A theory if you will...

[Guest pod]

A what if scenario. I'm not taking sides on any current conflict with this post, just proposing a theory.

What do you guys think would honestly happen if the United States military were to pull out of all foreign countries. By that I mean Iraq, South Korea, Israel, Afghanistan, the NATO countries, South America, Australia, Japan, Africa, and any body of water not close to our terrtories and posessions?

Of course we would have embassies and small forces of Marines to take care of them, but except for that, all the troops come home.

Again, I'm not taking any sides here, I am seriously wondering what the overall effect of a total recall of the military would be?

[Guest JMT]

a lot of people would be out of work as a result, and some large contracted corporations would suffer, causing the economy to plummet?

might we also be subject to attack easier by unknown enemies due to our threat of timely response all but eliminated?

im just throwing ideas out there.....

[Guest pod]

Yeah, defense and defense spending would take a hit, as well as the armed forces themselves. I don't think the taxpayers are going to want to foot the bill for a few million bored guys with guns just doing drills all day. If anything, the soldiers themselves would leave, since years and years of drills would just get to them.

And yeah, the contractors would be hard hit too.

We'd be better prepared for an attack, but at the same time we'd lose our ability to respond before something happened. This is just the military though, in my scenario I mention nothing of the CIA or other intelligence agencies.

However, with the US forces all at home, wouldn't the terror organizations lose their main enemy? They all deride the pervasiveness of the US military, but if they aren't around...well it is hard to say.

[Guest web_norah]

if US pulled out of those countries....there would be more money spent on domestic affairs...

[Guest swirlundergrounder]

I do agree with the US strategy for having troops all over the world. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Having our troops all over the world serves mainly as a deterent to rouge nations who would act more argessively if the US didn't take such a stance as it does. Basically our forces are within (a moments notice) striking distance to pretty much any point in the globe.

Unfortunetly there are also negative conseqences to this course of action. One being the methods sometimes used to obtain a desired strategic position. For example when the war in Afghanistan began, the United States placed a military base located in the Seshell Islands (Don't know if the spelling is correct) in hte Indian Ocean. This really upset me. The US military took all of the indigenous native residents and transplanted them somewhere in east Africa (I think Madegascar). The US forced these people from their homes, which was basically paradise and transplanted several hundred of these people into the slums of some city in Madegascar, letting them only take a few of their possessions and fording these people to leave their animals and livestock behind. All of this with little or no compensation......

And to this day these people have not been able to return to their homes nor will they be able to.........

I saw this on I think Dateline about a year ago and I was in tears........ > :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

[Guest trancepriest]

I think alot of military men would regret the loss of exotic foreign women. The armed forces would dwindle. Sitting stateside sucks (unless if you've been on ship for 6 month overseas and get tired of it).

Our troops would lose valuable training experience especially in joint NATO and other allied armed forces exercise. We would be weaker... so the enemy would attack our civilian foreign personnel and destabilize governments we've supported (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Korea, Taiwan, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, etc.). Destabilized governments would be new breeding grounds for terrorism needless to say terrorist training grounds would expand in a Afghanistan like manner.

State support of terrorism would expand. Our strategic position would be weakened as the balance of power changes into non-democratic... non-U.S. loving regimes. The enemy would hurt us economically by destabilizing our trade. We would have more drugs coming into the country. Alot of our bases in Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc.... is for drug interdiction intelligence.

The europeans would be forced to spend more money on there very out dated military. This could actually be bad... in the sense that it could reignite militarism in europe. Europe would go back to conservatism and fascism to protect its territory from the foreign horde invasion (displaced refugees). Strangely this would first start off in the country famous for liberty... France. The euopean union could be broken due to arguments in member countries over the best ways to internally protect their countries. NATO by itself could be broken.

In general I think we face the problem of venturing back into a pre-world war 1 and 2 type mindsets and a economic downturn.

I do think if we stopped supporting Israel (economically, technologically) then it would be good though. Israel is a thorn in the middle east. I don't exactly seeing them promoting democracy... they can't even be democratic because of the fear of the Palestinians and other arabs out voting them due to a larger population boom. The Zionist phenomenon is over with... Jews don't reproduce fast enough. 4.6 million Palestinians and Arab Israelis lived in the occupied territories and Israel by the end of 2002 against 5.1 million Jews. The jewish population is the current majority due to emigration... but the emigration trickle as slowed... and the Palestinians have more child births. Israeli and Palestinian demographic projections have consistently predicted that Jews will be a minority in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel within little more than a decade. You can't have a land with no people. So I don't see a negative in withdrawing support for Israel.

Their are 5,800,000 jews living in america... the largest population of jews in the world. The U.S. is the jewish homeland. Withdrawing support for Israel would correct our flawed foreign policy in the middle east and correct some major injustices.

If we do continue support for Israel lets do it more overtly. Let us not be two faced on the settlement question. If the Jews want to push the Palestinians out of the occupied territories.. let us aid them in the process. Give the IDF free reign to terrorize the Palestinian population and push them into Jordan. This is a population and land issue... funny isn't that what the Nazi's thought... liebenstraum.

[Guest Cosmigonon]

Alot of our bases in Panama, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc.... is for drug interdiction intelligence.

The american troops left Pma Dec 31st 1999. There haven't been bases ever since... just thought I'd let you know...

[Guest trancepriest]

My mistake I blurted out Panama without thinking of the hand over. I forgot that alot of the Southcom troops were moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[Guest Cosmigonon]

My mistake I blurted out Panama without thinking of the hand over. I forgot that alot of the Southcom troops were moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Yes, the Southern Command is in PR now.

[ryan2772]

great post trancepriest

[Guest oldschoolny]

Actually the Southern Command (SouthCOM) is in Miami. And we now use foward operating locations as they are called.

And puerto rico had rosie roads as it was called until we stopped using viques off pr as a bomb range and then we closed it.

Trance great post