A great deal of consternation was raised by pulling 2,000 troops out of Syria suddenly (and allowing Turkey to invade). The explanation was that the country didn’t want any more useless wars and US soldiers dying in the Middle East, or something to that effect. The rumored reason for the rapid pullout was that Turkey gave up the location of the ISIS leader Bagdatti in order to push the Kurds back within Syria to a suitable buffer zone (according to the Turks). That might explain the sudden pullback better than the no more conflict explanation. In fact, of the 2,000 troops, pulled out, about 1,000 are back in guarding the oil facilities the Kurds have. We also believe that the 1,000 others were not sent home, but sent to Iraq. In fact since the beginning of the year, the US has sent 14,000 additional troops into the Middle East. That brings the total amount in the region to 54,000.
The Middle Eastern deployment though is only part of the story. We have 6,000 to 7,000 troops currently deployed in Africa. We also have 28,000 stationed in South Korea, many of them living with their families. There are also 50,000 troops in Japan, stationed in about two dozen bases. 25,000 of those are in Okinawa. There used to be 300,000 troops in Europe during the cold war. Now there are only 30,000 in Western Europe, mainly located in Germany, and another 5,000 in Eastern Europe, with more expected to head to Poland. Not to be left out, there are 2,000 located in Australia, and 250 Special Forces working in Philippines, despite Duterte’s public distancing from the US.
So that is roughly 200,000 troops overseas. That is much less than the max amount of 1.2 million that were stationed back around 1967, many of which were located in Vietnam. It is easy to say we need to bring the boys back home, but the troops provide a stabilizing influence. Without them, other countries would fill in the vacuum and most likely make the world a much more dangerous place. Having a presence overseas has been the norm since World War 2, and the US has around 800 bases located outside the country to help in that regard. Thanks to all those that serve.