Monday, July 20, 2009

The world's policeman

I've always considered myself to be extremely patriotic; and very few topics seem to stir my patriotic furor quite like our military and the millions of American heroes that have served and serve in it.

Many of you will recognize the young man pictured above, he is 23 year old PFC Bowe Bergdahl. If you don't know who he is, he's an American soldier who was captured by the Taliban a couple of weeks ago. The Taliban has, of course, threatened to kill this young man. His life hangs in the balance. No doubt, one day soon, his beheading will be downloadable on YouTube. The very thought of which disgusts me to no end!!!

What I don't understand is why we continue to place our troops in harms way abroad......to what end?!? I'm glad to see that our president is committed to pulling our troops out of Iraq; but I think it's high time that we brought all of our troops home. We've got hundreds of thousands of American troops worldwide; and the money spent by those American troops is boosting up the local economies of the various places they're stationed around the world........why not bring those troops and their dollars home?!? Can you imagine the boost to our own economy here if those same troops were spending dollars in Fort Worth or El Paso, rather than in Seoul or Okinawa?!?

Why are we still in Germany or South Korea or Japan or Saudi Arabia or Kuwait?!? Why?!?

Contrary to popular belief, we're not the world's policeman. We need to both change our mentality and our perception around the world. It's high time that we bought all of our troops home.


6 comments:

  1. Manifest Destiny my friend. Yeah I know the policy thereof was never intended to be international. But hey, you know how "certain folks" think.

    Obama ran a good game on us as far as convincing people that he was anti-war. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people were convinced of that and percieved him to be that way.

    Maybe they didn't pay attention to the fact that Zbigniew Brzezinski was an advisor on foreign policy in his campaign. Maybe people were not aware that he was the brains of the operation in Afghanistan when Russia was fighting the Afghans back in the day. Maybe they don't know that he is the guy who built up the Taliban and helped finance their fight against Russia.

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  2. Manifest Destiny should have stopped with the Pacific coast RiPPa; and our little adventure into colonialism ought to stop as well.

    Hey RiPPa, why can't we all just get along?!?

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  3. Adrienne again . . . . just wondering in this economy where would they find a job?

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  4. They wouldn't need a job Adrienne, there's no reason why they couldn't be stationed stateside. I firmly believe that we need a standing military; but I like to think that they could stand here....rather than there.

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  5. Hi Reggie...Our Armed forces are not just out there fighting a war...Their meer presence is what keeps all of America Safe! We have to be every where...That's what makes us the Super Power we are. There is a strategic plan to all of the chaos, and I am not one to figure it all out..But I do trust that there is always a plan...AND all of the soldiers volunteered to be where they are and fight for what the USA stands for, so who are we to tell them to come home so we can save money? Anyway...I really don't want to stir up more controversy, but that is my opinion :)

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  6. Their presence here could keep America safe too Nanea. One of the reasons why our world image is so tarnished is because historically we've stuck our noses in more than a few places where it wasn't appreciated or even warrented. We wouldn't have issues in the Middle East now, if we hadn't been so embroiled in their politics in the past. That could be said in many places around the world. I believe that it would help us greatly to learn to mind our own goddamned business, embrace everyone and allow our friends to settle their own differences.

    I honestly don't trust that our plan is always in our best interests. I have always been forever confused by our Middle Eastern policy for instance. When you sit back and think about it, we get oil from the Arabs and NOTHING from the Jews.....nothing.

    I appreciate your opinion Nanea. One of the things that I like about you is that you tend to see the good in people, that's admirable.

    I seem to remember not too long ago, our government claiming that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. When all along, they knew that there probably weren't any there. They LIED to the American public and stirred up a boatload of furor by race baiting Americans with those bad Arabs.

    We both know how that turned out. It was nothing but bullshit all along. I love my country. I just don't always trust my government to do the right thing. Anytime that people are involved, it's imperfect. People lie and do things for their own motives.

    That's just one of the many reasons why I always say that the more I know people, the more I like roaches.

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