hates the very idea of “losing” any facilities and billets. We don’t need to have troops permanently stationed in any of these countries. Nor do we need to maintain our membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is a residue from the Cold War. I don’t wish to disillusion anyone, but Asia and Europe are not our responsibilities. If there is any need for defense, it is the responsibility of the countries on those continents. We know from personal experience that Japan and Germany can field large and competent armies if they should decide they need them. They do not need our protection.
At the present, there are only two countries in the world that have the capability of waging war against us. Those are China and Russia. In both cases, the war would be fought with intercontinental ballistic missiles.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese405.html