US to scale back Bush-era plans for troop cuts in Europe, remove one combat unit from Germany

[unhappycamper]

US to scale back Bush-era plans for troop cuts in Europe, remove one combat unit from Germany
By Desmond Butler, The Associated Press – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to reduce U.S. military forces in Europe but scale back the deeper cuts envisioned under the Bush administration.

A senior U.S. official says that the administration plans to remove one of the four deployable combat units known as brigade combat teams currently assigned to Europe. An earlier plan developed by former Secretary of Defence Donald H. Rumsfeld called for removing two units.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Defence Department has not yet made the announcement. The cuts would come mostly in Germany. The plan would remove one of two units currently assigned to Germany in 2015. They are the 170th Brigade Combat Team based in Baumholder and the 172nd Infantry Brigade based in Grafenwoehr. The administration has not decided which unit would be withdrawn, but expects to in coming months.

The European-based units have played major roles in the U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In recent years, one or two of the units have been deployed in those operations at any given time, reducing the overall number of troops in Europe. But with plans to end U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, troops will be rotating back to Europe and officials say the number of U.S. troops in Europe will be higher than they are now after the 2015 relocation.

However, the relocation and closure of facilities in Germany will reduce the capacity for stationing troops in Europe. Even ahead of the decision, the likely cuts were drawing concerns. Last year, in congressional testimony, NATO's top commander, U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis, called for keeping four combat units in Europe, saying that anything else would pose risks for his European mission.

[Divernan]

1. In case you're wondering what the US's "European mission" is:

The OP's link ends with these two paragraphs:
"In a recent letter to U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar warned that the withdrawals could undermine European security and the sense among NATO allies that the U.S. is committed to Europe.

The planned cutback continues a trend since the end of the Cold War as the security threat from Russia has receded. Between 1989 and 2003, the U.S. Army closed 70 per cent of facilities in Europe. Overall Army troop numbers have fallen from 213,000 to about 42,000 today."
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The European Union HAS sufficient military personnel for its own security. It even took over from NATO in Bosnia. The NATO commander of course, as do all powerful people, does not agree to reducing his own force. NATO has had a long ride since it went active in response to the Korean conflict. With nearly 2 million combined active land forces, the EU no longer needs to, nor does it depend on 40,000 US troops. And the economies of the time dictate, at the very least, the reduction in force which even Bush/Cheney agreed to, but now the current war president wishes to back down on. Caving in to pressure from the MIC?

"The European Union's combined active land forces total (NOT including Air Force and Navy personnel) in 2008 was 1,800,707 and as of 2008, EU member states have an average of 80,177 Land Force troops deployed around the world. During a military surge the member states can collectively deploy 464,574 Land Force troops. Of those, 125,237 can be sustained in a large scale long term conflict.

The EU has experience in deployments.

In 2004, EU countries took over leadership of the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina from NATO through the European Union Force (EUFOR). The mission was given the branding of an EU initiative as the EU sponsored the force to further the force's image of legitimacy. There have been other deployments such as in Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2007, the then European High Representative for Foreign Policy, Javier Solana indicated the EU could send troops to Georgia, perhaps alongside Russian forces."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_European_Union

"Several prominent leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, have voiced support for a common defence for the Union. This possibility was formally laid down in Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009."

"Additionally, the Treaty of Lisbon extended the enhanced co-operation provision to become available for application in the area of defence. This mechanism enables a minimum number of member states to deepen integration within the EUs institutional framework, without the necessity of participation for reluctant member states. The Polish government has announced its intention of examining the possibility of applying this provision in the area of defence during its Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2011. This move has as of December 2010 been publicly supported by several national governments."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_European_Union