Dude Where's My Troops? Pentagon Loses Track Of 44,000 Soldiers | Zero Hedge
Description: US troops are stationed in literally every nation on the earth and the Pentagon can't account for 44,000 of them, according to a new DoD report...
Keywords: Zero Hedge,Zerohedge,Finance,Economics,Markets,Politics,Analysis,Afghanistan,Germany,Iraq,Japan,Middle East,Newspaper,None,The Onion
Date: 2017-12-09T00:00:00Z

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# Dude Where's My Troops? Pentagon Loses Track Of 44,000 Soldiers

by Tyler Durden
Dec 9, 2017 7:00 PM
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"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force," said Thomas Jefferson in an 1807 letter to Chandler Price. And what would the nation's third president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence say of today's American "global force" deployed across the earth?

America's "global military presence" is not hyperbole, but a literal fact, as a new Department of Defense study has found that US military personnel are stationed in literally every nation on the earth. The report bluntly confirms that, "The United States has military personnel in nearly every country in the world, ranging from two liaison officers in Fiji to tens of thousands from all of the service branches in Japan and Germany, according to the report."

But perhaps more important and equally absurd (when one considers the original beginnings of the humble "republic" envisioned by founders like Madison and Jefferson) is the fact that America's world-wide military presence is such that the Pentagon itself can't track how many US service members are deployed where. A new bombshell article in Stars and Stripes military newspaper is non-ironically headlined, "Report: 44,000 ‘unknown’ military personnel stationed around the world".

The Stripes article opens with a line that would seem straight out of the Onion, yet matter-of-factly states, "The U.S. military has more than 44,000 troops across the globe that the Pentagon claims it cannot track, according to a recent report."

The Pentagon's system for accounting troop deployment numbers, maintained by the Defense Manpower Data Center under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, lists up to 44,000 troops in a country location category labeled "Unknown".

The report has come to light after a series of recent Pentagon press briefings on military actions in the Middle East and Africa which left journalists scratching their heads. For example the latest DoD admission that there are "about 2,000 troops in Syria" - four times the previously acknowledged figure - came after a late October Pentagon presser wherein an Army spokesman told reporters that 4,000 troops were deployed to Syria, after which he awkwardly walked back the statement less than 30 seconds later, saying "I'm sorry I mispoke there - there are approximately 500 troops in Syria".

And when news broke of the October 4 ambush and deaths of four elite Green Beret soldiers in Niger, the immediate reaction voiced among congressional leaders and echoed generally in the media was: "we have troops in Niger?" - after which it came to light that the US has at least 6,000 military personnel spread across the African continent, though few knew of AFRICOM's (US Africa Command) dangerously burgeoning number of undisclosed daily missions.

Where are they? Image source: US Marine Corps

“We are not at a point where we can give numbers other than those officially stated,” said Army Col. Rob Manning, quoted in Stripes. Though as Stripes acknowledges it appears that this is due more to the Pentagon simply not knowing where it has stationed thousands of troops rather than the officially stated reasons of "secrecy" and force protection from enemies. The Army spokesman further asserted, “Our commitment is to be as transparent as we can, within the constraints of operation security,” but it's also that case that, "The Pentagon acknowledged in a statement that it has no good way to track how many service members are stationed overseas, where they are and when they were there," according to Stripes.

A Pentagon statement also ambiguously acknowledged that its troop tracking methods will inevitably miscalculate the locations of its roughly 1.3 million total personnel across all branches, based on the worrisome reasoning that "there is no easy way to track all deployments":

> “There is no one personnel system in the [Defense Department] that tracks the daily location of all DoD personnel. There is no easy way to track all deployments, training exercises, TDY (being attached to another unit for training or specific missions, typically for less than six months) or temporary assignments,” according to the statement. “If you take the total numbers assigned in the United States and assigned overseas, and add the ‘Unknown,’ you get the total force numbers for each service.”

The report also comes after President Trump unveiled a new Afghan strategy last summer, saying the US would not pull out of the now 16-year long war but would instead inject more troops into the country for increased anti-terror operations. According to recent statements from the Pentagon, the total number of US soldiers in Afghanistan has risen to about 14,000, though accounting procures have been especially unclear concerning the nation's longest running war.

When Secretary of Defense James Mattis was asked during a news conference last summer about troops levels in Afghanistan he said, “There’s a very strange accounting procedure I inherited... What I’m probably going to end up doing is out putting everyone into one thing and saying, ‘Here’s how many are really there now."

And none of this addresses the even greater numbers of civilian contractors in global hot spots where America is present. According to Stripes, "The United States maintains 23,659 contractors in Afghanistan and 4,609 in Iraq, according to a fourth-quarter 2017 report from the Defense Department."

Given that we learned this week of 44,000 troops stationed in locations the Pentagon itself deems "unknown", perhaps we are long overdue for a massive drawback of overseas forces and bloated military budgets? Of course if the Pentagon can't find them in the first place, it might be hard to bring them home.

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## Comment viewing options

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Bigly Dec 9, 2017 7:04 PM

Damn, we are stoopid

WTFRLY Bigly Dec 9, 2017 7:08 PM

Nope, on special Joo World Order deployment. The Joomanji is here.

Doña K WTFRLY Dec 9, 2017 7:18 PM

They are not missing. They are embedded with ISIS

BullyDog Doña K Dec 9, 2017 7:24 PM

Some russian leader was Putin some bombs on their heads today. Wouldn't is be ironic if 44k were truly missing, How could you create a big enough FF to cover up their deaths? Nothing I can think off other than a nuke or two going off near NK.

knukles BullyDog Dec 9, 2017 7:36 PM

Have no fear Wonder Dog is here!

Look .... I mean I can understand maybe 44,000 pallets of toilet paper or $44,000 in cash 1,ooo's of times over but to misplace that many troopies?

Ah hah! Let me get this started for the UFO community. The 44,000 people are on off planet duty that was hacked by Gary McKinnon.

Bfhtzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzt

Psssß

philipat Doña K Dec 9, 2017 7:27 PM

And other places where there are allegedly no "boots on the ground"?

Alternatively, these "shadow employees" might be one of the mechanisms used to cream off funds contributing to the missing DOD Trillions?

debtor of last ... Doña K Dec 9, 2017 7:29 PM

Hiding under MtGox.

nmewn Bigly Dec 9, 2017 7:16 PM

This has got to be one of the stupidest articles to ever appear on ZH.

SoilMyselfRotten nmewn Dec 9, 2017 7:19 PM

Psst...Syria would be a good place to start

Not Too Important nmewn Dec 9, 2017 7:37 PM

When Rome was collapsing, HQ left the legions where they were, so they couldn't come home and 'sort things out'.

What if wars are started all over the planet, requiring great masses of US troops - necessitating a huge draft - and while America's finest are overseas fighting and dying the US borders are opened to the Muslims in the millions like Europe? There wouldn't be enough capable here to stop them.

Even the National Guard units are sent overseas, when they're supposed to be here to protect the homeland.

A Democrat's/RINO's dream. Just a thought...

Mustafa Kemal Bigly Dec 9, 2017 7:33 PM

"Damn, we are stoopid"
This is not stupid. It is deliberate. When they cant account for them, they do not have to tell you what they are up to. Making the word safe for Democracy I think

veritas semper ... Bigly Dec 9, 2017 7:44 PM

Well,they "lost" 6 or 7 Trillion $; 2,3 trillion announced on Sept 10th 2001,when the comtroller was the Rabbi Dov Zakheim,who latter left for Is...Ra..El,I think.

Imagine that cohen-incidence

Caveman93 Dec 9, 2017 7:04 PM

MIC drop and went away. Good for them!

Anasteus Caveman93 Dec 9, 2017 7:26 PM

Where are they?.. Well, Russians performed many successful attacks on ISIS positions in Syria this year.

Son of Captain Nemo Dec 9, 2017 7:08 PM

They are probably located in the same place the $2.3 trillion of the DOD budget went missing on September 10, 2001 when the Secretary of Defense broke the bad news to the American taxpayer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4GdHLUHwU)

The day before EVERYTHING changed!...

junction Son of Captain Nemo Dec 9, 2017 7:12 PM

Those missing soldiers are almost certainly getting their paychecks direct deposited into a bank account. Not only Iraq has phantom soldiers. I wonder how many federal retirement checks Rumsfeld gets. One is not enough for him, for sure.

Son of Captain Nemo junction Dec 9, 2017 7:20 PM

Lets make an early pre-Xmas wish junc that they are one big sleeper cell ready to go "medieval" on Washington D.C.'s BUTTOCKS!...

With the right talent and equipment including fighter and attack jets to take the entire city out!...

That would probably be just enough to avert a catastrophic World War anywhere in the Middle East, Asia or Eastern Europe right about now after the President pouring gasoline on the fire with the "Capital of Israel" speech he laid on U.S. two days ago!!!

Freddie junction Dec 9, 2017 7:43 PM

Many are probably named Trayvon.

Not Too Important Son of Captain Nemo Dec 9, 2017 7:22 PM

Fearless Independent Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed Director of the FBI EXACTLY one week before 9/11 - 7 days.

Is Trump capable of fixing fucked?

Son of Captain Nemo Not Too Important Dec 9, 2017 7:34 PM

"Is Trump capable of fixing fucked?"...

The only thing Trump knows how to "fuck" is his own hotel "empire" and 13 year old girls (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3894806/Woman-alleged-raped-Dona...)!...

And the "State" of Israel IS LOVIN IT!!!

Mustafa Kemal Son of Captain Nemo Dec 9, 2017 7:35 PM

"udget went missing on September 10, 2001 when the Secretary of Defense broke the bad news to the American taxpayer "

Oh Jeeeez, we forgot about that. Well, dont worry, there is more where that came from

MozartIII Dec 9, 2017 7:05 PM

Not in the US. Yet...

Son of Captain Nemo Dec 9, 2017 7:14 PM

Somebody find out where they are before they start killing each other (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/30/navy-seals-investi...) (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/world/asia/uss-john-mccain-victims-co...)!...

Some more (http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2007/07/30/who-killed-pat-tillman/)!!!

Lost in translation Dec 9, 2017 7:08 PM

Did they ever exist to begin with?

Or were they paper brigades?

MuffDiver69 Lost in translation Dec 9, 2017 7:10 PM

Yeah...I think Mattis knows he’s got a much weaker military then even he believed in more ways then one..

nobodyimportant MuffDiver69 Dec 9, 2017 7:27 PM

You need to consult a grammer book about proper use of THEN and THAN.

Also check out "he's got".

thanks

cherry picker Dec 9, 2017 7:08 PM

They are sitting on a beach somewhere living off their pay checks and not giving a hoot about military.

MuffDiver69 Dec 9, 2017 7:09 PM

Bravo to General Mattis. If anyone will clean this crap up I hope he can do it. They just announced an audit, but this has been deliberately kept confusing as we know and I believe he will crack some heads..It’s gonna be that much harder because Congress loves it this way..

Not Too Important MuffDiver69 Dec 9, 2017 7:31 PM

The military/GAO has never completed a military audit.

It's like DC hiding pedos, there are too many people with their fingers in the pie.

Freddie Not Too Important Dec 9, 2017 7:44 PM

Just like an audit of the Rothschild's federal reserve bank or an audit of the EU in Brussels which is also owned by the Rothschilds-Soros.

maneco Dec 9, 2017 7:10 PM

They cannot account for around $21 trillion either!

dirty fingernails maneco Dec 9, 2017 7:13 PM

That's why the Dotard keeps flogging the MIC budget. They need MOAR. Ever MOAR.

Glassport Dec 9, 2017 7:10 PM

I didn't know we had military stationed in North Korea.

dirty fingernails Glassport Dec 9, 2017 7:11 PM

Not officially *in* NK, but as close as we can get them. For a nation of people who can't find their hometown on a map, that counts as "in"

Glassport dirty fingernails Dec 9, 2017 7:14 PM

Hell, I bet we've got 'em in all 57 states too.

Not Too Important Glassport Dec 9, 2017 7:31 PM

And they're about to tip Guam over.

Idaho potato head Glassport Dec 9, 2017 7:40 PM

Or Australia or Austria, or one of those places....

ImGumbydmmt Glassport Dec 9, 2017 7:33 PM

And Iran!

and China!

and....... Russia!....... collusion?

dirty fingernails Dec 9, 2017 7:10 PM

Off the record deployments

Chupacabra-322 Dec 9, 2017 7:11 PM

Ha! Pentagram has a knack for losing track of shit. Like the 2.3 Trillion Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath Donald Rumsfeld declared missing on 9/10/2001. A day before the False Flag of 911.

disagreeableness Dec 9, 2017 7:11 PM

Perfect scenario for blockchain

Brazen Heist Dec 9, 2017 7:11 PM

They're here

https://www.acq.osd.mil/log/PS/.CENTCOM_reports.html/5A_October2017_Fina...

44,000 PMCs on CENTCOM's payroll....sheesh, did I have to do the Pentagon's research or what.

swmnguy Dec 9, 2017 7:16 PM

Three possibilities, and indeed all could be true at least in part. One is that the oldest scam since the invention of armies is to claim pay, equipment and supplies for soldiers who don't exist, or aren't in army anymore (in some cases because they're dead). Another possibility is that these soldiers are in place they're not supposed to be, in violation of any number of agreements, treaties and laws.

The third is simple incompetence, reinforced by the fact the US military has so much money nobody cares.

Remember, all could be true.

topspinslicer Dec 9, 2017 7:18 PM

Maybe they are with the missing nine trillion fiat

slobug Dec 9, 2017 7:22 PM

44k troops... 21 trillion dollars... nothing to see here

RayKu Dec 9, 2017 7:22 PM

Two words; black operations.

Able Ape Dec 9, 2017 7:23 PM

It's the Ninja Division [they get paid with Bitcoin]...

European American Dec 9, 2017 7:27 PM

Maybe the "missing" figured out who the "pimps" are and who the "whores" are and went awol.

Txpl9421 Dec 9, 2017 7:28 PM

Track them on the block chain.

MusicIsYou Dec 9, 2017 7:29 PM

Oh fcking well, you let a bunch of chimpanzees run your country you deserve what you get.

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