A day after Veteran's Day

On this day after Veteran's Day, I find myself contemplating our country's situation in the middle east, Afghanistan in particular. My initial thoughts are not to make any soldier in the US Armed Forces a veteran again. How best to do this? That is the question.

Foreign policy of any country needs to be a cohesive and unified process all over the globe. What happens in one area can easily affect the position somewhere else. Our world has truly 'shrunk' as knowledge of events is easily gained and information gathered in the global media age. Decades ago the only thing we knew was what was told to us through the evening news and newspapers. Much of what happened over-seas was deemed so far away by the average American it could never affect us. Well, times have changed and Afghanistan might as well be just down the block.

Our military after WWII was used to protect us and project power across the globe. Gone now is the main adversary of the USSR. It no longer exists. Russia is a shadow of what the Soviets once were but their power and influence is growing again. But to be a true power in the world means an economic power. Even as the US and the rest of the world struggle through this downturn, economic power is the true measure of strength around the globe.

I believe the US should withdraw from the middle east as an armed force with a caveat known to all. Declare that we will leave you alone if you leave us alone. As a measure to protect ourselves, let those governments know that we will interject force at a moments notice, at any time and any situation we deem immediately dangerous to the US. Then we will leave again, even if that means gone in a day. Your country may have whatever government you so choose as long as it does not endanger the US. With the unmeasurable amount of corruption in governments in that part of the world it is impossible to rebuild their countries by ourselves. It does not benefit the US to spend our dollars in those situations as it is obvious to all the money does not go where it is supposed to, nor does it deserve the loss of any more members of our military.

If those countries want our help to rebuild their world without all the internal conflicts we will gladly go back in and help. We can't be the world's police force any longer and frankly, you're just not worth the trouble.