With all the talk about the "fiscal cliff" and cuts to social programs, I haven't heard anyone mentioning the amount of money spent on our far flung "empire" of military bases.

The United States maintains 702 military 'installations' in 63 foreign countries (it has 4,471 bases altogether), according to the Defense Department's annual budget statement.

These figures don't include bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. . While the total cost of these bases is kept secret, their are estimates that their ten-year cost at approximately $1 trillion.

Do we really need a military presence in Germany, Italy and Japan 65 years after WWII ended? We are overextending ourselves maintaining these bases and if history proves correct this overextending will eventually bring us down. Look at the great empires of the past and where they are today. Rome, Spain, France and England all at one time had far flung outposts around the world. Look where those countries are today.

A few years back we had BARC here in the United States. It stood for base realignment and closure. The results were the elimination of many outdated and unnecessary military installations in the country. Let's do the same on a global basis, save some money, and bring a lot of our troops back home.