Report: U.S. May Cut by Half Its Forces in Germany

[Eye and Monkey]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-arms-usa-troops.html

By REUTERS

Published: March 25, 2004


Filed at 1:27 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon may cut half of the 71,000 troops based in Germany under a planned post-Cold War realignment of U.S. military forces abroad, The Washington Post reported on Thursday citing U.S. officials.

Under the draft plan, smaller bases would be set up in Romania and possibly Bulgaria and training facilities would be set up in Poland, the newspaper reported.

Bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that were established in 2001 to support the war in Afghanistan would be preserved as training sites and as quick staging areas for use in emergencies, the report said.

The Post said the Pentagon plan, which is nearing approval, also calls for new training and staging areas in Australia and expansion of military ties with Singapore and Thailand.

more -

[SoCalDem]

1. Rummy thinks he is punishing Germany, but I think they will

be kind of glad to have fewer US soldiers.. I know that some of the local economies might take a hit at first, but IF they can get the US to clean up the mess before they abandon the bases, they should be fine..

[Eye and Monkey]

2. Bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Can we note their proximity to any other "stan"? p-i-p-e-l-i-n-e.

[NV1962]

3. Bingo

The pipeline is a huge factor.

Also, it helps to read the PNAC's blueprint: to me it's clear they're moving along, using the newly submitted Iraq as the regional spring board in the Middle East, plus the new bases in the Transcaucasic region to aim at Russia's “soft underbelly” (and on the fly also exert control over the very strategic pipeline and its directly dependant markets, most notably Turkey) and move into a privileged position in South East Asia.

[lebkuchen]

4. Not to mention the building contracts Halliburton has there

and has had for some time.

[burrowowl]

5. U$ troops are going to love this

(sarcasm)
They won't be able to have their families with them, the bases won't be as complete, they will be less safe than in Germany, etc.
I wonder if the hospital will be kept?

[mouse7]

6. No real need for German bases any more.

German bases for US troops are so Cold War. What are US troops really defending Germany from now? Man-U soccer fans?

[ze_dscherman]

8. They will keep some important facilities

I was born in the region of the ominous Fulda Gap - a region close to the border to East Germany, supposedly the main battleground in case of a Warsaw pact invasion. It was densely packed with U.S. bases, so it was a common thing for me to wave to "Amis" riding their tanks to a manoeuver when I was a kid. Later, I did not feel protected by the U.S. troops, but threatened - not that they would attack us, but that the tension created by the Cold War made Germany not only a mere chess figure, but very probably a nuclear battleground.

So, U.S. (and British) troops in Germany indeed are very Cold War. But in fact, I fear that the Cold War is not really over. It has become less important, there are no "Commies" anymore, and it has shifted eastward. But still, Russia as a lot of oil and natural gas, and the fight for this ressource has only begun with moving the bases closer to the Russian mainland.

I don't know the exact planning, but I would take a strong guess that many the smaller bases will be closed, most of them in little industrialized regions, thus hitting local economy badly. The bigger bases will remain, because they play a crucial role in U.S. logistics. As well, they have expensive and long established infrastructure. Ramstein is the biggest U.S. airbase on foreign territory - and what goes on there is only controlled by the U.S. Spangdahlen airbase is home to the F-117A stealth bomber, with lots of underground hangars and bunkers. This base is/was(?) designed to replace much of the Frankfurt military airbase. Also, EUCOM near Stuttgard played a very important role in the Iraq war.

None of the activities, be it overflight of bombers, shipment and deployment of troops and material, or commanding activities, have been hindered during the Iraq war. What happens on the bases is completely out of German jurisdiction, military or civil control. Appeals to withdraw overflight rights (based on the German constitution that punishes any participation in wars of aggression and some NATO statutes) were immediately put down by both German government and courts. The Germans even provided German troops to replenish the guards to U.S. bases that had been deployed to Iraq. so much for Germany opposing the war ...

Oh, and I doubt the U.S. will be forced to clean up after they leave. At least, the Russians left a incredible mess after they drew out of Eastern Germany.

[LagaLover]

9. Good post, but some errors:

Spang is home to F-16s, NOT the F-117 which is home based at Holloman AFB, NM. Spang was NOT designed to replace Rhein Main AB near Frankfurt as RM was pretty much an airlift base; Ramstein is to pick up that load. HQ EUCOM in Stuttgart-Vaihingen is the HQ for all European and African US military operations. There role in the Iraqi war was not nearly as important as CENTCOM's Adan SOCOM's.

And BTW US, British and FRENCH troops in Germany were/are there because they OCCUPIED Germany--you lost WWII and that occupation did not officially end until the 1990s. Yes, they were there to prevent the Warsaw Pact from "invading" the West, but let's not forget what gave them the "right" to be on German soil.

[ze_dscherman]

11. Thanks for correction!

Seems my source got it wrong. And yes, these were occupational forces, but in official politics they were depicted as protectors - just like the Russians in Eastern Germany.

[burrowowl]

13. Protectors

that will be leaving a lot of pollution behind, just like the Russians.
The poor natives in Thule are sick of the pollution, but noone is paying attention. I think Thule got renewed, if I'm not mistaken?!

[Florida_Geek]

7. I love it, a few less military voters for *

Send your family home and you WON a two year tour in Tajikistan. :evilgrin:

[whiteroses]

10. Poland/Spain

Interesting!!! Wasn't Poland planning to remove their troops from Iraq following Spain's lead? After the President of Poland met recently with Bush he decided to keep his troops in Iraq. I wonder why!

[burrowowl]

14. I wonder if the USAF

will be leaving the Torrejon AFB just outside of Madrid!?
Or is it still needed to bomb Morocco and other areas in Africa or Europe.

[DulceDecorum]

12. Cut the soldiers to fund the mercenaries.

Last month, the Pentagon sent Congress an interim budget report saying the extra $225 monthly for the two pay categories was costing about $25 million more a month, or $300 million for a full year. In its "appeals package" laying out its requests for cuts in pending congressional spending legislation, Pentagon officials recommended returning to the old, lower rates of special pay and said military experts would study the question of combat pay in coming months.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=980

General Mahan didn't knock Brown & Root by name. He didn't have to; the company is by far the biggest services contractor in Iraq, with more than 2,500 employees in Central Asia and the Middle East as a whole. U.S. Civil Administrator L. Paul Bremer III and the 1,000-person Office of Reconstruction & Humanitarian Assistance depend on the company for food and shelter, as do at least 100,000 of the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turned to KBR and KBR alone to help repair damaged oil wells and pipelines and get Iraqi crude -- the key source of reconstruction revenue -- flowing again to export markets.

For its work in support of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, KBR has billed the U.S. government about $950 million for work completed under contracts capped at $8.2 billion. At the same time, KBR is in line to earn tens of millions of dollars more to maintain the archipelago of U.S. military bases that now arcs from the Balkans south to the Horn of Africa and east to Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. Closer to home, KBR built the detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that house Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. All in all, no corporation has played as central a role in America's global anti-terrorism campaign -- or profited as handsomely from it -- as KBR.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_37/b3849012.htm