Where EXACTLY are American Troops stationed?
Well, as some of you may know, I have been rather interested in politics lately. Not so much the garbage they have on the news or the nonsense on talk radio. I mean something perhaps akin to meta-politics. I have been thinking about some fundamental questions. I know that perhaps I am only one person with a blog that only a few dozen people read, but I still think it is important to understand what the heck is going on in the world, and perhaps more importantly, for each person to think out and decide what they believe on certain issues.
There has been a great deal of talk about the Middle East lately, in politics and in the news. We still haven’t found any WMD, but we are fighting battles in two Middle Eastern countries against a seemingly endless crescent horde. I have been listening quite a bit to old Ron Paul lately, and I think he has some interesting things to say. If you don’t know what he has to say, I suggest you take a look.
Ron Paul says that we are currently supporting an overseas empire that we cannot afford. Although I respect Ron Paul, I wanted to check up on some of the information that he puts out. So, my first question is,
“Where the heck is our military at?”
Well, the information isn’t terribly hard to find. Here is a convenient map showing the locations.
We currently have over 360,000 troops stationed outside of the United States in over 150 countries. This information is from the Department of Defense. Without listing every single deployment zone, let me point out the following significant areas:
- Iraq – 170,000
- Afghanistan – 19,000
- South Korea – 26,000
- Japan – 48,000
- Philippines – 20,000
- Germany – 69,000
- Italy – 11,000
- United Kingdom – 10,000
I really don’t see why this is all necessary. Perhaps it is. But if so, I don’t understand it. This brings me to another thing that Ron Paul has been mentioning that I haven’t heard anywhere else:
The New U.S. Embassy in Iraq
According to MSNBC, the new compound, nicknamed “Fortress America,” “will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City,
with the population of a small town, its own defense force,” and
“self-contained power and water.” Apparently any further information about the thing is pretty much classified.
“The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the
world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen
by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their
country,” the International Crisis Group, a European-based research
group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq.
“Iraq’s interim government transferred the land to U.S. ownership in
October 2004, under an agreement whose terms were not disclosed.”
So much for the old “Shock and Awe” 3 month war we all thought we were getting. Apparently the American government is planning on setting up permanent shop there, considering the size of what is going on. The president knows this and so do all the Democratic representatives who do a lot of talking about pulling out of Iraq. Pulling out? Who is anyone kidding? This structure alone is costing over 1 billion dollars. Its not exactly a bivouac tent. And you don’t even want to know how many military bases we have in Iraq:
“As of mid-May 2005 it was reported that US forces occupied a total of
106 bases. These ranged in size from the massive Camp Victory complex
near the Baghdad airport, to small outposts with as few as 500
soldiers. The US also operates four detention facilities and several
other convoy support centers.”
Don’t get me wrong. I am as conservative as can be and I love my country. I think we are a good country and have done many great things, and that the American people are good people. But I do agree with Ron Paul when we says that “we have lost our way.”
Well, so far the information I have found is quite surprising, eh? Well, it is to me at least. But we can handle all this, right? I mean, President Bush is a conservative, right? So we should at least have a strong economy.
Then again…
| The Gross National Debt |
“The number of economists forecasting
the U.S. will slip into recession almost doubled…”
“Value of dollar keeps slipping…”
“A traditional defense of the national debt is that Americans “owe the
debt to ourselves”, but that is increasingly not true. The US debt in
the hands of foreign governments is 25% of the total…”
| Foreign owners of US Treasury Securities (April 2008) | |
|---|---|
| Nation | billions of dollars |
| Japan | 592.2 |
| China, Mainland | 502 |
| United Kingdom | 251.4 |
| Oil Exporters | 153.9 |
| Brazil | 149.5 |
| Carib Bnkng Cntrs | 115.4 |
| Luxembourg | 84.8 |
| Hong Kong | 63.1 |
| Russia | 60.2 |
| Norway | 45.3 |
| Germany | 44 |
| Taiwan | 42.6 |
| Switzerland | 42.5 |
| Korea | 40.5 |
| Mexico | 38 |
| Singapore | 33.3 |
| Turkey | 31.1 |
| Thailand | 27.9 |
| Canada | 24 |
| Ireland | 18.5 |
| Netherlands | 15.5 |
| Sweden | 13.1 |
| Egypt | 12.7 |
| Belgium | 12.5 |
| Poland | 12.5 |
| Italy | 10.6 |
| India | 10.5 |
| All Other | 154.2 |
I Love Ron Paul!