President Obama’s plan to win the war election: bring the troops home!

by TrogloPundit | June 25, 2011 12:19 pm

So President Obama’s going to bring 30,000 or so military personnel home from Afghanistan just as soon as he’s done closing Guantanamo Bay.

No, wait, he said next Summer. He’s going to bring 30,000 troops home by next Summer.

Good idea? Militarily, I leave it to those with more information, knowledge, and experience than I have. Politically? This is a blockbuster.

In one fell swoop, President Obama will have at least partially fulfilled a campaign promise; done something to appease his base; created a self-sustaining economic stimulus (at least in a few places); and made thousands of potential voters very, very happy.

All less than six months before the election!

Let’s take those in reverse order. First, making voters happy. Hey, soldiers like coming home from war. Home is nice. Really nice. The food, the beer, the girls. Everybody falling all over themselves to show you how much they appreciate you.

And that’s just from the soldiers’ standpoints. Their families — wives and husbands, parents, siblings — will be ecstatic to have them home safe.

And who do they have to thank for that? Barack Obama, that’s who!

And if the soldiers and families are happy, how happy will those local economies be to have thousands of steady paychecks coming back?

My usual amount (about 5 minutes) of internet research didn’t turn up any definitive resource showing exactly which units are over there now, and which might be coming home. It did point me to this Army Times article from December[1], though, which listed several units deploying to Afghanistan in “early 2011.” Five different combat brigade teams are included.

A combat brigade team is around 3,300 soldiers, or so my (5 minutes of) research and math skills tell me. So. Let’s say the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division is coming back home to Fort Knox, Kentucky.

That’s over 3,000 people with regular paychecks suddenly landing on the local bars, restaurants, clothing stores, auto dealers, Radio Shacks, shopping malls, gas stations.

It’s like suddenly creating (or saving) 3,000 jobs!

Now multiply that by 10, and spread it around the country. Bam!

Silly? Maybe, but no more so than the other economic policies (sorry: I mean “policies”) coming out of the White House these days. And that doesn’t take into account all the economic activity created by liberal peaceniks going out to celebrate!

Speaking of those peaceniks — a.k.a. Obama’s base — Bush’s wars for oil were illegal and immoral. Thus ending them and bringing the troops home was the fierce moral imperative in 2008, and it’s finally coming true!

Also true: President Obama’s actions in Libya will dull whatever he does in the anti-Bush regard, but who knows? Maybe it’ll still feel like a victory lap.

As for fulfilling a promise, well, I admit: I can’t remember if he actually promised to end the wars and bring the troops home. But, feh. He implied it, even if he never said it, and the anti-war, anti-Bush Left expected it, no matter what. War fatigue contributed heavily to Obama’s victory, and the peacenik zealot demographic did, too.

As usual, this analysis (sorry: I mean “analysis”) leaves more questions than answers. Will it help, from Obama’s standpoint? If we’re still involved in…well, something in Libya? And maybe in Yemen? And we still have troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, even if it’s fewer troops? Should a presidential campaign still be “appeasing the base” in the Summer before Election Day? What if gas (and coffee[2]) prices eliminate whatever economic impact a returning brigade might otherwise have had?

Hell if I know. Just stay tuned.

Endnotes:
  1. this Army Times article from December: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/12/army-afghanistan-deployments-in-2011-122110w/
  2. coffee: http://troglopundit.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/why-doesnt-obama-release-some-of-our-strategic-java-reserve-why/

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