That's a good sentiment Bill, but the problem is foreign nations simply do not provide the same level of qualify of life we expect Americans to receive. A few examples...
1. Shopping at the NEX and Commissary is a real bonus for military personnel, especially now that the Euro is so high relative to the dollar.
2. Hospital care is beyond sub par in most areas of Europe and especially in seriously underdeveloped areas. That means building hospitals to take care of military personnel and family members. Triage type care can be dealt with on an emergency basis, but what I am talking about is all the other kind of care. Like hearing, eye care, OBGYN etc.
3. Gymnasiums, Europeans don't have the kind of infrastructure to support large scale work out centers like the military provides. I remember reading some of you old farts complaining about kids not working out these days, well, obviously you haven't visited a military gym lately and witnessed first hand the muscle bound kids who bench 300 pounds at a crack. Kids lift weights these days. They may be allot fatter than a generation ago, but they are also a heck of allot stronger than the wimps from your generation and the drug induced Vietnam era. By the way, adults are allot fatter too, so why don't you old farts lead by example and quit munching on those chips (not you of course Bill because I know you're an in-shape dancing machine. :)
4. Housing in most of the world stinks compared to the most basic of living quarters in America. Most Americans would last maybe six months living in European homes and raising a family, then they would want to go home in a hurry.
It's no secret that in the military some of the hardest billets to fill are the overseas billets. People want to live in America, so in order to encourage people to accept those billets the services have had to bring America to them overseas. Bottom line, all these things take a tremendous amount of planning, money and personnel to staff and make work effectively. The sentiment is great; implementation is the difficult side of the equation and one I don't think anyone has been able to affectively address.
And I haven't even discussed the SOFA agreements and political decisions which go into moving bases around. Suffice to say, it's a nightmare. |
