Sat Aug 14,12:56 AM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to withdraw about 70,000 U.S. troops from Europe and Asia in a major restructuring of military forces prompted by the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the war on terrorism, U.S. officials said Saturday.
President Bush will unveil the realignment in a speech Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Cincinnati, Ohio, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. military announced earlier this year that it was removing about 12,500 of the 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea for decades and sending many of them to Iraq or Afghanistan. One U.S. official said, however, some of those troops could be returned to South Korea.
“Germany is definitely a place where there will be a major re-arrangement,” said an official.
The U.S. Air Force, for example, was currently discussing plans to deploy heavy bombers and new F/A-22 jets to Guam in the Pacific to address possible future threat from North Korea and China.
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It’s because of expensive Frankfurter and Brockwurst sausages. Kimchi, although less nutritious, is much cheaper.
It has been estimated that feeding the US military Kimchi insted of Frankfurters will cut 12bn off annual military spending.
It’s a cost cutting excersise.
Actually, this is a very good idea and will do much for the “readiness” of US forces station abroad. Germany is in no danger (except from the French) and should therefore not view this as a punishment or estrangement but a realistic realignment of troops that will benefit both Europe and the forward theaters of the Middle East, Caspian, Caucasus and Central Asia. This is long overdue.
Yet, another feather in the cap for George W. Bush. This should have taken place not in 2004 but in 1994. Why did it take 10 years to do something so logical?
BERLIN - German officials voiced concern Monday that their country has the most to lose with President Bush’s announcement that tens of thousands of troops will return to the United States over the next decade.
With some 70,000 U.S. soldiers based in Germany, thousands of local jobs — from bakers to maintenance workers and office personnel — depend on the Americans, who first came as occupying (I SAY LIBERATING) forces after World War II.
… for places like Baumholder, a town in rural western Germany with a U.S. military training area, that spells problems.
Some 11,500 residents are matched by a U.S. military community of the same size, and the local economy would lose $150 million a year if the Americans left, Mayor Volkmar Pees told The Associated Press.
In Bamberg, officials said the local utility company could lose a major customer and that real estate prices would decline if the U.S. military leaves.
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Well, Boo Frigging Hoo.
I guess the Germans should have contemplated the value of our “friendship” before they stuck their knife in our back.
Sorry but I agree with your assessment the Magnificent Tigerman as you have so eloquently put it boo fucking hoo, but this was a long needed realignment and should not be seen as a punishment for Germany no matter how much that nation suffers. It is sort of poetic justice. As many in South Korea and Japan have discovered to their dismay as well, you’d better be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
Not all. Let’s wait and see how this is digested. How we handle this now is very important to overall strategic interests for both parties. We can manage this if we awaken Europe from its dreamlike posturing about peace and anti-Americanism. Looking at the new EU leadership gives me all new hope about the relationship which has already come out of the gutter from the Iraq invasion. Germany is moving much closer to the center and the new EU leadership is heavily pro-American. That leaves France but that will always be a problem. That goes with living with the French, and of course their sidekicks the Belgians but what the heck French Canadians by another name with the same haute cuisine (mayo on everything).
I totally agree and would like to add that the U.S. would be much better off if it recalled ALL troops from ALL countries, continued to build up a massive nuclear weapons base in North America, let the rest of the world sort itself out and if anyone dared attempt to screw with the U.S. just nuke them. God, I love isolationism.
Not all. Let’s wait and see how this is digested. How we handle this now is very important to overall strategic interests for both parties. We can manage this if we awaken Europe from its dreamlike posturing about peace and anti-Americanism. Looking at the new EU leadership gives me all new hope about the relationship which has already come out of the gutter from the Iraq invasion. Germany is moving much closer to the center and the new EU leadership is heavily pro-American. That leaves France but that will always be a problem. That goes with living with the French, and of course their sidekicks the Belgians but what the heck French Canadians by another name with the same haute cuisine (mayo on everything). [/quote]
Sorry Fred but I disagree. We have no need to station troops in Europe any more. If the Germans want Paris I say let them have it.
I am just tired of having the USA being everybody’s whipping boy in peactime but their savior in times of strive. It is about time we let Europe try to get along among themselves without us babysitting them.
I totally agree and would like to add that the U.S. would be much better off if it recalled ALL troops from ALL countries, continued to build up a massive nuclear weapons base in North America, let the rest of the world sort itself out and if anyone dared attempt to screw with the U.S. just nuke them. God, I love isolationism. [/quote]
Germany’s defense minister “deeply regrets” the move. I love this. What did the man expect. His government has ridden roughshod all over America during the lead up to the Gulf War and been less than helpful in the aftermath. Let him turn to France for military aid. hahaha
But seriously, this will be good in the long run because now Germany’s citizens will have to discuss and negotiate military issues as part of domestic not international policies. That should concentrate the minds of the mindless minions who think that peace is somehow the achievement of European style “negotiations.”
No quote but I read the entire thing and absolutely loved it. This should be required reading for any European who wants to understand where their fatuous policies will eventually lead them.
Here, however, is my favorite quote…
As Stephens points out, European countries now have attitudes in inverse proportion to the likelihood of their acting upon them. They’re like my hippy-dippy Vermont neighbours who drive around with “Free Tibet” bumper stickers. Every couple of years, they trade in the Volvo for a Subaru, and painstakingly paste a new “Free Tibet” sticker on the back.
What are they doing to free Tibet? Nothing. Tibet is as unfree now as it was when they started advertising their commitment to a free Tibet. And it will be just as unfree when they buy their next car and slap on the old sticker one mo’ time. If Don Rumsfeld were to say, ‘Free Tibet’? That’s a great idea!
The Third Infantry Division go in on Thursday’, all the ‘Free Tibet’ crowd would be driving around with ‘War is not the answer’ stickers.
and also…
At Friday’s Olympics ceremony, for example, I noticed the team from liberated Afghanistan drew far more enthusiastic cheers from the Athens crowd than the team of the country that actually liberated them.
Fair enough. But what then is the practical value of their professed support for the Afghans? At the time of the Afghan liberation, a poll found only 5.2 per cent of Greeks supported the war.
Australia’s involvement in the liberation of East Timor was famously based on a bumper sticker campaign.
Since Australia eventually did send in troops and be the lead country in that country’s independence, perhaps bumper stickers aren’t such a bad idea after all.
But Australia is ALSO in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported US efforts there. You will not find me complaining at all about the Australians and their support. This is my point, however, we need more countries getting involved like the Australians who are doing admirable work to maintain peace and stability in the South Pacific Forum rather than Germany and France who are arming nations to such a degree as to CAUSE instability and then refusing to do anything about cleaning up the messes afterwards, nay, even actively opposing such efforts to do so. Surely you can see the very major difference between Australia and France? Also, Australia is not the one who nuked several South Pacific atolls which are now leaking plutonium into the seas nor was it the one who bombed a Green Peace boat in a New Zealand harbor.
