Should we stop supplementing Europe militarily with multiple military bases?

SSgt George Brown — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 22:35:34 -0500

With our technologically advanced Air Force. An ability for our naval forces to have first in capability anywhere in the world. And Special Ops multiple branch training. Do we really need to supplement Europe's military capability with multi-billions that we spend there?

Response by SFC James Baber made Feb 1 at 2014 11:35 PM

SFC James Baber — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 23:35:09 -0500

point blank NO, but because of the current administration and the political environment we will always have our money and hands somewhere involved for many years to come.

Response by SPC Dan Goforth made Feb 2 at 2014 12:47 AM

SPC Dan Goforth — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 00:47:15 -0500

We should definitely minimize our footprint in other countries. We are spending billions, and there are some places we don't need the level of presence we have. I know that a lot of service members look forward to tours in places like Germany and Japan, but we have to question if the expense of some places is justified, especially when we are cutting back on the number of personnel. If we consolidated our presence in Europe, we could potentially save billions just on the extra operating costs associated with having so many smaller bases.

Response by SSG Oliver Mathews made Feb 2 at 2014 1:02 AM

SSG Oliver Mathews — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 01:02:50 -0500

Part of our presence in other countries is not just to "supplement" their military. Alot of it is meant to provide the US Military the ability to be anywhere in the world in the shortest time possible. The 82nd/18th are a rapid deploying units, designed to be up and out in a jiffy, But look at 25th in Alaska, and 173rd in Italy. Three Airborne units spread across the globe. Every location that the military has a base has a strategic and definite reason.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 25 at 2014 8:09 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 20:09:53 -0400

We should at least be paid for our services.
Europe should be paying USA for 3 things:

1. They should pay us back for the debt we incurred during WWI and WWII. Wars they started and we and others finished. Why did hundreds of millions of taxpayer US dollars go to rebuild Europe without repayment?

2. European nations are the ones who colonized Africa, Middle East, East Asia and set up the unstable dynamic that we still suffer with. When it became politically expedient and embarrassing they pulled out but never repaired the damage they did. Consider the 'country' of Iraq that Briton basically made out of thin air. France in Africa, Dutch in South Africa, Spain in Philippines, Briton in Palestine, all of us in China.

3. They should pay us for acting as the world police while they spend that money on their citizens with free college, healthcare and demilitarized population and states.