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Bring Them Home
by Jim Davidson
planetaryjim@yahoo.com

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

Recently, I was invited to join a cause. The cause sounds okay at first glance. "Free postage for all deployed troops."

You know, I feel for the troops who are deployed overseas, far from home. They cannot see their families, their children, their loved ones, their friends. They cannot get leave to go somewhere decent for a beer in many Islamic countries where it is illegal to drink alcohol. They have to deal with all kinds of crap from officers and sometimes they have to go out in the middle of nowhere and get their butts shot off. There are even some instances when an officer orders them to go somewhere and die. Which is a drag.

So, free cell phones for the troops? Free postage so they can write home? No, really, no. That isn't right. That doesn't get it. Here's what we should do:

Bring them home.

Don't make things better over there. Let Germans take care of making Germany a better place. World War Two is over! It ended in 1945.

I'm vaguely sympathetic with the notion of recovering things in war torn Germany, helping to rebuild, the Marshall plan, making sure we found the Nazi war criminals, brought them to trial, executed a bunch of them. Good form. But, look, that was a long time ago. Why can't Germans keep Germany safe. It isn't like we have any reason to expect Russia to invade.

Okay, we did nuke Japan. Twicet. It seems like good form to help them put things back together. Maybe get rid of at least some of the more obvious militarists. Perhaps Tim Wiener's analysis of USA government and CIA interference in Japanese politics is correct, and far too much support for their authoritarian establishment has been given. Anyway, Japanese people seem very intelligent, courteous, up to speed on technology. Let them occupy Japan. Bring our troops home.

South Korea keeps whining about how hard it is to take care of itself. But, really, the South Koreans have had their own country for a lot of decades now. Let them keep it safe. Bring our troops home.

I have no idea what USA troops are doing in Iraq. I remember quite clearly that Obama promised to bring home one or two brigades per month and he has brought home zero.

It troubles me a great deal that the USA military continues to bomb villages in Afghanistan. I suggest bringing our troops home. The British empire fell apart, in part due to trying to occupy Afghanistan. The Soviet empire fell apart largely due to occupying Afghanistan. Now, I have no enthusiasm for empire, and if the American empire falls apart, so much the better. But, wouldn't you imperialists like it better if you brought the troops home? Afghanistan seems to be the bane of empires.

My friends at the Campaign for Liberty put together some research for a speech by Ron Paul. They conclude that there are 805 USA military bases in 130 countries, not counting any embassy guard units.

I say bring them home. It would save hundreds of billions of dollars a year. It would revitalise our economy. And we wouldn't need free postage for the deployed troops. M'kay?

Jim Davidson was surprised to learn that he is executive producer on two film projects including Destination Resorts in Orbit, a documentary, and Alongside Night, a feature film. He is working on new networks and new business opportunities, like any serial entrepreneur. You can keep up with him on some lists and networks, especially bostontea.us and alongsidenight.ar.to

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