OT: Defending the Border

Deployment of Active Duty U.S. Military Personnel

Iraq........................................192,600 Germany..................................66,418 Japan.......................................35,571 Korea, Republic of ..................30,983 Afghanistan ..............................19,500 Italy..........................................11,841 United Kingdom .......................10,752 Qatar........................................ 463 Thailand.................................... 114 China........................................ 67 Philippines................................. 55 Zimbabwe................................. 7 Angola...................................... 5 U.S. Borders. .......................... 0

Federal Dept./Agency Manpower Budget

HHS.................................. 63,413 $676.9 billion Agriculture......................... 112,071 $96.3 billion Interior.............................. 77,557 $9.3 billion EPA................................. 18,000 $7.6 billion Transportation.................. 57,130 $64.6 billion Energy............................. 15,021 $21.0 billion Border Patrol.................. 11,300 $1.4 billion

Aren't the National Guard considered military?

I'm also very interested to know what it is that those 5 guys in Angola are getting done.

-Tom.

'Aardvark'

Yes, but until they are called, they are not on 'active duty.'

Only two others really know, and now you know who those two are.

Who is guarding gitmo?

Isn't there a problem with troops on the border according to the Posse Comitatus Act? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

Any way, it's the same old story every time. 'Out of sight, out of mind' or 'The squeaky wheel gets the grease', etc. Alarms were raised about the out of control border situation for years but it took the Minutemen Project shoving the issue right into the politicians' faces for the subject to get the attention it deserved. If the spotlight is kept on it then the funding and resources will increase greatly. Just another example of the poor performance of our 'leaders'. At least they are right on top of the flag burning and gay marriage issue.

Btw: Why do we maintain so many troops in Germany? And what's up with the ones in the UK?

Howard Beale

They are almost certainly UN observers in a multinational force who are ensuring compliance with the peace treaty (or cease fire, not sure which), between South Africa and Angola.

Germany is still home to a ton of cold war NATO bases. They are quite useful to keep, given that they no longer have to worry about Soviet attack, but can still launch strikes on a large portion of Europe/Asia and provide a safe staging/training ground.

Not entirely sure. Mostly Air Force, I'm sure.