Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!elroy!cit-vax!kevin
From: kevin@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Kevin S. Van Horn)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Pigs will be pigs...
Message-ID: <9411@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 4 Feb 89 20:21:55 GMT
References: <602276265.amon@H.GP.CS.CMU.EDU> <7570@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: kevin@cit-vax.UUCP (Kevin S. Van Horn)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 23

In article <7570@ihlpf.ATT.COM> lukas@ihlpf.UUCP (00771g-Lukas,J.) writes:
>>PS: And while you are at it, why not push for kicking ALL of our troops
>>off of European soil and waters and airspace? The $50,000,000,000 or
>>so saved per year would wipe out the US national debt [...]
>
>Since the debt is increasing at over $100G a year, "wiping out" is a
>little strong - but it sure would help! :^)  However, I suspect that
>a unilateral, immediate withdrawal would actually increase the risk
>of war.

Actually, "wiping out" is correct, because the original poster's figure
was too low -- $150 billion is a more accurate figure.  But if you don't
like a unilateral, immediate withdrawal, how about a unilateral, phased
withdrawal, to give the Europeans time to strengthen their own defenses.
Given that the Western Europeans are on the spot (instead of being
thousands of miles away like the U.S.) and have a total population and
total GNP exceeding the U.S.'s, it should be clear that they can do a
much better job of defending themselves than the U.S. ever can.

One more point -- doesn't it bother you that the average American pays
more for the defense of West Germany than the average West German does?

Kevin S. Van Horn