Quote:
Originally Posted by writerman
that the presence of our military personnel in those and other countries is of positive economic value to many communities there. Towns in Germany near our bases during the NATO heyday grew fat and sassy selling overpriced merchandise to GIs, and that was also true, and still remains true today in many places in other countries as well.
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I think we need to look at the overall picture here. The US IS providing global security for Europe and many other small countries. Russia has enough nukes to wipe out Europe and for 50 years we have covered Europe with our nuclear umbrella and maintained an enormous military in order to prevent Europe from being overrun. We saved France from being conquered twice, and then rebuilt Europe with the Marshall Plan. We provided the military force that was necessary to police a state in Europe's own backyard (Serbia) and we provided 90% of the military force in Operation Desert Shield in Kuwait in 1991. The US contribution to Europe and global security is not be poo-poohed so easy as baxter suggests.
On other issues, we as Americans are heavily indebted, so much so that our economy is vulnerable to collapse. I think we need to really start taking a look and reining in all of our spending, foreign and abroad to avert this. I think that some of our domestic programs might need to be expanded, but not without undoing the Bush tax cuts and possibly cutting spending elsewhere. We have serious financial problems and we need to get a plan to become solvent. That is a national priority. We have to start paying our debts down.
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