Overseas Military bases

[ViperJock]

It is my understanding that Ron Paul wants to close the forgiegn bases. This is not a thread about Ron Paul, but rather a discussion on the pros and cons of closing these bases. These are a few I just threw together. Have today's technological advances in delivery systems somewhat diminished the need for outposts all over the world?

Pros:
1. Bringing bases back to USA means more money spent locally and less to the foreign economies.
2. More forces at home and available for defensive purposes. (Guarding the borders?)
3. If we aren't spending money to keep up foreign bases, we could spend it on long range delivery systems for weapon systems of all types.

Cons:
1. Greater time required to react to threats around the world.
2. Have to rapidly establish medical bases/hospitals since we won't have hospitals on bases already nearby (ie Germany).
3. More troops available to keep the citizens in line.

The point is probably moot as I doubt the pentagon would give the bases up anyway. But lets have an exercise it strategery anyway.

 

[Stschil]

I don't have the answer, but I think we should maintain a presence in some of these places, however that doesn't mean that the majority of them couldn't be done away with.

 

[rambone]

Yes because we are ****ing broke.

 

[Fletch]

Yes because we are ****ing broke.

 

[RockofStrength]

Yes because we are ****ing broke.

That answer applies to so much...

 

[iChokePeople]

Yes, because we can't afford to keep them air-conditioned.

 

[woowoo2]

Well, personally I cried when I heard they were shutting down Subic Bay....

 

[Sylvain]

I couldnt vote on the poll.
My answer is "Yes because we dont have the money to keep those bases".
It's not about being the world police or not, we dont have the money to afford being the world police anymore.
The whole country is broke, you need to close those to reduce spendings.
Lets sale the bases to the chinese since they have the money to buy them.

 

[ViperJock]

Yeah, you active duty guys don't get to vote. I don't wanna hear any whining about closing down your favorite port

J/k.

What bases should we keep? and why?

 

[Pocketman]

We should invite the Chinese to build (or sell them some of our existing) bases in the U.S.. It would provide economic stimulis to the local economies and protect us from invasion.

Should be in purple - I don't frankly know?

EDIT: The Brits hold a lot of our debt, so they might be a better candidate. Probably already something in the NATO rules to allow it.

 

[88GT]

I think the "we don't have enough money" argument is a poor argument. You could justify ending ANY government program under that logic. It's not enough in itself. Particularly as there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of other budget items that don't even Constitutional justification. At least a military is something Congress is empowered to spend money on.

I think many of the bases could be closed. But I'm not sure all of them should be closed. I don't know enough about any of them to hazard a guess which ones would fall under which category. Though if pressed, I'd say Ramstein (isn't that where our Germany base is where all the wounded are evaced to initially?) is as good a candidate as any.

I can't vote, but if there was an option that philosophically lined up between the "Yes, we're not the world's police" and "No, strategic planning.....", it would probably be that choice.

 

[badwolf.usmc]

Won't vote since the choices don't represent realistic options.

Most of the "bases" around the world are nothing more than refueling & repair points for ships and aircraft, backup bases for special forces or ranges.

Realistically we could pull most of our troops out of Germany without too much of an issue, other than the treaties and legal obligations that go along with them. We could pull troops out of Japan & Okinawa, but then you wouldn't want to concentrate our forces in too few, large bases.

 

[strahd71]

i wonder if we as a country would do something totally crazy like mind our own business and stay out of every other countries problems if we would really need a lot of these bases? i think were at a point where we need to isolate ourselves a bit and let the world figure out there own problems. and oh yea we have open borders that need securing, and possibly 20 million illegals that need caught and deported, seems silly that were securing other countries instead.

jake

 

[Sylvain]

Won't vote since the choices don't represent realistic options.

Most of the "bases" around the world are nothing more than refueling & repair points for ships and aircraft, backup bases for special forces or ranges.

Realistically we could pull most of our troops out of Germany without too much of an issue, other than the treaties and legal obligations that go along with them. We could pull troops out of Japan & Okinawa, but then you wouldn't want to concentrate our forces in too few, large bases.

The base in Okinawa make all americans look bad and make problems all the time (Its always on the local news for weapons trafficking, drug trafficking, rapes and more).
Even the japanese people want the US troops to leave.
And also even though Japan doesnt have a military officialy I think their armed forces are strong enough now that they can protect themselves without the help of the US.

 

[g+16]

I've been saying it for years, close ALL the oversea bases, Pulling our young men and women home, man the borders, start remanufacturing everything we needed in this country AGAIN, suck up the 6 dollor gas price till we REOPEN out ideiled oil wells, tell the rest of the world to take a hike. We send billions of dollors oversea every year to countrys that do not like us anyway. Screw the world

 

[radonc73]

I think that alot of the Bases in Germany are closing down already. We do need to maintain a presence in alot of these countries but most the American Embassy is quite enough. However if they do mess with us we need an established base to fight from. The only way we can do that is have boots on the ground in a wide variety of places.

 

[Denny347]

Would we want foreign bases in the US?

 

[jsharmon7]

I voted for "I don't know." I don't have enough information on this topic to have an opinion. I just really like voting in polls though, and there was an applicable option.

 

[EvilBlackGun]

Tell the Jap nation to go take a flying leap ....

(Hmmm. My speller-robot dude in my Apple does not recognize "JAP"; I was 4 y/o when Pearl Harbor was hit, and I hate those pilots, even now. ) O.K., Step One: bring all our troops home except those really needed to stop Islam from eating up the globe. Step Two: stop ALL foreign-aid in the form of MONEY. Instead, ship the "needy" countries the things WE AMERICANS CAN MAKE. Step Three: restart all the factories that have had to close, and hire those newly returned troops into a good job. Step Four: build enough busses to transport and re-patriate all illegals now here from the Tex/Mex border incursions. Any have better ideas??

 

[rambone]

Would we want foreign bases in the US?

People think its an act of war when this happens. Just imagine if a foreign army operated on our soil, the way that the U.S. does all over the world.