United States Militaristic Aid
As President-elect Trump comes into office, the nation, and the world, are watching apprehensively to see what his first course of action will be as commander-in-chief.
According to the latest Department of Defense data, the United States currently has over 150,000 troops stationed in foreign countries around the world. The most significant garrisons include troops in Japan (almost 50,000 soldiers), Germany (37,000), Italy (12,000), and South Korea (27,000). There are currently about 35,000 troops serving in the 20 nations in the Middle East region that comprise the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, according to Commander Elissa Smith, press officer for the Middle East at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. About 3,200 of those U.S. forces are in Iraq. The figures reported here include personnel serving in the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.
However, this number excludes countries such as Syria, Iran and Kuwait, where the United States does not want to disclose numbers of military personnel in these foreign countries and enflame host nation’s sensitivities.
President-elect Trump’s plan for foreign policy concerning military intervention is largely undetermined, although he has shown appreciation for Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.
As far as the US’s intervention in Afghanistan, little is known as to whether Trump will decide to continue in pursuing a stable democracy or choose to halt the United States’ intervention entirely. The issue received very little attention throughout the election cycle.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, in President Obama’s last year in office, the United States dropped 26,171 bombs in seven countries. We President-elect Trump has shown no intention of reducing this number, and has repeatedly voiced his enthusiasm for the use of bombing against ISIS, regardless of its random and devastating civilian casualties.
