-Caveat Lector- Print this article | Close this window Pentagon plans NATO blitz on Germany by pulling out By David Rennie in Washington February 12 2003
The Pentagon is drawing up plans to pull thousands of American troops out of bases in Germany, replacing Cold War-era garrisons with lightly manned bases scattered across eastern Europe. The plans predate the row over Iraq, but their leaking to the media on Monday will be taken as another signal to the German Government that American attitudes towards Europe are changing. Although no decision has been taken, the plan to scale down the United States military presence in Germany, the mainstay of US forces in Europe since World War II, marks a strategic shift welcomed by the insecure post- communist countries of central Europe. The plans were outlined to senators by the new NATO supreme commander, General James Jones. In the words of one US diplomat, the policy discussion is not punishment for German obstructionism, but its timing is "certainly opportune", wrote William Safire, a commentator for The New York Times. General Jones told senators attending a security conference in Munich that the 70,000 US troops garrisoned in Germany, with 70,000 dependants, were an unwieldy, expensive relic of the past. The momentum for moving out of Germany is being increased by the US- German estrangement. Last month, the Pentagon ordered all non-essential investment in the sprawling US bases in Germany to be frozen, according to the German Christian Democrat MP Michael Billen, whose constituency in south-west Germany includes US air bases that over the past 50 years have grown into large American communities. Polish newspapers reported recently from Washington that the US was to shift bases from Germany to Poland, the biggest and most important new NATO member, the most pro-American, and one of the key countries in what Mr Rumsfeld calls "new Europe". The Polish reports were denied in Washington, but when he was asked about the issue in Rome last week, Mr Rumsfeld said: "We are reviewing our bases ... the centre of gravity is shifting in the [NATO] alliance. The interest and the enthusiasm that the countries that had lived under repressive regimes previously is a good thing for NATO." General Jones told senior US congressmen and senators in Brussels last Friday that the large US garrisons in Germany could be radically transformed by the need for more flexible and mobile rapid response structures that may halve the number of US troops required in Germany and lead to new bases being opened from Poland to Romania, according to US press reports on Sunday. In contrast to those of western Europe, the governments of eastern Europe are queuing up to offer military assets, resources and staff for the US war effort against Iraq. Romania and Bulgaria are the latest governments to make bases available to the US air force. 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