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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
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For release: July 25, 1997
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For additional information:
George Getz, Deputy Director of Communications
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: 76214.3676@CompuServe.com
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... From A to Z ... Australia to Zimbabwe ...
U.S. troops were sent to 100 nations in '97
WASHINGTON, DC -- Feel threatened by Iceland? Don't worry --
the U.S. military has troops stationed in the tiny island nation to
protect us from danger.
And just to be on the safe side, we also sent some troops to
Qatar...and Madagascar...and Sri Lanka.
And Ghana, and Mozambique, and Kazakhstan, and Burma, and
Namibia -- and 91 other countries that most Americans can't pronounce,
much less locate on a map, the Libertarian Party noted today.
"In all, our government sent troops to 100 nations over the
past 90 days," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national chairman. "From
A to Z -- Australia to Zimbabwe -- American soldiers are roaming the
world, doing everything but defending our country."
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Army boasted about reaching a
"new milestone," with troops deployed in 100 nations around the world,
according to a press release issued by the Army's Public Affairs office
in Washington, DC.
"In other words, American soldiers were deployed in more than
half the countries on the globe -- 100 of the world's 197 nations,
according to Army figures," said Dasbach. "That isn't a national
defense -- it's a national offense. It's an offense against U.S.
taxpayers, who are paying huge amounts of money for a global case of
military mission creep."
The number of countries with a U.S. military presence has
fallen slightly this week, to only 92 countries. Over the past 30 days,
more than 26,778 U.S. troops were deployed somewhere around the world.
And in most of those 92 countries, the deployments had nothing
whatsoever to do with U.S. security, noted Dasbach.
"Our armed forces have become the world's referee, all-purpose
handyman, and heavily armed Good Samaritan," he said. For example,
American troops were sent to...
* Haiti -- to dig water wells.
* Congo -- to evacuate 57 people and one dog.
* Morocco -- to supervise a civil war cease-fire.
* Cambodia and Laos -- to clear land mines.
* Micronesia -- to build a warehouse.
* Egypt -- to monitor the Israel/Egypt demilitarized zone.
* Belize -- to renovate schools and roads.
* Ecuador and Peru -- to monitor a disputed border region.
But it gets worse, said Dasbach: "In order to keep our soldiers
busy, politicians have decided to make American troops the world's
environmental police."
For example, the government is now planning to send U.S. troops
to 32 Latin American and Caribbean nations -- to guard rain forests in
Brazil, protect endangered species in Venezuela, and build nature parks
in Colombia.
"Can Americans sleep better at night because our soldiers are
guarding a South American rain forest?" asked Dasbach. "Is this why
Americans each pay $1,000 a year in military taxes?"
The solution, said Dasbach, is to change that 100-nation
deployment into a one-nation deployment: The United States of America.
"Libertarians have a message for politicians and military
leaders," he said. "Bring our boys back from Bahrain. Return them from
Romania. Pull out of Poland. Withdraw from West Samoa. Depart from
Djibouti. Retire from Rwanda. Exit from Ecuador. Vacate Vietnam. Leave
Luxembourg. And bid farewell to France.
"It's time we stopped sending troops to an alphabet-soup
collection of obscure nations around the world. It's time that American
troops just defended the USA -- and that doesn't stand for the Ukraine,
Singapore, & Australia."
The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072