Military Movement

Ralph Peters, whom I frequently read in the NY Post, has a spot-on op-ed piece about the redeployment of thousands of foreign-based military units to CONUS (the CONtinental United States).

Every Democrat jockeying for an assistant-to-the-deputy-undersecretary janitorial position in a Kerry administration attacked the proposed basing changes as calamitous: We’ll throw away our influence in Europe. NATO will buckle. South Korea will be defenseless. And virgins will be ravished around the world…

The Dems’ position boils down to this: Withdraw our soldiers from Iraq, where they’re needed. Leave them in Europe, where they’re useless and unwanted. And to hell with the welfare of our troops and their families.

There are three key issues in this mud fight: strategy, economics and taking care of our soldiers. On each count it makes sense to bring the troops home.

LTC (Ret) Peters could give a rats ass about politics in his screeds, but relies solely on military readiness to rate the sagacity/foolishness of any particular decision. He’s lit into the CIC a few times for what he perceived to be military blunders. Read the whole thing and you’ll have a graduate-level understanding of why the current administration is (correctly) making this move.

To answer Seamus’ question and sorta answer Jake’s question about why this libertarian is leaning toward Bush: foreign policy and military readiness. I don’t want foreign policy by concensus. I don’t want France and Germany’s socialist governments and third-rate militaries weighing on any policy decision my president makes. I don’t like people who play politics with my military. Senator Heinz knows this is the right thing to do. General Wesley Clinton Clark knows this is the right thing to do. Nonetheless, they oppose it in a vain attempt to collect votes. That is immoral and criminal, in my esteemed opinion. Never mind the long-term cost savings our government will realize. Whatever improves military readiness is the right thing to do.

~ by kinshay on 2004-08-19.