Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that President Trump has approved of a plan to withdraw about 12,000 US troops from Germany, a move Trump directly tied to long-standing complaints that Germany doesn’t “pay more” for its own military.
The US has demanded Germany spend 2% of its GDP on military for years. Trump has falsely claimed Germany owes the US billions over that, and had repeatedly threatened to cut back the troops in Germany, something Germans were broadly comfortable with.
Of the troops, 6,400 will return to the US, while another 5,400 will be deployed elsewhere in Europe. It’s not clear where, but Poland was previously tapped to receive about 2,000 troops in the process.
Congress already opposed the cuts, and went after today’s announcement, at least the third time it’s been announced with roughly the same figures. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) says the cuts are a “gift to Russia” while others were deeply critical.
CNN also attacked the cuts, saying they’d “cost billions and take years.” It’s not clear that’s true, as Esper said the costs would be in the single-digit billions, but there is certainly no reason moving 12,000 troops would take years.
The cut comes with Douglas Macgregor coming into the German Ambassador post. He is on board with the cuts, and will stand with Trump on the push to limit US forces there.
The 2021 NDAA has clauses which aim to limit the ability to cut troops from Germany, but will likely be too late to impact these cuts, instead just restricting future cuts.
Does Romney believe that the past half century of US protection and rebuilding if Germany had failed to create a state capable of resisting Russia without further they from citizens? It we failed to do it in 70 years how long does the Senator estimate it will take?
Hmmm
So the idea here is to have more troops stationed in israel than in Germany? First, and most importantly Germany is one of our most important Nato Allies. And we have standing agreements and treaties with Germany that predate the creation of Israel that isn’t even part of NATO. Furthermore, Germany is our fifth largest trading partner, Israel is in 24th place and essentially irrelevant as a trading partner….
Germany has deployed troops time and again to support America’s military
in actual armed conflicts , Israel has NEVER deployed troops to support
America’s troops in actual armed conflict. Why isnt’ anyone in Washington demanding that israel fight side by side with US forces in the Middle East AFTER 20 YEARS of US troops fighiting to support israel’s illegal land grabs in Palestine, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights? Talk about double standards and the hypocrisy….
Why is every single agreement since Trump entered office one way and
entirely one sided?: all for israel and nothing for America? Obviously, Trump and Obama before him has gutted the US military presence in Germany in order to cover the costs of serving israel.
In fact, you will find that those US troops, which have slowly but surely
increased in number now in israel will forced to serve under an Israeli IDF General in the event of war…..Not to mention the literally Billions of dollars in supplies and equipment now “stored” in israel that can be taken by the israeli government when ever needed without US permission with NO requirements for israeli to replenish or pay for them….
When looked at objectively the relationship that the Congress and the White House has with Israel America has been placed in the position ofa a subservient Vassal State. Anywhere outside the beltway, it is called TREASON.
Israel isn’t mentioned once in the article. You bring it in from left field and make it the central point of your comment, not even mentioning Germany in your closing 2 paragraphs even one time. You seem to be more anti-Israel than anti-war.
It IS relevant. We send them billions. They have a nuclear arsenal. Under agreements signed long ago, we should not be sending them anything.
The “Carter Agreement” contained language which promised financial aid to Israel and Egypt.
Hmmm
The Carter “agreement” does not supersede Federal Law which is being violated everytime we give aid to Israel. The 1961 Foreign Assistance Aid Act bars ANY country like israel and North Korea, (N. Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003) who are not signatories on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act from receiving ANY AID.
“In the mid-1970s during investigations (actually, israel was caught red handed but pro-israeli factions in Washington derailed the investigation) into the illegal diversion of weapon-grade uranium from a US contractor NUMEC to Israel, Senators Stuart Symington and John Glenn amended the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act to ban any aid to clandestine nuclear powers that were not NPT signatories.”
This covert action by israel, was by definition under international law an invasion and therefore constituted an outright act of war an against the United States. Israel agents illegally and secretly entered the US aiding in the theft of the nuclear weapons materials which did in fact end up in israel’s secret nuclear weapons factory.
Instead of sweeping this act of war under the rug, we should have leveled Tel Aviv. Clearly, if North Korea had been caught doing the exact same thing, such a
strike into the heartland of N. Korean would have been a forgone conclusion. Tragically, even then treasonous Israeli agents roamed the halls of power in Washington with impunity.
Israel refuses to sign NPT to this day. Israel remains the defacto posture child for out of control rogue nuclear powers because unlike N. Korea,it stilldenies it has any nuclear weapons. Though Israeli leaders have not hesitated to publicly threaten its enemies, including the EU, with nuclear retaliatory strikes if it felt threatened.
Without question, and in no uncertain terms, by repeatedly violating both the letter and spirit of an ACT which was written specifically to protect
America and Americans against nuclear aggression, “our” leadership” in Washington is committing treason every time they give more money, more aid and more support to a country that has not hesitated to kill American civilians, soldiers and sailors…
Clearly, giving aid to Israel is illegal under US law and such a denial is easily and fully justified. It is Israel’s countless debts to America and the American people which remain unpaid that should be the concern focus of every Patriotic American Dieter.
Just to clarify, The Constitution does give the
President the authority to enter into any agreement which overrides standing Federal Law. The Act (theoretically) remains in full effect to this day.
Hmmm
On the contrary, the why behind the massive troop reductions in Germany in direct violation of our NATO and treaty obligations with Germany and the EU is of vital importance in understanding what is happening. And the why is painfully obvious. 20 years of unjustified and totally unnecessary non-stop “wars” against a non-existent threat has conservatively cost America 10 Trillion dollars and has cost countless Millions of lives. All to aid and protect israel’s blatantly illegal and immoral war on Muslims in general and the Palestinian and Syrian peoples in particular in order for israel to steal their lands in Palestine, Jerusalem, Golan Heights. And no doubt soon in Jorden and Lebanon as well.
These fraudulent “wars” have literally worn out or destroyed a very large portion of our conventional Military capabilities. The massive out of control costs associated with prosecuting endless wars half way across the world forced the Pentagon to first cannibalize supplies, parts and equipment across the world to keep the war going. Then followed massive troop reductions. Germany was literally striped almost bare of what was once the largest repository of US military personal and stores outside America.
I am not “anti” Israel Mork. But unlike you, I am first, last and always America and the American people first last and always.
Instead of shifting troops around from one place to another, it would be better to just close down the foreign bases and bring all the boys home. Whether we like it or not, they are coming home, and probably pretty soon. The only issue is whether it will be in an orderly way or with their tails between their legs.
Trump tries to do the right thing for once, but for the wrong reasons. If Germany suddenly ponied up whatever money Trump seems to think they owe, he’d be fine keeping as many troops there as is feasible. It’s not like there’s any prominent politician in DC who’s morally opposed to keeping troops in overseas bases, though.
Antiwar has been going downhill. They have been running stories that are obviously Fake News. If some of your articles are Fake then I can no longer trust anything that you write.
This is a generic comment and not specific to this article.
“This is a generic comment and not specific to anything in the real world.”
Fixed, no charge.
Examples would help
Examples would require reading articles.
Yes, they would
USa is losing all their erstwhile allies—polls show that amerikans r despised in all but Canada—the USA govt more despised—a puzzle since the US govt fully expresses the desires and values of amerikans…even Western Europeans r now irritated at the fake ameikans for attempting to derail nordstream…the fake empire now collapsing—the desperation is obvious except for their stupefied automaton population, now reduced to copulating w mobile phones
The CNN coverage, presented as news however in practice only accurately reporting every supposedly expert criticism they could find thus being an editorial / analysis, spent a lot of words without ever considering the two biggest questions: What does it cost to station troops abroad and why are they there? The absolute givens between the lines was that Russia is an aggressive threat, we will spend anything to counter that threat with anyone else who hypes it, and those soldiers being there is effective at containing that threat.
Reality: The US is the aggressor, Russia will not invade Europe, endless billions for US militarism is sought by the former eastern block merely as an economic stimulus that someone else pays for, and so many US soldiers perpetually stationed at Russia’s doorstep fuels insecurity and conflict far more than it avoids those things.
Somehow the underlying story for Democrats at least is that Trump hates allies (Germany’s leader) and loves our enemies (Putin). That forced narrative is simple, elegant, makes Democrats feel smart, but also false, and nonstrategic.
Russia says “finally”. Now, without those 12,000 troops stationed in Germany, they can finalize their plans for a massive invasion. But they do have to worry about those extra 2,000 Poland might be getting. Might have to hold off invading Poland.
Your comment takes us back to the 1930’s, Neville Chamberlain and the French concept of a “Cordon Sanitaire” against the communist Soviet Union. Nearly every West-European state feared/hated communism more than fascism.
It was clear to even the non-experts then that a Soviet attack on the West had to go through Poland (Romania was less likely) because the Soviet tanks could not fly. Poland could not defend itself long against a Soviet attack. Hence the idea of the cordon sanitaire was to back up Poland with the growing might of Hitler Germany. It failed because Hitler refused to play back-up. He was going to destroy the Soviet Union all by himself.
Today the cordon sanitaire can be revived if Germany will play the backstop and the remainder of the EU is at ease with a strongly re-armed Germany.
Chamberlain has been wrongly vilified by “Munich”. His concept was shared by almost every other European government.
My comment was aimed at Mitt the Twit who somehow thinks 12,000 troops is the reason Russia hasn’t started a massive invasion of Germany.
On the principles I agree with Trump. The population of Russia is 144
million. The population of the EU is 440 million. Our population is 330
million.
The 2019 GDP of the EU was 18 trillion. Our 2019 GDP was 21 trillion.
The basic implications are:
The EU with Germany up front can easily defend itself against a non-nuclear
attack by Russia. Even now you do not attack allies who outnumber you
in manpower.
On the issue of NATO pressure on Russia to refrain from attacking Ukraine, Georgia, or Belarus the EU ought to pay roughly 1/2 of the NATO budget.One can argue how large that budget ought to be. It might be bloated.
Getting US troops out of Germany is a good first step.
Over time, all 12,000 will be in Poland.
Well maybe it’s a start. While many of the troops are to be redeployed elsewhere in Europe, at least some are coming home (they say). I see Romney called this a “gift to Russia.” I believe I heard that Biden had said something similar.
The fact is, both Pres. Trump and presumptive candidate Biden are not for any real change in policy, at least not toward peace.
There is only one viable candidate for President who will pull all the troops out of just about everywhere, and that is Libertarian Jo Jorgensen. The Jorgensen/Cohen campaign is taking off like a rocket now and their pledge to stop playing policeman of the world is one of the main reasons.
Please check them out at jo20.com, and please support them. Remember, the lesser of evils is still evil, and there is virtually no difference between Trump and Biden in really important ways. Tax, spend, regulate. Jorgensen would end all that.
Alice Lillie
Pomona, CA
US Defense Secretary Esper
I’ve said that very publicly, I’ve said that very privately to my counterparts as well – about the importance of NATO, any alliance, sharing the burden so we can all deter Russia and… avoid peace in Europe.
In a related note, stocks of alcohol-related businesses in Germany fell sharply, while the prostitution, illegal drug, and gambling industries also predicted sharp declines in future revenue. Golfing and dining sectors hope to make up future losses with prospective Japanese tourism. Prostitutes living near the Polish border were already packing up and relocating eastward.