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Monday, April 23, 2018

U.S. troops in Djibouti. Find it on a map. Can one, by simple googling discover easily such facts as: what is the size and rank distribution of the military officer corps: what is the personnel count of active duty troops; what is the size of the Natonal Guard; what is the military payroll; what is the military budget for materiel and maintenance; what is the number of troops drawing combat duty pay; etc.? Good luck trying. Is hiding a factor or is it just too big to be efficient, even at disclosing detail of its size? If you vote for hiding; welcome to the club.

One big question, what is the number of foreign military bases and does any nation have more than Germany, now, over half a century after World War II? How much money is troop deployment and basing there pumping into this incredibly prosperous nation's economy while stateside good high paying jobs are scarce and infrastructure crumbles?

A fistful of links dancing about the clay feet of the beast: here, here, here, here, here.

A fair objection, these links are to collateral online resources, just go onto the Defense Department website and get the answers, clearly presented, distinctly marshaled.

Here 'tis.

Good luck, tiger. If you find the name of the Secretary of Defense, gold star, but what about the money and the body count and the base count; how many last year were up, how many out?

Find that, two simple numbers.

Djibouti. I suppose if we don't find 'em and fight 'em in Djibouti, we'll have to fight 'em on the streets of Ham Lake, Minnesota. But 'em? Who dat? The Russians again since first cold war was such a profit? The never ending terrorists, cause of the never ending War on Terror?

Pick a ...stan, any ...stan, and what's the U.S. base count and number of U.S. troops in such a former Soviet Union nation? How about Turkestan? Turkmenistan? Do either of them have vast mineral wealth we are able to exploit so that we need not poison the Boundary Waters? Why else would we be there? Hearts and minds? What's the story? Cannot Fethullah Gülen skin his own rats? He's money enough for madrassas, so what about armed troops, on his dime?