User talk:Michaelhwilson

The United States has always relied on military power to shape the its foreign policy, whether it was Andrew Jackson chasing Seminole Indians in Spanish Florida, or President George W. Bush hunting for weapons that didn’t exist in Iraq.

Since World War II the emphasis on the use of military power has come to dominate the foreign policy of the government in Washington D.C. In the years after World War II the nation’s leadership saw communism as an international threat and both side, the Soviet Union and the United States, fought what became known as the Cold War through their surrogates around the globe

In 1968 at the height of the Cold War the U.S. had over a million troops or 31% of our forces in foreign countries. About 530,000 were in Vietnam, 213,000 in Germany, 83,000 in Japan, 62,000 in Korea, 28,000 in the Philippines, 24,000 in England and others spread around the world. [1] During this time the government financially aided dictators who were friendly to us while attempting to overthrow, and even assassinate those who were not. Our government has fought major wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan without a declaration of war from Congress as well as engaged in minor incursions in many other places from Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador in Central America to the Iraq and Lebanon in the Middle East. The Korean War, 1950 to 1953: was referred to by President Harry Truman as a police action and left more than 36,000 Americans dead and more than 92,000 wounded. Total causalities on both sides are estimated to be in excess of 2 million military killed and injured and 2.5 million civilian causalities, or just over 4 million military and civilian deaths. [2]

The Vietnam War, 1955- 1975: The U.S. had been involved in Vietnam from shortly after the French tried to reclaim this former colony in the years after WWII. In August of 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin Incident led to the U.S. becoming more involved, but the truth behind that event was questioned from the beginning. Today many agree that the story behind the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was fabricated. The war spread from Vietnam into Laos and Cambodia. Over 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam [3], and 75,000 severely disabled [4]. It is estimated that over 2 million Vietnamese died as a result of the war [5] plus many more in the Killing Fields of Cambodia [6] and the jungles of Laos. People, especially children, continue to die and are injured because of unexploded ordnance. [7]

First Gulf War, August 1990 to February 1991: In testimony before a congressional caucus prior to the war, it was claimed that Iraq troops were stealing incubators and leaving Kuwaiti infants to die. This propaganda was used to promote the war, but later it was found to be untrue. Americans were told we were fighting to free Kuwait, but in reality we were fighting to put a monarch back on his throne who refused to let women vote. [8] The 2003 invasion of Iraq eighteen months after the attack World Trade Center was based on inaccurate information, lies and deception. At various times prior to the invasion the American public was told that Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein, had weapons of mass destruction and had a hand in the September 11, 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Weapons of mass destruction have never been found and no one can prove that Saddam Hussein had any involvement in the events of September 11, 2011. The war has left 4469 American and 318 other coalition troops dead. Civilian deaths are difficult to count but the low estimate is in excess of 100,000 and perhaps as high as 600,000 as of 7/2/2011. [9]

The costs of our war machine exceeded $636 billion for the year 2009 just for the Department of Defense. When we add in the costs for the Department of Homeland Security, the F.B.I., The Department of Veterans Affairs, the intelligence agencies, the Department of Energy, which maintains the nuclear weapons, and a host of other agencies we have a figure that is close to $1 trillion, [10] or $3200 for every American, man, woman and child. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 the Cold War ended, but little or nothing was done to bring our troops home. We continue to help defend other nations at the expense of the working American taxpayer.

The other nations the American taxpayers are helping to defend are the same ones we compete against in a world economy. All though troops are constantly on the move the U.S. has personnel stationed in more than 130 other nations across the globe. Twenty-five or more of the countries have 500 or more U.S. troops. Among them is Germany where we have more than 53,000 troops [11] and from which we buy everything from autos to beer. Japan has over 38,000 U.S. personnel stationed there ashore and another 11,000 with the 6th Fleet [12].

South Korea where more than 28,500 U.S. personnel are deployed [13] has an economy that is 36 times larger than North Korea’s, twice the population and on average people live ten years longer [14]. Given this advantage in population and wealth why are we defending South Korea against the North Koreans?

England and Italy each have about 9,000 troops with Belgium, Spain and Turkey with more than a 1000 each. Not to be left out Djibouti in Africa has more than 1300 U.S. military personnel [15].

Our European partners in NATO have a larger population, almost double ours, and a larger GDP at $17 trillion compared to the U.S. GDP of $14 trillion, yet combined they spend less on defense than the U.S. and the U.S. is paying to help defend [16] these nations whom our workers compete against in a global economy.

It is time to end these subsidies and bring our troops home in a planned arrangement before the time comes when we have to withdraw them in a rush.

Mhw 7/10/2011 Citations on foreign policy 1. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/05/global-us-troop-deployment-1950-2005 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/korea/kwar.html 3. http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html 4. http://www.mrfa.org/vnstats.htm 5. http://www.bmj.com/content/336/7659/1482.full 6. http://www.sptimes.com/News/050300/NIE/Remembering_the_death.shtml 7. http://legaciesofwar.org/about-laos/secret-war-laos/secret-bombing-laos/ 8. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n9_v24/ai_12529902/ 9. http://www.npr.org/news/specials/tollofwar/tollofwarmain.html 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_United_States_federal_budget 11. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2009/hst0906.pdf 12. http://www.usfj.mil/welcome.html 13. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/washington/11military.html 14. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ 15. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2009/hst0906.pdf 16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO