We sacrificed 500,000 healthy young men in WW II on President Roosevelt’s assurance that we were fighting so that people could be free to choose their own governments. Then, when the Vietnamese leaders came to the United States and asked for help in driving the French from their country, we turned them down. When the Chinese communists helped them, we helped the French: the French, those occupiers of the land who had cheered for Japan in WW II.   

I remember war every Christmas. I arrived on the front line with the 15^th Infantry Regiment on Christmas Eve, 1952, and saw my first enemy shell fire on Christmas morning. I was in a reasonable safe job, but volunteered for the scouts and served four months as a scout. I saw one bloody action, five nights of mass attacks interspersed with three days of minor attacks. I am alive because of combat smarts, quickness and luck, mostly luck. But this is beside the point. The point is that, like every other man who has been in combat, I hate war. But if we place men in combat they must have our support. Otherwise we are sacrificing them meaninglessly.

A year ago, running for election, Obama declared that Afghanistan was important, not Iraq. After he was elected he repeated the need for victory in Afghanistan. He replaced the general in charge and sent in 20,000 more troops. Obama’s general said that he needed more troops to win: 60,000 more. 

Months have passed following Obama’s election. During that time President Obama had time to travel about Europe and Central and South America apologizing for our help to the people and our weak attempts to neutralize dictators. He visited old friends in Chicago, went to Europe to campaign for the Olympics and campaigned for various Democrats running for office. But he didn’t have time to do anything about the request for help in Afghanistan.

During that time we had American soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan who lacked the support and equipment they needed. But Obama was too busy thinking about it. He finally decided. He will send thirty thousand more troops to fight, half of those the generals say they need, but plans to withdraw them in eighteen months. This is pure stupidity. Why sacrifice young people for eighteen months before bringing the survivors home?

Personally, I’m in favor of getting out. The founders of the United States fought for their own freedom, let the people of Afghanistan fight for theirs - if they want it. The one thing I know about Afghanistan is that no outside nation has ever conquered it, not even Alexander the Great, and I don’t believe Obama can.

I not only would want the United States military to come home from Afghanistan, I’d like them to come home from everywhere. We have thousands of troops stationed on Okinawa. The people of Okinawa don’t want us there. Why are we there? To defend Japan? Japan is quite capable of defending itself, as it proved by conquering much of Asia in WW II. 

Similarly, South Korea is one of the world’s wealthiest nations. It has much more money and many more people than North Korea. Why do we have thousands of troops in Korea? They have the money and the men to defend themselves. 

We also have thousands of troops in Germany. Why? 

I worked for the military for eleven years: in the United States, in Korea and in Germany. When at the WarriorPreparationCenter in Germany, I was asked to write the history of the center as a gift to a departing four star general. I did some research and wrote that the Center had been established to conduct war games to prepare the two army corps then in Germany to defend West Germany for an attack by the Russians through the Fulda Gap in East Germany. East Germany no longer existed. Poland was independent of Russia and the likelihood of such an attack no longer existed. W no longer had two corps in Europe and we had not conducted a war game in over two years. Still we currently employed six civilians, the one with the lowest rank being a GS 12, all of whom received free housing and medical treatment in addition to their salaries, more than thirty contractors the least expensive of whom cost the government $270,000 per person, and over a hundred military.

My history of the Center was never sent to the General.

During my tours in Korea and Germany, I saw many visitors: colonels, generals and politicians. They paid brief visits to our “research” facilities and then went shopping or visiting the sights in the area. The only reason I can see for keeping so many military men and women in these places is to expand the military, meaning a greater need for more well paid colonels and generals as well as a greater variety of countries to visit on well paid trips by high ranking officers and politicians from the States. Well paid with tax dollars. We spend billions of dollars on this. We could use that money at home. Bring them home.