ENGLISH
FOR
CONGRESS POSITION PAPER (Revised January 2012)
The
United States now spends more on its military than all of the
rest of the world's nations combined. Much of this
expenditure is sheer waste. Consider the fact more than 20
years after the end of the cold war, there are still eleven
aircraft carrier battle groups in service at a cost of tens of
billions of dollars annually. Or, that a single new fighter
aircraft costs about $350 million each. Purchasing six of
these aircraft costs as much as the yearly operating budget for
the entire public school system of Montgomery County, the
state's most populated county with 975,000 residents. The
long-delayed F-35 fighter aircraft program is well behind
schedule and has an estimated cost over $385 Billion. Aircraft
carriers are useless would be at great risk in any new
confrontation in the Gulf area because new supersonic air to
surface, surface to surface missiles, and high speed torpedos
now exist. During the first Gulf war, the Navy was even
then concerned about these hazards and kept the carriers well
away from land. And,
now China has developed specialized ballistic missiles developed
for anti-ship warfare. The
Vietnam War fiasco proved years ago that force projection onto
the Asian land mass was sheer folly despite the intervention of
500,000 American ground troops and massive air and sea power
deployment.
Because of the failure of military interventions such in Vietnam
and most likely Afghanistan, the United States now needs to
assess its self-appointed role as the protector of the seas and
world's policeman. England had to withdraw from East of
Suez and later from East of Gibraltar after the Second World War
to safeguard its Democracy from an oncoming economic
collapse. The U.S. Army has personnel located in 80
countries around the world.
The current extension of military power by building bases
in Central Asia is sheer folly and can only involve the U. S. in
future conflicts. It
is now time for the United States to withdraw all combat and
combat support forces from East of Iceland and West of
Guam. Our allies in Western Europe the Pacific have
sufficient resources and potential military capabilities to
insure their own national security. The presence of
U. S. bases and forces in Europe, Korea, Okinawa, and Japan and
elsewhere is no longer needed and is becoming an increasing
source of resentment and hostility toward the United States
in these countries. The use of bases in these countries to
project American military power in the Middle East and elsewhere
also has become very controversial within these countries.
It is only a matter of time before the U. S. is disinvited and
forced to withdraw back to its own territory: it should do
so now by making a gracious exit after reaching agreements with
host countries regarding maintaining existing bases in a standby
status under host nation control. Pre-positioned supplies
of consumables with stocks of heavy equipment and weapons should
be kept and maintained on-site and in storage at these bases in
case of need should future a crisis arise. Long term positioning
(over 6 months) of American military personnel at foreign bases
must be avoided unless hostilities in the vicinity are imminent. They should be quickly
withdrawn after the threat ends.
The shift to a primarily defensive posture will permit
significant reductions in manpower and the number of active duty
combat units. This should gradually occur with major unit
transfers to strengthened reserve and National Guard
units. Several surplus Navy carrier battle groups and Air
Force air wings with supporting equipment could be transferred
at no cost to our Western European and Pacific allies if they
are willing to assume the financial burden and primary
responsibility for their own defense. Separated military
personnel with more than ten years accumulated service should be
offered fully paid public service jobs with benefits at their
present military pay grades until they complete their twenty
year service eligibility for military pensions. Public
service jobs for separated personnel would include fully Federal
subsidized employment as teacher's aides, health clinic workers,
and other job categories placed with requesting local and state
government agencies in poorer jurisdictions.
Surplus
military bases inside the United States should be converted,
stocked with consumables, and maintained as emergency evacuation
centers for future natural disasters such as hurricanes and
major earthquakes. In
the meantime, they should be used to provide shelter, nutrition,
and medical care for all homeless persons that cannot be cared
for in existing facilities.
All displaced Americans should know that the Federal
government will provide adequate shelter, food, and medical care
for them in safe and decent facilities until the present
economic emergency ends and they are able to return to being
fully sustaining. Homelessness
is a national problem created by the greed of the financial
sector and the failure of the Federal government to exercise
adequate regulatory oversight and conduct sound monetary and
fiscal management policies to prevent the economic distress now
being experienced by tens of millions of innocent citizens.
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Designed by Imad-ad-Dean,
Inc.