No problem, Germany. We'll think about you from time to time.
Posted on 08/16/2004 1:43:23 PM PDT by lizol
In Germany, U.S. troop withdrawal plans raise jitters in many towns
45 minutes ago
TONY CZUCZKA
BERLIN (AP) - German officials voiced concern Monday that their country has the most to lose with President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s announcement that tens of thousands of troops will return to the United States over the next decade.
With some 70,000 U.S. soldiers based in Germany, thousands of local jobs - from bakers to maintenance workers and office personnel - depend on the Americans, who first came as occupying forces after the Second World War.
European and Asian countries with U.S. troops have braced for the changes for several years, but Bush's announcement Monday that up to 70,000 uniformed personnel and 100,000 dependents will gradually be moved back to the United States brought home the full impact.
"Base closures would hit us very hard," said city spokesman Ole Kruse in the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, home of the U.S. army's 1st Infantry Division.
That unit and the 1st Armored Division, based in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt, will return to the United States as part of the global restructuring, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said Monday.
They will be replaced by a brigade, a much smaller unit equipped with Stryker light armoured vehicles, though they probably won't start leaving until 2006 at the earliest, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. troops were based in large numbers in Germany during the Cold War to deter a then-feared Soviet invasion, and most of the 100,000 U.S. troops based in Europe are still in Germany.
The United States will close nearly half of its hundreds of installations in Europe as part of the massive restructuring plan, defence officials said. It also has plans to reduce troop numbers in South Korea (news - web sites), where they have held static positions for 50 years.
"The world has changed a great deal and our posture must change with it," Bush told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati. The United States needs "a more agile and more flexible force" to help fight "wars of the 21st century," he said.
But for places like Baumholder, a town in rural western Germany with a U.S. military training area, that spells problems.
Some 11,500 residents are matched by a U.S. military community of the same size, and the local economy would lose $150 million US a year if the Americans left, Mayor Volkmar Pees told The Associated Press.
"The Americans are part of us," Baumholder resident Iris Schoen said. "You build up great friendships."
In host countries such as Germany and Japan, local governments have paid much of the cost of stationing U.S. troops.
German officials have travelled to Washington in recent months to lobby against troop withdrawals and propose alternatives.
For instance, Rhineland-Palatinate state officials say they have suggested that lighter units replace the heavy armour now stationed at Baumholder. Mayor Pees called on the German military to move into facilities vacated by the Americans.
In Bamberg, officials said the local utility company could lose a major customer and that real estate prices would decline if the U.S. military leaves.
"We view this with great concern," city spokesman Steffen Schuetzewohl said.
In addition, a wing of F-16 fighters based at Spangdahlem near the Belgian border could be moved to the Incirlik base in Turkey, closer to the Middle East.
"The Americans' announced troop withdrawal is understandable," said Alexander Bonde, a legislator from Germany's Greens party, which is part of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government.
"Since most of the European-based American troops are in Germany, it's clear that the bulk of the withdrawal has to happen in Germany," he said.
Officials have indicated Ramstein Airbase and the Landstuhl military hospital in southwestern Germany, as well as the Grafenwoehr training grounds in Bavaria, are not on the table.
For U.S. military personnel and their families, the immediate impact will likely be limited. Many soldiers are expected to return home when their tour of duty would have been up anyway.
I've read once an article about some primitive Indian tribe in South America, in which people don't see any relation, between making love and he fact, that 9 months later babies are born. Making love is just a pure fun for them.
So - those "German officials" are more or less the same -like first you could take shit on Americans, an then you'd be dissapointed, that they didn't enjoyed it.
Some call Der Whaaambulancen...
bye ... bye ....
Sometimes there is a lil justice.Germany messed with us now we must mess with them and if it helps us in the long run all the better
Well, Germany has been a pretty good ally in Afghanistan. So, to compensate them for the loss of the money having our troops over there brings, I think we should withdrawl our troops back through France, un-liberate what we liberated in WWII, and give it back to the Germans.
With all that construction going on, K-town area military aint going nowhere.
No problem, Germany. We'll think about you from time to time.
.......................................U.S. bases to be replaced with 'Mosques'.
/sarcasm
They should be glad our soldiers are leaving; they hate us. Goodbye and bad luck.
Germany, we never knew you.
Ah, this has to be the best case os Schadenfraude I have ever seen.
I certainly don't think this is "pay back" for their opposition to the War on Terror (at least I certainly hope it's not).
It probably has more to do with the reality of the enemy. The Cold War is over.
So, to those Krauts who didn't want us to actually USE our bases in Germany, I pass the following message:
"Alles klar, Herr Kommissar ??"
I'm sure they can connect the dots. Mayhaps their buddies the French can make up for the lost economy. . .
Apply tag line and two aspirins.....call when next invaded
Awww.... Too bad.
Wasn't there some poll that said the majority of Germans think the US was behind 9-11 or something?
This is what you get when you subscribe to stupid conspiracy theories, Krauts.
No pity for you. (Said in "Soup Nazi" voice)
HA! That's a laugh. They hate our guts.
I don't know why we're still in any of the countries that turned their backs on us in Iraq. The U.S. has always been there for those countries but they aren't there for us. They talk about us like we're evil but want us to stay to protect them? Give me a break! I say move them all out of France, Germany and any other country that turned on us and let them deal with terrorists in their countries by themselves.
It's time for Europe to start toeing the line for their own defense.
For 60 years we've told them not to build their militaries, that we would provide for their defense with our own treasure and blood.
What did that polciy do? It allowed them to become complacent, lazy, and able to play "footsie" with the enemy.
They wanted the best of both worlds, they got them, and now it's finally coming to an end.
Good, good!
Let them figure out that "actions have consequences."
Let 'em take up their concerns with Herr Gerhard Schroeder.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.