Is Trump Onto Something?
by John Lawrence, December 28, 2018
Trump has said he doesn't want to defend the borders of every other country in the world. He wants to defend America's borders. That can be done at a fraction of the cost of supporting 1000 military bases in every country of the world. It logically follows that the defense budget can be reduced significantly. The money saved can rebuild infrastructure here at home and in the countries where American bombs have destroyed infrastructure, namely Iraq and Syria.
Take Mosul, for example. Though the city was liberated from ISIS in 2017, millions of tone of rubble are yet to be cleared; 40% of old Mosul remains disconnected from any water netweork; electricity is erratic; in certain neighborhoods, corpses and IEDs remain on the roadside. 65% of the city's housing stock was damaged or destroyed. These facts courtesy of Nick McDonell who wrote "The Bodies in Person: An Account of Civilian Casualties in American Wars." The US policy of bombing cities to smithereens came about because it results in less casualties to American soldiers. But it sure as heck destroys lives and infrastructure on the ground. It's a policy reminiscent of Vietnam where the commanding officer reported, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." In this case they had to destroy entire cities in order to rid them of ISIS.
The United States Army has approximately 36 military bases in Germany. I think Trump would say, "Germany is capable of defending its own borders." 73 years after the end of WWII, the US is still either protecting the US from Germany or protecting Germany from Russia. It's not clear which. The American military presence in the United Kingdom differs from its installations in other parts of the world. Each of the five U.S. bases in England sits on property leased from the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense and is subject to UK law. Each is U.S.-operated to serve U.S. interests yet has Royal Air Force status to appear British: RAF Alconbury, RAF Croughton, RAF Lakenheath, RAF Menwith Hill and RAF Mildenhall. All are U.S. Air Force military bases, although the U.S. Navy and the U.S Army have active-duty personnel stationed at one. Together they employ nearly 10,000 U.S. service personnel.
Think of the money that could be saved by pulling the US out of bases in countries that are allies of the US! That money could be used to build infrastructure at home which is crumbling due to lack of money for maintenance. It should also be used to rebuild cities and towns that have been destroyed by American bombs abroad. Finally some of it could be used to enhance the lives of those in dire poverty in Central America so they don't have to cross the border to come here in desperation.
The US could have the finest border security in the world and the finest infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of maintaining US military bases in every country of the world. Shame on the US for bombing cities to oblivion and then not lifting a finger to help rebuild lives in areas that it has destroyed.
I'm just following Trump's logic by suggesting that the US get out of other countries and use that money to put America First. Capiche?
