Thinking About Bringing Troops Home and Budget Cuts for the Military

When will the draw down be completed?  When will we bring home our troops?  I believe I can safely say that most citizens of the U.S. would like to bring home the troops.  However, when we say bring home the troops we mean something specific--bring them home from Afghanistan and Iraq.  I also safely say that it is an underwhelming minority that wants to close down shop and bring home our military from its mission to protect the private property of the citizens of the U.S.

I have never been a big supporter of the effort in Iraq.  I believe that it was ill conceived and carried out incorrectly.  Our efforts in Iraq caused us problems in focusing on doing the right things in Afghanistan--a mission which I supported with the limited goals of destroying Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (AQAF) and the Taliban government that allowed AQAF to operate freely within its borders.  The Taliban may still exist, and the government of Afghanistan may be a joke, but as far as I am concerned it is mission accomplished.  We chased AQAF out of Afghanistan (and recently ended the miserable existence of its principle creator and guru) and destroyed the Taliban government.  Bring home the troops.  Many people in the U.S. agree with this sentiment.  Particularly we agree with it because we want to save money given our outrageous debt and the military budget and excessive spending seems a logical place to begin cutting back.

However, despite my desire to bring home some troops, I stop short of gutting the military and total removal from Afghanistan even.  Mainly because I am reminded of the Afghani people's inability to govern themselves and what might happen if state building is not completed--by the way, state building is a costly and dangerous effort, but who is to undertake it if not the U.S. and our somewhat democratic allies?  I am also reminded of a poem by Philip Larkin (yes, I do read and sometimes remember poetry) "Homage to a Government".

Next year we are to bring the soldiers home
For lack of money, an it is all right.
Places they guarded, or kept orderly,
Must guard themselves, and keep themselves orderly.
We want the money for ourselves at home
Instead of working.  And this is all right.

It's hard to say who wanted it to happen,
But now it's been decided and nobody minds.
The places are a long way off, not here,
Which is all right, and from what we hear
The soldiers there only made trouble happen.
Next year we shall be easier in our minds.

The poem goes on, but I will not finish it here.  You should go look it up for yourself.  I simply remind you that all economic activity that produces private property for the citizens of the U.S. is to be protected by the government--it is a primary duty of government to protect our property rights.  Therefore, I warn against hasty elimination of military involvement in foreign affairs.