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Bring All the Troops Home: Stop Policing the Globe and Put an End to Endless Wars

By John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead

September 9, 2021

“It’s time that we stop policing the globe, stop occupying other countries and stop waging, endless wars.” John W. Whitehead.

It’s time to bring all of our troops home.

Bring them home from Somalia, Iraq and Syria. Bring them home from Germany, South Korea and Japan. Bring them home from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Oman. Bring them home from Niger, Chad and Mali. Bring them home from Turkey, The Philippines and Northern Australia.

It’s not enough to just pull American troops out of Afghanistan, America’s longest, bloodiest and most expensive war, to date.

It’s time that we stop policing the globe, stop occupying other countries and stop waging endless wars.

That’s not what’s going to happen, of course!

The U.S. Military, reportedly has more than 1.3 Million men and women on active duty, with more than 200,000 of them, stationed overseas, in nearly every country, in the world.

Those numbers are significantly higher, in keeping with The Pentagon’s likely policy of not fully disclosing where and how many troops are deployed, for the sake of “operational security and denying the enemy any advantage.” As Investigative Journalist David Vine explains, “Although few Americans realize it, The United States likely has more bases in foreign lands, than any other people, nation or empire, in history.”

Don’t fall for the propaganda, though.

America’s Military Forces aren't being deployed abroad to protect our freedoms here at home. Rather, they’re being used to guard oil fields, build foreign infrastructure and protect the financial interests of the corporate elite. In fact, The United States Military spends about $81 Billion a year, just to protect oil supplies, around the world.

The reach Of America’s Military Empire includes: Close to 800 bases, in as many as 160 countries, operated at a cost of more than $156 Billion annually. As Vine reports, “Even US Military Resorts and Recreation Areas, in places like, The Bavarian Alps and Seoul, South Korea, are bases of a kind. Worldwide, the Military runs more than 170 golf courses.”

This is how a Military Empire occupies the globe.

After 20 years of propping up Afghanistan, to the tune of trillions of dollars and thousands of lives lost, The U.S. Military may have finally been forced out, but those troops, represent just a fraction, of Our Military Presence, worldwide.

In an ongoing effort to police the globe, American Military Service People continue to be deployed to far-flung places, in the Middle East and elsewhere.

This is how, The Military Industrial Complex, aided and abetted, by the likes of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and others, continue to get rich, at the taxpayer's expenses.

Yet, while the rationale may keep changing, for why American Military Forces are policing the globe, these wars abroad aren't making America—or the rest of the world—any safer, are certainly not making America great again and are undeniably, digging The U.S., deeper into debt.

War Spending Is Bankrupting America.

Americans have thus far, allowed themselves to be spoon-fed, a steady diet of pro-war propaganda, that keeps them content, to wave flags with patriotic fervor and less inclined, to look too closely at the mounting body counts, the ruined lives, the ravaged countries, the blowback arising from ill-advised, targeted-drone killings and bombing campaigns in foreign lands, or the transformation, of our own homeland, into a war zone.

That Needs To Change.

The U.S. Government is not making the world any safer. It’s making the world more dangerous. It is estimated that the U.S. Military drops a bomb somewhere in the world, every 12 minutes. Since 9/11, The United States Government has directly contributed to the deaths of around 500,000 human beings. Every one of those deaths was paid for, with taxpayer funds.

The U.S. Government is not making America any safer. It’s exposing American Citizens, to alarming levels of blowback, a CIA term, referring to the unintended consequences of The U.S. Government’s, International activities.

The 9/11 attacks were a blowback. The Boston Marathon Bombing was a blowback. The Attempted Times Square Bomber was a blowback. The Fort Hood shooter, a major in the U.S. Army, was blown back.

The U.S. Military’s ongoing drone strikes will, I fear, spur yet more blowback, against The American People. The latest drone strike reportedly killed seven children, ages 2 to 10, in Afghanistan.

The War Hawks’ Militarization of America, is also a blowback.

James Madison was right: “No nation could preserve its freedom, in the midst of continual warfare.” As Madison explained, “Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops, the germ of every other one. War is the parent of armies; from these proceeds debts and taxes…, known instruments for bringing the many, under the domination, of the few.”

We are seeing this play out, before our very eyes.

The Government is destabilizing The U.S. Economy, destroying the National Infrastructure, through neglect and a lack of resources, turning taxpayer dollars into blood money with its endless wars, drone strikes and mounting death tolls.

Clearly, our National Priorities are in desperate need of an overhaul.

At the height of its power, even the mighty Roman Empire, could not stare down a collapsing economy and a Burgeoning Military. Prolonged periods of war and false economic prosperity, largely led to its demise. As Historian Chalmers Johnson Predicts:

The fate of previous Democratic Empires suggests that such a conflict is unsustainable and will be resolved, in one of two ways. Rome attempted to keep its Empire and lost its Democracy. Britain chose to remain Democratic and in the process, it let go of its Empire. Intentionally or not, the people of the United States, already are well embarked, upon the course of, A Non-Democratic Empire.

This is the “unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military-Industrial Complex,” that President Dwight Eisenhower warned us of, more than 50 years ago, to not let our Liberties or Democratic Processes become endangered.

We Failed To Heed His Warning.

As I make clear in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart, The Erik Blair Diaries, there’s not much time left before we reach the zero hour.

It’s time to stop policing the globe, end these wars-without-end and bring the troops home.

Editor’s Note: John Whitehead is an Attorney and Author who has written, debated and practiced widely, in the area of Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Popular Culture. John Whitehead's commentary are his views and he is open for discussion, he can be contacted at: johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at: www.rutherford.org

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