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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 03/04/2009 : 08:26:58 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by moakley
And from this list our presence in many countries would only qualify as an office. The data is about 1.5 years old, but do we really need 12 military personnel in Sweden. Does Sweden even know about this? I lost count but we have 60+ such offices with 10 military personnel or less in 60+ countries. Seems like a waste to me and closing these offices may not be a huge savings, but it would be a start. |
My guess - and it's only a guess - is that most of those people are embassy guards. If I'm right, I would prefer that they stay. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 09:13:10 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by moakley
And from this list our presence in many countries would only qualify as an office. The data is about 1.5 years old, but do we really need 12 military personnel in Sweden. Does Sweden even know about this? I lost count but we have 60+ such offices with 10 military personnel or less in 60+ countries. Seems like a waste to me and closing these offices may not be a huge savings, but it would be a start. |
My guess - and it's only a guess - is that most of those people are embassy guards. If I'm right, I would prefer that they stay.
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That's likely it and it makes sense. I first looked for the list because I knew we had a lot of military personnel in Germany, Japan, and South Korea and wanted to see what the counts actually were. When I saw so many small numbers in so many countries I jumped to a conclusions that was either completely or mostly wrong.
Thanks for the correction. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 09:36:18 [Permalink]
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Huh, the Marine Corps Security Guards explain the presence of marines, but not other branches of the military. Going back to Sweden, for example, not only are there six marines, but one soldier, one sailor and four airmen.
Our military presence in Moldova consists of a single soldier. WTF? |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 10:12:39 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Huh, the Marine Corps Security Guards explain the presence of marines, but not other branches of the military. Going back to Sweden, for example, not only are there six marines, but one soldier, one sailor and four airmen.
Our military presence in Moldova consists of a single soldier. WTF?
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Couldn't find much on the other branches related to embassies and consulates and why they would need to be there in small numbers, but I did find where to meet foreign women while in DC. But that is not much of a bonus since I haven't been to DC in 4 years and have a wife who would not approve. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 12:22:12 [Permalink]
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| This is about empire, not defense. |
Agreed. And we can't afford to be an empire. No one can.
| Few are anywhere near as large as "defense." |
But many are entirely unnecessary, and others could be paired down to a tiny fraction of their original size.
The Education Department costs us $70 billion dollars a year, and they are entirely unnecessary. Shut them down, auction off their buildings, sell their office equipment, return the power to the states and counties, where it belongs, and you not only save $70 billion this year, but next year and the next and the next. (Even more, considering that most departments get bigger each year.) And, almost as a side effect, education would improve.
The FCC shouldn't be doing anything other than assigning frequencies and licenses. Shut down every other part of it, including the content censoring, and save billions.
The Department of Agriculture once had one employee for every two farms in the country. (Don't know what the number is now.) Shut down everything but meat inspection. Especially shut down farm subsidies.
And so on. We should examine every single agency and sub agency and determine if it's absolutely necessary. If it is, we should pare it down to its essentials. If it's not, eliminate it.
| Pulling back to just the confines of the US borders is not smart diplomacy nor is it logical. |
I haven't seen anyone advocate that, but we should be able to cut back significantly, keeping strategic and or large instillations in place, without sacrificing readiness.
| do we really need 12 military personnel in Sweden. |
Somebody has to keep tabs on the Swedish Bikini Team. |
When a vampire Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door, don't invite him in. Blood Witness: http://bloodwitness.com
Get Smartenized® with the Quick Hitts blog: http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/index.phpBlog |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 12:28:53 [Permalink]
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| I guess some of these would be military advisers and/or responsible for the various intelligence branches (every army branch has its own, I think). |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2009 : 20:44:58 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Huh, the Marine Corps Security Guards explain the presence of marines, but not other branches of the military. Going back to Sweden, for example, not only are there six marines, but one soldier, one sailor and four airmen.
Our military presence in Moldova consists of a single soldier. WTF?
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Marines don't have their own medical corps. They use Naval corpsmen.
One soldier and four airmen could be military advisors to Sweden.
The Moldovian soldier probably made someone back home very, very mad. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2009 : 20:58:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Valiant Dancer
The Moldovian soldier probably made someone back home very, very mad. |
My wife thinks he's a peacekeeper, probably in a strategic bar. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2009 : 21:15:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Valiant Dancer
The Moldovian soldier probably made someone back home very, very mad.
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Or he felt madly in love with a Moldavian exchange student and went looking foa a way to make his life with her when she went back to her country and his pleas moved some official...
Let's not always be so damn negative, people! |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2009 : 03:48:30 [Permalink]
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NAPLES (Reuters) Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.
Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.
"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.
"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."
The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.
It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: here
Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 17:05:27 [Permalink]
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Too bad Obama has to reap what Bush sow...
I'm not surprised this happen, and I certain this is only the beginning.
Obama and Clinton has a lot of damage-control to do globally, after the mess the imbecil George Bush left behind. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Cut the military budget by 50 percent
