Unqualified Offerings

Has anyone considered how many residual forces it would take to occupy – oops! that word . . . – “58 permanent bases?” I realize they won’t all be Army forts with bunkhouses and palisades chopped from the local timber. But given that some will be really big, and the rest probably home to at least a battalion (300-1200 guys), if only to defend the Airmen, it seems like a reasonable SWAG at the average base size is 1,000 troops. That means a “residual force” pushing 60,000. With no end.

This is just fine with John McCain, who wants you to understand the context of his thinking so, which context is, it’s just fine with John McCain. But when McCain and Lieberman et al try to liken an indefinite, massive presence in Iraq to the country’s lengthy deployments in Germany, Japan and South Korea, the politically potent rejoinder is probably, “Oh. And when can the troops’ families join them?” While I think the US could easily bring its soldiers home from Germany and South Korea, and should bring them home, that’s a minority opinion. But the fact is, American military personnel have been able to raise entire generations of families on bases in Europe and the Western Pacific. Everybody knows that the Defense Department is never going to authorize family housing in Iraq, for practical values of never. When McCain and Bush plan to keep The Troops in Iraq indefinitely, they’re planning a completely different experience for military families than basing troops in Europe or the Pacific entails.