Sen. Inhofe Says US Drawdown From Germany Will Take ‘Years to Execute’

Vows no 'hasty' pullouts from Germany

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jim Inhofe (R-OK) was briefed on the US troop cuts in Germany, which the administration has announced a few times in recent weeks. He sought to downplay this, saying there was no “hasty” pullout.

Sen. Inhofe was told that the drawdown will take “months to plan, years to execute,” suggesting the announcement was not made with an eye toward actual cuts any time soon.

The Pentagon is likely pushing this because the 2021 NDAA is potentially going to have restrictions on troop cuts. President Trump is known to want these cuts, but others are emphasizing that they want to block this to reassure NATO.

If this isn’t going to involve cuts for “years,” party leaders may feel that the path of least resistance is to just ignore it for now, on the assumption that the administration will either forget or be gone by then, and it’ll never happen.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.