Posted on 10/31/2004 11:37:42 AM PST by quidnunc
Baumholder,Germany – Baumholder has been home to a U.S. military base for more than half a century, and, even today, Americans outnumber Germans by more than 2 to 1.
But now this town's 4,800 German inhabitants are bracing for the possible withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of Washington's plans to restructure its military.
Ulrike Norvell, 48, who works in the child-care department on the U.S. base, seems in shock. "Without the Americans, we simply cannot survive," she says, taking a long drag on her cigarette. "If they go, Baumholder will die."
A similar lament echoes through small towns across western Germany.
Last August, the Bush administration announced plans for a global restructuring of U.S. armed forces to create a fighting force nimble enough to cope with the demands of 21st-century warfare. Details of the overhaul are to be hammered out in the coming months.
But the people of Baumholder fear that, no matter who wins Tuesday's U.S. presidential election, American troops will pull out of their town and many other places in Western Europe, returning home or moving to bases believed closer to the battlefields of the future.
Which units will leave Europe and when remains to be seen. But the withdrawal is expected to hit Germany — home to 80 percent of the continent's American troops — especially hard.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
•About 165,000 U.S. soldiers and their dependents pump more than $1 billion into local economies each year, business leaders say.
•Massive U.S. pullout could cost 80,000 German jobs, the Verdi labor union predicts.
Cry me a river!
pull out. the only things worth saving in Germany are Mercedes, BMW and Porsche.
was it worth it....... the deal with SH....... i guess it was worth more the deal with us....
so be it....
IBID
Awww. Poor little America-hating socialists.
Paybacks are a female dog huh
Get a little capitalism over there and they will not need welfare from America!
I was in Neuebrueke, Idar Oberstein and Baumholder back in 68 and the comrades didnt seem to care too much for us back then....
I guess they must have really grown to love 'amies' since.... eh?
Anyone have a tissue for me?
Maybe they should have thought about this BEFORE THEY STABBED US IN THE BACK.
Then the Germans should stop cavorting with the Russians and the French to undermine and oppose US interests.
Germany, we're just looking out for you the way you been looking out for us.
Years ago, I went to PLDC at the Baumholder NCO Academy. 30 days of great leadership training.
Cry your sob story to your "leaders" and vote in real men.
Payback Time............
It finally hits the fan ! (I mean the attention...)
Actually the sum total of our foreign aid and military expenditures overseas is some 300 billion dollars...why its a huge chunk of our year budget deficits...imagine that! I think it is time to stop putting our selves and our children into hock and tax slavery so the rest of the free world can refuse to work and defend itself!
NATO, the EUROTRASH, and the UN can each go to the blazes!
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