This entry was inspired by this article which popped up somewhere in my web browsing.
Some folks are excited because this helps Rand Paul’s bona fides as being “pro-Israel”. I’m excited because it means less of my money going to fund wars in which I have no interest.
We shouldn’t be giving aid to Israel, we shouldn’t be giving aid to Egypt, we shouldn’t be sending troops to any northern African nations, we shouldn’t still have troops in Afghanistan or Iraq. Our country is going broke at an alarming rate.
Where do we come up with the cash to try to send airplanes (awesome airplanes nonetheless) to Egypt? If this is in any budget as discretionary spending, that budget needs to be slashed and burned. Current US debt per taxpayer is over $150,000. Some might say it’s a drop in the bucket to send some jets to Egypt. That’s part of how we got into this mess, “oh, we can afford a little more spending here. It’s not that big in relation to everything else.”
Some would argue that we have an obligation to help our allies. I’ll have to disagree. You and yours are more than welcome to donate money to Egypt and Israel for their national defense or for any other method you deem appropriate. Israel and Egypt have GDPs that are more than adequate to pay for any defensive tools they deem appropriate. They do not need subsidized defense from Americans.
Do not steal my hard earned money to aggress upon others. We don’t have a dog in these fights as I’m sure some are going to point out. Our country needs to stop playing world police and stop bringing force upon those who have brought no force to bear on us. When someone does attempt to aggress on America and our citizens, we should respond with overwhelming force, but we need to stop getting involved in fights that aren’t ours.
We need to close down most of our bases that aren’t on American soil. Logistically this could create some headaches, but only if we’re playing world police. Other nations need to spend their own money on their defenses, instead of relying on Americans to pay to protect them.
Before someone tries to paint me as anti-military, please note that I haven’t knocked a single person in this post nor do I intend to. I thank those of you that have served for your service, and appreciate your sacrifice for our country. I just don’t like some of what you’re ordered to do by politicians who couldn’t get through basic training if their lives depended on it.
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I served my time (Army) and I agree. I love the whole “support the troops = wars are good” argument for the Orwellian newspeak that it is. When I talk about closing at least all but two (at the most keep Rammstein and WAAF, giving Grafenwhoer to NATO and the Germans get the rest) bases in Germany, people assume I’m anti-military/hate soldiers. But when I explain to them the nature and history of Rose Barracks/Vilseck, and exactly what I did when I was stationed there (to wit, nothing at all productive by any measure), they usually begin to understand the derpiness of useless bases. We no longer patrol the Czech/West German border, there is no border between Bavaria and Saxony beyond that of any two connected American states, and our “mission” was deployment training… which consisted of some actual training with tons of sitting around. Oh, and two months of cleaning three humvees. Repeatedly. Without being used in any way other than to and from the washing area. I challenge anyone to tell me why we should be spending gobs of money to keep a full regiment there when they coukd just as easily train and do nothing CONUS. FWIW, though, it was a great chance to travel around Europe do some awesome things. But most of that was in spite of the Army, not because of it.
Oh, bonus stupidity: I couldn’t get a non-working Saturday pass to go to Normandy on 6 June because it wasn’t an “Army enough reason to go.”
Its just another one of many meddles that will come back and bite us in the ass in the future.
It is crucial that citizens start contacting their state and federal representatives on a daily basis and tell them to cut spending to balance the budget and pay down the debt. I ask that all of you continue to contact your state and federal representatives about the idiocy of the proposed assault weapon gun bans/laws.
Mussorgsky – I’ve heard similar stories from other friends stationed that way. I think you’re right that we could get down to just a few bases over there and in APAC and we should be fine.
Theoretically, if we were going to help our allies with something, they’d probably allow us to use their bases anyways? Maybe I’m just naive.
Dave – aye. How’d that funding/training bin Laden against Russia work out for us?
Phil – I think you’re right. There aren’t nearly enough folks telling their reps they want this to stop.
@Skas
Not to mention our good friend of the OSS against Japan, Ho Chi Minh.
Our anti Iran Buddy Saddam…..
Of course, this all suddenly starts to make sense when you realize the people behind all of this idiocy are trying to destroy the country.
Oh, they do not phrase it that way, and they would never actually agree with me, and they may not even be doing it consciously, but spreading our military forces across every little brushfire in known history for the past 20 years, especially in a time when our economy is on life support with the life support machine being on battery backup?
Hm.
@Dave W – yeah exactly
@Linoge – Maybe it’s the naivete of my relative youth or me not wanting to accept that because I don’t want it to be true, but I think you’re right.
As a whole, I’m starting to accept that our elected officials have been trying (and succeeding) to change the American way of life and America as a whole.