Four weeks ago, I predicted, “American taxpayers are going to be regaled with propaganda about the need to increase military spending in reaction to Putin’s invasion and accede to even more troops deployed overseas.”
Right on cue, Gen. Tod Wolters, U.S. European Command chief, did precisely that.
“I think what we need to do from a U.S. force perspective is look at what takes place in Europe following the completion of Ukraine-Russia scenario and examine the European contributions, and based off the breadth and depth of the European contributions, be prepared to adjust the U.S. contributions. And my suspicion is we’re going to still need more,” he said.
Following the Ukraine-Russia scenario? So, once the Ukraine-Russia war is over, in which zero American soldiers fought, American taxpayers should pay for even more soldiers deployed in Europe to…what? Not fight again?
This isn’t to say American troops should fight in the Ukraine-Russia war, even though it was started by the U.S. State Department. It’s an acknowledgement that they cannot fight in the Ukraine-Russia war, as Joe Biden has so far retained the mental capacity to realize.
The rationalization for this would be to deter Vladimir Putin from invading the territory of a NATO country in the future. But Putin is never going to do that for the same reason Biden is not allowing U.S. troops to be involved in Ukraine. Nuclear powers cannot go to war unless they are ready for the war to end with a nuclear exchange. Period.
Thus, as I argued at the beginning of this conflict, the conclusion to draw from the past four weeks is a dramatic cut in U.S. overseas deployments. Warehousing hundreds of thousands of troops overseas that will never be used for any legitimate purpose is simply a dead weight loss on the U.S. economy.
If Joe Biden insists Americans suffer food shortages in order to signal their virtue in futile sanctions on Russia for its supposedly “unprovoked” invasion of Ukraine, then they should respond to him by demanding the overseas military government jobs program – because that’s all it is at this point – be eliminated to help ease the pain.
But what can average Americans do about this? Congress will appropriate the funds for more military spending and, no matter whom they elect president, that president will continue to deploy troops overseas.
Well, for everyone who styles themselves “politically incorrect,” believing they are tougher than the “snowflakes” who can’t bear to hear hard truths, here is some truly politically incorrect talk.
Warning: Saying something half the country will applaud you for, whether it is the liberal or conservative half, is not “politically incorrect.” Telling a truth no one wants to hear is truly politically incorrect. If you don’t want to hear that, stop reading now.
Stop joining the military. Stop encouraging your children to join the military. Stop crowing to the world about how proud you are your children joined the military. We need the military cut drastically, now more than ever.
I can already hear the rationalizations. So, let me address the most common.
“I didn’t join the military to fight unconstitutional wars; I joined to defend the Constitution.” Sorry, this excuse doesn’t hold water. The U.S. government has been fighting unconstitutional wars for almost eighty years at this point. Its record during this century alone is enough that no reasonable person can possibly believe they will be deployed to defend the Constitution.
That’s especially true because the Constitution is not under threat from any foreign power. Not even if the military were cut in half. Not even if it were cut by two-thirds. Want proof? Russia’s military spending is one tenth that of the U.S. on an annual basis. Why is their constitution still intact?
No reasonable person can believe joining the military in 2022 will result in them being deployed to do anything other than more of what the U.S. military has been doing for our entire lives.
“But the military is already stretched to exhaustion.” Yes, this is true. The military is stretched to exhaustion because the government has it doing all sorts of things that harm rather than “serve” U.S. taxpayers. Take away the personnel and U.S. presidents won’t have that choice.
“If people stop joining the military, they will just start drafting soldiers.” Fine. Let’s get to that point and talk about civil disobedience then. Massive movements have formed around vaccine mandates, wrongful police shootings, and controversial public-school curriculums. Whatever one thinks about any of those causes individually, they all pale in comparison to mass murder of foreign populations that never attacked the United States.
I wrote a few days ago that Americans are not ready for the reality that will set in when much of the world ceases to use the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. There are plenty of painful corrections in the domestic economy that are inevitable – zombie jobs that but for government spending underwritten by monetary inflation wouldn’t exist.
Disbanding the worldwide standing army would be one of the least painful corrections to bear. Not only would the net economic loss be eliminated, but hundreds of thousands of military personnel serving no useful purpose overseas would be freed up to do productive work here at home.
It’s hard to blame an eighteen-year-old for joining the military, especially when, on one hand, the government has made it so economically attractive with perks like free college and, on the other, when all of society tells him or her it is a fine and noble pursuit.
America needs to get back to its founding attitude of suspicion of standing armies. John Adams sought political favor by trying to outmaneuver Congress in taking credit for disbanding the entire army. His successor Thomas Jefferson was re-elected in 1804 based on cutting taxes and paying down the national debt after cutting military spending (mostly the navy as the army was already gone) by over 90 percent.
Americans have derived no benefit from eighty years of foreign wars. So, while we’re facing reality, let’s knock off the reflexive, “Thank you for your service.” No American taxpayer has been “served” by any of these wars.
Counter to the government’s propaganda about “freedom not being free,” Americans have become poorer and less free because of the military mischief they have allowed their government to get them into.
Before resorting to eating bugs, as their elites suggest, Americans should take foreign policy into their own hands by ceasing to join the military, discouraging their children from doing so, and ceasing to perpetuate the falsehood that Americans are freer because of the wars its government has fought.
Reprinted with permission from Tom Mullin Talks Freedom.
This article originally from the Ron Paul Institute.
