I only had a chance to quickly peruse the list (they expect me to do some work), but remind me again what national defense reasons all those troops in Germany and Italy are there for? South Korea I can see, but Europe?
Well I don't think they're there to defend Europe anymore per se. If you look at the list, there are a number of units whose home bases are in Germany currently stationed in Iraq.
My guess is that those units are being rotated in just like troops in America are.
When I mentioned troops that couldn't be moved for national defense reasons the troops I was referring to were those in Korea and the forces in red, which are American national defense forces, stationed in DC, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, California and Hawaii. In fact I'm very surprised that some elements of the 11th Cav in California are listed as being in Iraq. It's very unusual to move these forces. They're where they are for very specific reasons of having a certain force level able to reach any area in the country quickly.
I think these are even listed as BEING deployed despite being stateside, as part of Operation "Noble Eagle", though someone can correct me if I'm wrong here (that would probably have to be YOU T-Will).
But here's the rub: our active army is about 485,000. We currently have committed 369,000 around the world. WAY WAY too high a %. Which is why we've been forced to rely on reserve and national guard forces.
Spike mentions how units were deployed in WWII. Yeah, units can be deployed indefinitely. But it's not pretty. Especially not when fighting an insurgent war that might go for another DECADE.
And of course this brings the issue of our army being a volunteer organization into question.
Anyone think a high percentage of our forces will sign on for a 10 year deployment? With no chance of returning home?
The basic truth of the situation is that our forces are wearing out. They are over deployed. We need a larger force or a small number of international commitments.
Yes our military can be called upon to make WWII level sacrifices as Spike suggests and they will do so if asked because that's the kind of folks they are.
But is this really a national emergency on the scale of WWII? If it is, then we need a draft, a huge influx of men and material to fix vehicles that badly need it.
If it isn't. BRING THEM HOME.