THE UNITED STATES, A NATION OF PEACE
President Obama has asked Congress on Wednesday to authorize the use of military force against ISIS. It made me reflect on how much armed conflict involving the United States that has taken place since my birth 80 years ago in 1935. It is a staggering list for a nation dedicated to peaceful co-existence.
To start with, our military is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with over 160,000 of our active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories and an additional 70,000 deployed in various contingency operations.
The Website www.dissenter.firedoglake.com says today US military operations are involved in scores of countries across all the five continents. The US military is the world’s largest landlord, with significant military facilities in nations around the world, and with a significant presence in Bahrain, Djibouti,Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to long-established bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.1 Some of these are vast, such as the Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of the United States Central Command, which has recently been expanded to accommodate up to 10,000 troops and 120 aircraft.
It points out that global assassinations have been embraced by the current administration, opening the door to night raids, drone strikes, missile attacks where cluster bombs are used, etc. Each of these operations, as witnessed or experienced by the civilian populations of countries, potentially inflame and increase the number of areas in the world where there are conflict zones.
As to our military operations around the world, we’ve long had a military presence in South America. From 1898 to 1935, the United States was involved in what was informally called the “Banana Wars.” We had a military presence in Cuba, Panama, and Nicaragua.
The list of armed conflict by our military over my life is a long one:
(1941–1945) World War II
(1950–1953) Korean War
(1958) Intervention in Lebanon
(1959–1973) Vietnam War
(1961) Bay of Pigs Invasion
(1965–1966) Occupation of the Dominican Republic
(1982-1984) Multinational Force in Lebanon
(1983) Invasion of Grenada
(1989–1990) Invasion of Panama
(1990–1991) Gulf War
(1991–2003) Iraqi no-fly zones conflict
(1992–1995 Somali Civil War
(1994–1995) Intervention in Haiti
(1994–1995) Bosnian War
(1998–1999) Kosovo War
(2001–present War in Afghanistan
(2003–2011) Iraq War
(2004–present) War in North-West Pakistan
(2010–present) “Insurgency” in Yemen
(2011) military intervention in Libya
(2014–present) International intervention against ISIL
The United States military budget is $786.6 BILLION dollars. Military spending is the second largest federal government expenditure after Social Security at $938 Billion. Military spending exceeds Medicare at $583 Billion, Medicaid at $351 Billion and interest payment on our debt at $283 Billion.
The question we need to ask is what is the right balance for a country like the United States to be militarily prepared and yet not spend itself in a military debt which impacts the quality of our life? Are we the policeman of the world or do we use a measured balance regarding military interventions? What future are we leaving to our children and grandchildren by our military actions of today? These are the real questions of consequence regarding our military expenditures in my view.