Most of our units based in Europe are already either in or rotating out of Iraq or Afghanistan. I don't think our departure gains us any US boots on the ground. As I recall, we've something like 75,000 GIs in Europe, most in Germany. The cost of maintaining them and their families is gigantic.
Don't keep extra bases in Germany
German leaders, so eager to be critical of what they see as the United States flexing its military muscle on the world stage, are having something of a change of heart. In effect, they want to have their cake and eat it, too.
U.S. officials were making the rounds of NATO allies this week, discussing the possibility that some American military bases in Europe should be closed or moved to other countries. Germany is one target of such planning.
About 80,000 of the 116,000 U.S. troops in Europe now are based in Germany. A big American military presence there was necessary for decades during the Cold War, but the time for such a massive presence appears to have passed.
ALTOONA MIRROR
Sat Dec 13 14:24:27 2003.
http://www.altoonamirror.com/edit/story/1212202003_edt1212edit.asp