The Walking Dead: Why The Military Failed To Stop The Zombie Apocalypse – Den of Geek

All that you cant leave behind

It wont be just National Guard and reservists who have to make tough choices between protecting their own and answering the call of duty. The United States currently has a military presence in 150 countries, with over 233,000 active duty forces currently stationed overseas, in territories, or outside the contiguous 48 states. Thats before factoring in combat forces currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is a significant amount of manpower, and an even more significant amount of matriel. The units deployed outside of the United States tend to be the more combat-capable units, as part of force projection against the Russians in Europe, China in Asia, and North Korea on the Korean peninsula.

Give or take a Baltic nation, the U.S. is currently involved in mutual defense treaties with 49 countries. For some countries, that just means if they get attacked, the other countries in the treaty jump in and help. For others, it means that the United States is their primary defense partner, and no one else is coming to the aid of, say, South Korea or Japan. Even assuming the United States could pull all of these people, plus their families and children, back into the country in an attempt to reinforce defenses, would they even want to?

The countries the United States has a significant presence in tend to be important partners. The United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia if the U.S. is hanging out there, theres a reason for it, and all very compelling reasons. If nothing else, a lot of money has been spent on infrastructure and equipment that no general officer would be happy about blowing up as part of a return to isolationism. Leaving that sort of armament behind would be a non-starter, if only to protect national security and military secrets.

One of the reasons why the Governor was such a formidable opponent for Rick Grimes was due to weapons and equipment looted from a National Guard unit abandoning a refugee camp; now imagine if he had access to every piece of equipment the United States currently has stationed in Germany. In the absence of a strong chain of commandmeaning the President, Vice President, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and everyone else who carries weight is no longer capable of making decisions due to being eatengenerals will be faced with hard choices about either trying to return to the United States or holing up in a country where the situation might be better (or worse) than whats going on back home.

And then, theres the nuclear question. The United States might not confirm this, but there are nuclear weapons stationed throughout Europe. The most recent number leaked in the media is 150 in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, and the Netherlands. However, if theres a U.S. military presence, theres a good chance at some point a nuclear weapon could have been stationed there, either as part of a launchable warhead or as part of a nuclear payload for a submarine or long-range bomber. Nukes are everywhere, and even the people responsible for launching them might not be in the know.

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The Walking Dead: Why The Military Failed To Stop The Zombie Apocalypse - Den of Geek

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero