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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gamesmistress who wrote (87979)	3/30/2003 2:15:31 PM
From: KonKilo	Respond to of 281500

We no longer "run" Germany, Japan... True, we no LONGER run them, because they are now friendly and should the natives ever get restless, the military is right there ready to respond. Soft power as opposed to the hard power that got us there in the first place, but power nonetheless and in these two cases, almost undoubtedly the right thing to do for all concerned. The post that started this, my partial listing of our current military bases in places where we once fought, was a reply to another post that stated we would not be in Iraq for long, once the fighting dies down, and was intended to show some historical perspective on the subject. Keeping military bases abroad is a mixed bag, as you pointed out, with some notable successes and a few disappointments and tragedies. I would not expect to see us out of Iraq in my lifetime, unless it becomes untenable, as Vietnam did, which appears increasingly likely.