According
to an article in PolitiFact.com,
America has over 900 bases around the globe today. We have military personnel
in over 145 countries and military bases in over 35 countries. Not only do we
have an extreme amount of military personnel and bases in many countries, we
have a numerous amount of embassies around the world. America, as of today, has
294 embassies in various countries. These numbers have to raise an eyebrow on
every American’s face.
In
Germany alone, the U.S. has 48,000 active-duty personnel, which runs up the
cost to around $4 billion. This does not even include the military personnel
costs, which is $3.9 billion. Add those two numbers up and we’re spending roughly
$8 billion in just Germany. In South Korea, there are about 28,500 U.S.
soldiers. Because the U.S. must provide housing to military troops, this racks
up the dollars to about $7 billion for military personnel. In Japan, there are
about 50,000-stationed troops. The U.S. spends roughly $2 billion just on
non-personnel costs. Imagine how far that number would jump up if personnel
costs were included.
With over
290 U.S. embassies globally, this allows for an ideal location to attack for
those who oppose and despise America. There have been over 30 U.S. embassy
attacks and that number is growing as the days go by. Because the U.S.
embassies are symbolic, they are extremely vulnerable to attacks. There have
already been countless hostage situations, along with suicide bombings.
It is clear
that the U.S. is trying to play the “Big Brother” role in many different
nations. However, is it our duty to impede on another country’s will even if
they don’t want it? The answer is obviously, no. We spend billions of dollars,
possibly even trillions, on the foreign bases and U.S. embassies we have
established. The number of deceased troops keeps rising from attacks against
these bases, along with U.S. workers in the embassies due to attacks. It is
clear that we are not wanted in most of the areas we occupy; yet we feel the
need to intrude and force people to assimilate to our way of life. Americans
would in no way, shape, or form allow China to establish military bases or
embassies on our soil. I believe if we focused on our country and not try to
poke our nose in every other country, we would be far more prosperous.
1 comment:
I love the argument made by my colleague, U.S Government for Dummies, about the ‘big brother’ type actions of our nation. In his blog titled “Big Brother?” he does a really good job of making his audience aware of the large numbers of money, personnel, and stations being used in ever country but our own. He does a great job of articulation these numbers without making it seem like he is spouting out a series of meaningless statistics.
I disagree with the idea that the U.S. is trying to be big brother in every country that it has bases and embassies in because I do believe that some of the bases and embassies are truly there for the protection of our people or to cooperate with those other countries. But I also do think that some of our bases are strictly there for the purpose of being ‘big brother’, which is really sad.
It seems as though the implicit point in this blog is that we should no longer have bases and embassies in foreign places but, I think that such actions would end up to be more detrimental than it’s worth. But yes, if we were to stop spending so much money and energy overseas and focus them more towards home we would most definitely be a better and more prosperous country.
Overall a wonderfully written piece.
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