Turnabout on Troops Abroad

[papau]

Two paths - Bush's emphasizing U.S. freedom of action or Kerry's focusing on cooperation with allies.

As Bush changes the sales pitch from whether we are better off than we were four years ago, to will we be even better off four years from now - but as always - with no details as to why we'd be better off four years from now with Bush.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-reverse18aug18.story

Turnabout on Troops Abroad
The proposal to reduce U.S. military presence overseas has parties switching traditional roles -- and raises new fears of unilateralism.
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

August 18, 2004

WASHINGTON — The initial skirmishing over President Bush's proposal to bring home thousands of U.S. troops based in Europe and Asia spotlights the continued reshaping of the foreign policy debate provoked by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the administration's response to them.

At home, the initiative has caused the two major political parties to switch positions. Democrats who long championed reducing U.S. troop commitments abroad now question the idea, while Bush is defending reductions with arguments like those Bill Clinton used against the president's father in the 1992 campaign.

In the U.S. and elsewhere, the plan has triggered responses that are a reverse of concerns about troop reductions expressed during the waning years of the Cold War and its aftermath in the 1990s.

At that time, the greatest resistance to retrenching the U.S. military's foreign presence came from those who feared that such moves would lead America to withdraw from the world. Now, the proposal is evoking the greatest worry among those who think it will lead America to intervene in other countries more aggressively — and less cooperatively.

In short, though proposals like Bush's once sparked fears of American isolationism, they now are igniting concerns about unilateralism.<snip>

Top 10 nations where troops are stationed:

Germany: 71,592

South Korea: 39,707

Japan: 34,695

Italy: 14,052

Britain: 11,467

Kuwait: 6,100

Guam: 2,450

Spain: 3,758

Turkey: 1,772

Note: Does not include more than 70,000 on ships or 1,500 whose station is unknown. Troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are deployed there, not permanently stationed.

Sources: Department of Defense, Chicago Tribune