Do You Agree that the USA should Reduce its Military Expenditure and Close its Overseas Bases?

[ska invita]

Global disarmament is part of a much bigger process that involves all kinds of international deals, reforms and communal projects, but in short please god yes

 

[Serge Forward]

Our forefathers have legitimate grievances against the Romans, but the Dark Ages were still really shit.

What the fuck?

 

[lazythursday]

Could you name some of them please? BATUS has closed, Cyprus is all I can think of that is left.

Plenty of info here: Overseas military bases of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

 

[Sasaferrato]

Plenty of info here: Overseas military bases of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

These are all small bases.

 

[bcuster]

I don’t think foreign land bases are even necessary or practical anymore. 13-15 super carriers, sea launched missiles and a robust military sealift capability is more than enough to protect US interests.

We don’t need to be unwelcome house guests in foreign lands anymore…

 

[klang]

I don’t think foreign land bases are even necessary or practical anymore. 13-15 super carriers, sea launched missiles and a robust military sealift capability is more than enough to protect US interests.

We don’t need to be unwelcome house guests in foreign lands anymore…

US foreign policy and military action over the last 50 years has not protected national interest. It has made things a lot more dangerous for the US and everybody else.

 

[lazythursday]

These are all small bases.

Well Diego Garcia isn't, which is ultimately ours.

But size is irrelevant. There are a lot of facilities. Why should we have permanent military personnel in places a long way from our country? Other than UN missions of some sort.

 

[redsquirrel]

What the fuck?

Take it that you've not really come across SL before. Standard operating procedure for him.

But hey, the fact that the US attacks of Vietnam are still in living memory, and that the mines, bombs and chemical weapons are still harming people today - of course it is just the same as events that happened hundreds of years ago. Who could think otherwise

 

[Spandex]

The answer is clearly yes. It's not even a controversial position in the US.

Here's Time magazine with Why We Should Close America’s Overseas Military Bases

Here's Responsible Statecraft with Nine Ways That Drawing Down Overseas Bases Will Improve US Security

Here's Foreign Policy magazine with Why the U.S. Should Close Its Overseas Military Bases

 

[petee]

The answer is clearly yes. It's not even a controversial position in the US.

Here's Time magazine with Why We Should Close America’s Overseas Military Bases

Here's Responsible Statecraft with Nine Ways That Drawing Down Overseas Bases Will Improve US Security

Here's Foreign Policy magazine with Why the U.S. Should Close Its Overseas Military Bases

okay, but the first two of those are by old-right authors.
Glaser is Associate Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. think Rand Paul
and i have alot of time for Andrew Bacevich, but he's in the same camp.

 

[petee]

on general principles, US and all other countries' military bases overseas should be closed, and the whole shebang should be replaced by a moneyless economy for use, not profit.

however, as of today,

Pax Americana is much better than the alternatives.

 

[Spandex]

okay, but the first two of those are by old-right authors.
Glaser is Associate Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. think Rand Paul
and i have alot of time for Andrew Bacevich, but he's in the same camp.

Yeah, but the point I was making is that closing US overseas military bases isn't just some crazy far out lefty dream. It's a completely standard view from people across the political spectrum.

 

[petee]

Yeah, but the point I was making is that closing US overseas military bases isn't just some crazy far out lefty dream. It's a completely standard view from people across the political spectrum.

it's spread widely across yes, but those sources are not standard.
(and as i said i more or less agree with them.)

 

[gosub]

Yeah, but the point I was making is that closing US overseas military bases isn't just some crazy far out lefty dream. It's a completely standard view from people across the political spectrum.

Debt spiral US has got itself into (intrest now bigger than defense expenditure) pressure can only go one way...Hard to see Dollar as the global reserve in 30 years...which means they are already borrowing against a future they won't have.....Also don't think that sort of power transition is the sort of thing that can happen painlessly

 

[Serge Forward]

Take it that you've not really come across SL before. Standard operating procedure for him.

But hey, the fact that the US attacks of Vietnam are still in living memory, and that the mines, bombs and chemical weapons are still harming people today - of course it is just the same as events that happened hundreds of years ago. Who could think otherwise

So they is a dick then.

 

[The39thStep]

So they is a dick then.

Aside from his politics seems to be a reasonable poster tbh

 

[Yossarian]

The US should get out of places like DIego Garcia and Guantanamo Bay, might be a better case for them staying in places like South Korea where something like 90% of the population wants them there - tbh, if it's going to keep the fucking PRC out of Taiwan, I hope they build more bases

 

[Serge Forward]

Aside from his politics seems to be a reasonable poster tbh

I'm sure I've liked one or two of their posts but I doubt they were owt to do with politics.

 

[discokermit]

Aside from his politics seems to be a reasonable poster tbh

aren't you on his internment list?

 

[CNT36]

aren't you on his internment list?

His internment list is much better than the alternatives.

 

[The39thStep]

aren't you on his internment list?

I'm European so doesn't affect me

 

[The39thStep]

I'm sure I've liked one or two of their posts but I doubt they were owt to do with politics.

Not his strong point tbf

 

[krtek a houby]

I don’t think foreign land bases are even necessary or practical anymore. 13-15 super carriers, sea launched missiles and a robust military sealift capability is more than enough to protect US interests.

We don’t need to be unwelcome house guests in foreign lands anymore…

What exactly are US interests, though?

 

[RD2003]

okay, but the first two of those are by old-right authors.
Glaser is Associate Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. think Rand Paul
and i have alot of time for Andrew Bacevich, but he's in the same camp.

I've been finding for years that the maverick right can often see what the liberal left refuses to. Their solutions may be shit, but at least they acknowledge the discrepancy between reality and the world we're presented with.

 

[RD2003]

The US should get out of places like DIego Garcia and Guantanamo Bay, might be a better case for them staying in places like South Korea where something like 90% of the population wants them there - tbh, if it's going to keep the fucking PRC out of Taiwan, I hope they build more bases

Ultimately, no number of US bases in Taiwan will keep China out of Taiwan. That's a prediction and I'd bet on it.

As for the South Korean 90%, if it's what their rulers and their compliant media want, what else do you think the population will 'want'?

 

[Rob Ray]

Debt spiral US has got itself into (intrest now bigger than defense expenditure) pressure can only go one way

You might be surprised tbh, there's still at least one massive rabbit to be pulled out of that hat which could keep the US going a while longer. People think Asian economies holding most US Treasury debt is a problem for the US, but who do you think is really fucked if, for example, the US finds a reason to not pay up? There's a reason why, even at its most bellicose, China hasn't threatened to call in the loans.

 

[bcuster]

What exactly are US interests, though?

Free and open sea lanes, primarily. I don’t think the US should be meddling in the internal affairs of other nations

 

[krtek a houby]

Free and open sea lanes, primarily. I don’t think the US should be meddling in the internal affairs of other nations

Unfortunately, they do and not just governments and spies but religious groups as well, from missionaries to funding the conservation of "Christian values" when it comes to referenda on abortion, same sex marriage etc.

 

[NoXion]

Hard to achieve, especially as the world continues to degenerate into hostile camps. It was easier when, contrary to common belief, the mutually atagonistic sides in the cold war came from the same ideological stable and would have quite liked world peace on their own terms.

The world has always been divided into hostile camps. The idea that there ever was a golden age of of peace and cooperation in international affairs is an ahistorical and pre-lapsarian fairy tale.

The sides in the Cold War also weren't from the same ideological stable, even if they both truly wanted world peace, they would have wanted it "on their own terms" as you admit.

 

[Dogsauce]

As for the South Korean 90%, if it's what their rulers and their compliant media want, what else do you think the population will 'want'?

Clearly, if it wasn’t for their meddling compliant media they’d be all over the idea of starvation, labour camps and state-regulated haircuts.