I was talking with a friend, mulling over the latest tragic news in Afghanistan and the accompanying news that, "the President is reviewing our exit strategy." Or words to that effect.
May I be rude and offer a more comprehensive exit strategy, Mr. President?
How about our exit from, say, South Korea? As I understand it, we still have roughly the same number of American GIs there as back when I was there, and that was 1958 to 1959, five years after the shooting stopped and when Ouijongbu (of M.A.S.H. fame) was a village. Now it's a subway stop from Seoul, one of the largest and most modern cities in the world.
I used to clear Seoul in about 15 minutes with the Korean police waving us through.
And if that seems imprudent, given North Korea still weird version of tyranny, then why not bring half of them home?
And while I'm at it, may I ask why are we still in Okinawa, if for any other reason than to serve as a wonderful destination for career military families seeking gracious accommodations, beautiful beaches, and gigantic PX's? And where else might we still be? Germany, Italy? Surely we don't need to be there, at least not in anything more than a token presence? Iceland?
Why is it that leaving, getting out, and coming back home has become unthinkable? We left Vietnam, eventually, and Laos, pretty quickly. Why can't we leave all of these other distant places? Is it possible that, while we at home pretend hat we are out there because of what might happen out there, the truth is that long ago our reasons have shifted.
Now we are Empire, much as George Bush thought we are Empire, and we're staying because leaving would leave us feeling diminished and lost. What would we do with ourselves if we were to bring the troops, the civilians, the contractors, and everyone else, home, finally home?
Then we can't avert our gaze from the needs we have right in front of our nose: our highways, our still-wasteful cars, our insane dependence on oil and gas, and our shameful lack of planning for the next world that we must come to inhabit, or else everything goes to pot.