…from Germany. Or Japan, or Italy, Korea, or possibly Kuwait.

Anyone supporting the Democrats “Campaign for Defeat” doesn’t have a comprehensive view of how we deploy U.S. troops around the world. According to CNN and the Heritage Foundation, we have half as many troops in Germany as we do in Iraq, double in Germany than Afghanistan. A boat load in South Korea, tons in Japan and Italy—two countries that we put a hurt on, occupied, and continue to have a presence some 60 years later. Why would we still have tens of thousands of troops in a country we defeated over a half-century ago, adjacent to a country who’s threat dematerialized nearly 20 years ago? Maybe its because we find it in our strategic interest.

Now I know you probably don’t think that it’s a fair comparison between troops at bases and hospitals and the troops in active combat in Iraq, but that’s not my point. I’m just shaking my head at those who thought that we could somehow just leave Iraq altogether with no future military presence. Our army has never done that, except when we lost the Vietnam War.

We need to say to our brave fighting men and women that we stand behind them, that we won’t play politics with their lives and families, and that we want our generals to execute the path to victory. We need to tell the Iraqi people that if they want freedom, we’re there to help.  And we need to tell our leaders in Congress that it’s shameful and unpatriotic to tie funding the troops to pork-barrel projects in their districts.