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by Joseph Witt
United States military personnel are deployed in nearly every country on Earth.
More than 140,000 are in Iraq. Soon many of them will be leaving, according to the Obama administration, with only 35,000 to 50,000 “non-combat” troops remaining, whatever that means. Interestingly, the original Bush  administration plan for the invasion also called for a residual force of 30,000 to 50,000 troops.
Nearly 40,000 troops in Afghanistan await the deployment of 30,000 more, bringing the total U.S. presence there to 70,000.
In Korea, Germany, and Japan, the United States military employs tens of thousands of men and women with billions of dollars worth of weapons. Italy and Belgium, Bahrain and Qatar, Thailand, Australia, and even New Zealand, each have their own American bases — sometimes just a half-dozen people who pass their time playing cards and watching TV.
It is a tragic waste of human potential and resources, a constant testament to the power of violence, and a veiled threat to the peace and stability of the planet.
Bring those troops home and decommission them.
And since the war in Iraq, our National Guard members have been sent overseas instead of staying at home to protect and make states safe following natural disasters.
Put them to work weatherizing low-income housing, or restoring wetlands, or anything, really, besides waiting to kill or be killed in the service of a country that has better things to do.
Joseph Witt is an Alliance volunteer.
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