remember?

Remember when the president told us we'd start pulling out of Afghanistan in July of 2011?
I don't remember how many troops we had there then. But now, it seems, we have as many as 100,000 pairs of boots on the ground there, fighting a bloody, unwinnable war. And nobody any longer expects us to be completely out of Afghanistan by 2014, which once was Washington's target date.
We can't even get out of Iraq.
Our two most recent presidents didn't lie to us -- they meant well -- but they spun out some irresponsible fairy tales. We all know that now, and that is why we so often don't quite believe what our collective leadership, of both political parties, tells us.
Why should we? They have shown us, in recent years, that while it's easy for them to get us into foreign wars, accidentally or on purpose, they have a helluva time getting us out.
Historically, we haven't even left countries when peace came and we were the clear winner. As of a few years ago we still had 28,000 troops in Korea, 52,000 in Germany and 36,000 in Japan.
All told, at that time, we had 820 troop installations in at least 135 of the world's 192 countries, including the likes of Chad, Mali, Cyprus, Niger, Fiji and Djibouti.
Now of course some of these "installations" are merely a handful of Marines protecting a small U.S. embassy or consulate. And we need to have a world presence.
But do we need upwards of 200,000 men and women in foreign barracks?

today's lesson

"Dennis the Menace" is Dennis Mitchell. Mom is Alice. Dad is Henry. Mr. Wilson is George. Mrs. Wilson is Martha.
Just thought you should be properly introduced.
C