200,000 U.S. Troops Are Now Currently Deployed To 177 Nations At 800 Bases

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Zero Hedge: America First? 200,000 Troops Deployed To 177 Nations

There was no shortage of cuts proposed in Trump’s budget for 2018, which was released earlier this week. However, as Visual Capitalist's Jeff Desjardins notes, one of the few departments that did not receive a haircut was the Department of Defense. If the proposed budget ultimately passes in Congress, the DoD would be allocated an extra $54 billion in federal funding – a 10% increase that would be one of the largest one-year defense budget increases in American History.

To put the proposed increase in context, the United States already spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined. Meanwhile, the additional $54 billion is about the size of the United Kingdom’s entire defense budget.

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Al Jazeera Finds Another US Military 'Anti-Islam Class'

US Military Under Fire For 'Anti-Islam Class' -- Al Jazeera

Pentagon orders review of all training classes after exposure of course presenting negative views of Muslims.

The United States military has called for a review of all its training classes after receiving criticism for a course taught to senior officers that allegedly encouraged war against Islam.

The controversial class presented slides that accused dozens of Islamic groups, many widely recognised as mainstream advocacy groups, of infiltrating the US media, education system, government and military.

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Update: 'Hamas has infiltrated the U.S. government and the rules of war no longer apply': SECOND anti-Muslim class run by military officials revealed -- Daily Mail

My Comment: So Al Jazeera regards CAIR as a mainstream group .... hmmmm .... my Muslim friends say otherwise. But this ignores the other point which is that these classes are clearly not giving an accurate picture to the US military on how Islamic teachings and writings are being used by extremist Islamic groups to preach and legitimize jihad and war against the West and other individuals and groups (including against fellow Muslims) who do not share their point of view. Until that is done, we will continue to wage war against an enemy that we do not understand .... and what is worse .... we will end up alienating our Muslim allies.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Martin Dempsey has promised an extensive review .... my suggestion to him is that this is 10 years too late, and that he better "hurry it up".

U.S. Military Exercise Goes All Wrong

Exercise: U.S paratroopers jump out of a military airplane on Wednesday in a massive airborne drop exercise that left dozens injured

Dozens Of U.S. Paratroopers Injured After Parachute Jump During Mock Battle Goes Horrifically Wrong -- Daily Mail

* Reports 13 paratroopers suffered head, spine and pelvic injuries during the training exercise

Dozens of U.S. Army paratroopers have been hurt during a massive airborne drop in Germany.

Sixteen of the 47 injured men are still in hospital, two of them in intensive care after the jump involving 1,000 soldiers went terribly wrong. They suffered head, spine and pelvic injuries.

The exercise pitted soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade in a mock-battle scenario with Slovakian soldiers and American troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team over the Hohenfels training area in Bavaria, southern Germany.

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My Comment: What caught my eye was the following ....

.... She explained an injury rate of up to 3 per cent is normal in this type of exercise.

In short .... jumping out of airplanes in a military exercise will cause injuries, and it should not surprise us.