U.S. said to plan troop cut in Germany
The United States will cut its troop presence in Germany by
more than 25%, former U.S. officials said Friday.
The new cap, approved by President Donald Trump and Defense
Secretary Mark Esper, will limit U.S. troops in Germany to 25,000, said a
former senior official with knowledge of the decision. That would mean a
reduction of 9,500, or more than one-quarter, from current levels.
The move -- which blindsided German officials and many U.S.
military leaders in Europe -- is in keeping with Trump's vision of limited U.S.
deployments overseas, and with his insistence that allies must shoulder more of
the burden for their own defense.
It is not clear whether the plan, which was first reported
by The Wall Street Journal, is final, and some former officials said they hoped
Trump would reconsider. Several said that, if enforced, the troop cut would
further undermine an Atlantic alliance and was a gift to President Vladimir
Putin of Russia, who has been eager to see a diminished U.S. military presence
on the continent.
While Trump has complained about the expense of protecting
the U.S.'s allies in NATO, and has long singled out Germany as a wealthy nation
that spends proportionately little on its defense, former officials and
analysts argued he was damaging U.S. interests.
"The reason we have troops overseas in Germany is not
to protect Germans; everything we have is for our benefit," said Frederick
B. Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and a former top U.S. Army commander in
Europe. "The decision doesn't seem attached to any kind of strategy."
The U.S. currently bases more troops in Germany than in any
other country except Japan. The U.S. presence there is a legacy of World War
II, and became a cornerstone of the country's Cold War defense of Europe
against the Soviet Union.
Now, U.S. troops in Germany operate a military hospital in
Ramstein, staff training grounds used by the Atlantic alliance -- and they
provide ground forces to reinforce allies across Europe and beyond, as well as
a legacy deterrent to Russian aggression.
The drawdowns will include an Air Force F-16 squadron and
Army support units, according to a former Defense Department official.
Despite his complaints about burden-sharing, Trump, as
president, has overseen an increase in U.S. military spending in Europe.
Congress has bolstered the European Deterrence Initiative, which pays for
exercises and troop rotations, and the military has increased its presence in
Poland.
The troop cut for Germany would be the largest of Trump's
tenure. The U.S. began building its forces back up in Europe after Russia
annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. But Hodges and other analysts noted that
Russia had not taken any steps to reduce its aggressive stance in Europe that
would warrant a scaled-back U.S. presence.
Trump and his allies have long singled out Germany as what
they call an egregious free rider on the U.S.'s military might. Instead of
spending to defend itself and Europe, Trump has argued, Germany instead built
itself a lavish social welfare system.
Germany spent some 1.36% of its gross domestic product on
its military in 2019, a number that has grown but is still significantly short
of the NATO stated target of 2%. Because of its large economy, Germany in
absolute terms now spends more on its military than other European powers.
Germany represents higher military spending than France, for example, which has
a smaller economy.
Last August, Richard Grenell, then the U.S. ambassador to
Germany, suggested that it made little sense that Germany would run a budget
surplus, fail to meet the NATO spending guidelines and rely on U.S. troops for
defense.
"It is actually offensive to assume that the U.S.
taxpayer must continue to pay to have 50,000-plus Americans in Germany, but the
Germans get to spend their surplus on domestic programs," Grenell told the
German government-funded news organization Deutsche Welle.
In an interview published Saturday by Germany's Funke Media
Group, lawmaker Norbert Roettgen said such a troop withdrawal would be
"very regrettable."
Roettgen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's
center-right Union bloc who chairs the German parliament's foreign policy
committee, was quoted as saying that he couldn't see "any factual reason
for the withdrawal" and that U.S. soldiers were welcome in Germany.
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