Posted on 05/25/2005 3:42:46 AM PDT by NH Red
TOKYO (AP) - Just outside Tokyo, city officials gathered nearly 60,000 signatures in one month to stop the possible expansion of a U.S. Army camp. In South Korea, 1,000 workers fearing for their jobs rallied outside the main base there and vowed a bigger protest was ahead.
While the United States works out its biggest set of domestic military base closures in decades, countries from Germany to South Korea are bracing for a major restructuring as well, with new hosts being courted and as many as 70,000 U.S. troops expected to head home over the next decade.
Mirroring the domestic shake-up, negotiations are underway for bases abroad to be shut down, or, in other cases, beefed up. But with few formal announcements, the overseas restructuring has everyone from peace activists to labor unions on edge.
In Japan, where U.S. troop levels are expected to stay about the same at 50,000-plus, even rumors of relatively minor moves have generated jitters.
"Our long-standing position is that we want the base here closed," said Hiroyuki Suzuki, an official in Zama, where the U.S. Army's Japan headquarters are located. Camp Zama is rumored to be a possible new home for several hundred soldiers currently assigned to I Corps at Fort Lewis, Wash.
"We're worried that the base will become more permanent," Suzuki said. Zama officials organized the petition drive to give weight to their opposition and make it more difficult for the Japanese government to accept an expansion plan.
Across the Japan Sea, workers in South Korea are preparing to fight the opposite possibility.
Lt. Gen. Charles Campbell, chief of staff for U.S. Forces Korea, said last month the American military would lay off up to 1,000 Korean workers, about 10 percent of the total, and cut contracts for services by up to 20 percent over the next two years.
Some 1,000 workers and their supporters protested outside Yongsan base, in central Seoul, earlier this month and the Korean Employers Union said it will hold a larger rally on June 3 if the United States does not repeal its plan for layoffs.
About 32,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea. Several thousand U.S. soldiers have been reassigned from Korea to Iraq and more are slated to depart in the next few years, leaving about 24,500.
Though anti-base groups have long been active in South Korea, Okinawa and other places where U.S. troops are stationed, the current atmosphere of change has emboldened many.
Earlier this month a few thousand members of Hanchongryon - South Korea's largest student group - staged a demonstration and tore down wire fences at an air force base in Gwangju, demanding the United States remove its Patriot missiles and withdraw from South Korea altogether.
The group, which is outlawed by the South Korean government yet still operates openly, has dubbed June a "period of anti-United States and anti-war struggle," and more demonstrations are expected, according to an editorial in the Joong Ang Daily newspaper.
Japan, Germany and South Korea have long been the major destinations for U.S. troops abroad.
But, with its budget and manpower pushed to the limit by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is rethinking the distribution of its assets.
The most prominent upshot has been the Defense Department's plan to save billions of dollars by closing or reducing forces at 62 U.S. bases and reconfiguring 775 others. A commission will review the Pentagon's list before submitting it to President Bush in September.
In connection with the domestic changes, some 13,500 troops would be pulled from Germany and South Korea.
Overall, however, Bush has said he intends to bring home 70,000 troops - along with 100,000 family members and civilian employees - in the next 10 years, while increasing the U.S. presence in such countries as Poland, Romania and Uzbekistan.
For Germany, the Army plans to bring home the 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division, with a mobile brigade using lighter Stryker armored vehicles added at the Grafenwoehr base in Bavaria, and another regular brigade also stationed in the area.
There are currently some 112,000 military personnel stationed in Europe, and U.S. officials have previously said about 40 percent were expected to remain after the restructuring, including some 25,000 soldiers in Germany.
Hell with them all. Bring our troops home and protect our borders.
Stop those french canadians from annually invading the United States.
Sheap smelly retards.
A convenient whipping boy to garner votes.
When those bases were on the first round of base closing lists the story changed dramatically.
There was Dinkins marching off to D.C. to beg to keep the Brooklyn Navy yard open.
Of course, the NY pols flew down to Vieques demanding that Puerto Rican base be closed too.
Now there is economic consequences to PR and the story has changed.
Germany's Schroeder campaigned on his hatred for America. Now that we are planning on closing bases there and adding to his country's economic woes, the story will be quite different.
Good
I don't want to see germany and its econemy completely tank but I'd like to see a whole lot of germans living in caves.
"staged a demonstration and tore down wire fences at an air force base in Gwangju, demanding the United States remove its Patriot missiles and withdraw from South Korea altogether."
Idiots!!! Those are air defense missiles protecting their country!
I loved my time in Geremany but its time to stick it to them.
Schroeder actually tried to mitigate the tax burden on corporations when he first took office.
The peepull took to the streets and forced him to back down.
They earned their misery, and it's well deserved.
As for Japan, the next big threat we need to prepare for is China AND North Korea. America needs to do everything in it's power to prepare up front for what will come (quicker than anyone thinks). Therefore we must and WE WILL expand our facilities in Japan and the region. If they don't like it I guess we will just have to gently remind them who WON WWII.
Notice how Eager Romania was to to have US troops there. US troops boost foreign investment and kick start a local economy. This story was quite one-sided and didn't described how S korean and german lobbyists were hired here in the US. I also bet the majority of japaneese are not in favor of US troop withdrawl...
From
http://www.neoperspectives.com/kerryconclusion.htm
The United States has spread freedom to more people and more countries than any other nation in the history of the world. Japan, Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, France (twice), and, most recently, Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Iraq have all been either liberated or occupied by US forces. During the recent US military reorganizations, South Korean and German officials came to the United States to lobby against the removal of US troops. When has this happened in the history of the world? In Eastern Europe, citizens feared the Red Army of the Soviet Union (which is currently occupying Georiga against the wishes of it's president) and cheered when Soviet troops finally withdrew. All over the world, many countries not only welcome, but often proactively seek to draw American troops to their countries. For example, in the past week US defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Romania:
In a sign of Romania's eagerness for Americans to use the facility, officials renamed one street on the base "George Washington Boulevard," honoring the first U.S. president. If yes, the move would signal closer U.S. ties with its NATO ally and funnel millions of dollars into the Romanian economy. "I hope so, but it's not in our hands," Pascu [Romanian Defense Minister] said. (51)
Hangchongryon has been around much, much longer than ANSWER. It also has done a very thorough job in indoctrinating the South Korean college students. Which explains why the under-30 demographic in South Korea is so anti-American and pro-North Korea.
Ya'll be careful over there, ok?
No problem, Star. Isn't anything different than the locals back home who get all bowed up when a GI steals their girl. It's the same as it ever has been, we're either at "peace" fighting lobbyists and politicians (with our hands tied behind our backs) or we're at war. Personally, I prefer war, more rounds flying, but less chance of being hit in the back.
Perhaps the Japs would rather have the Chinese be their Pacific "protector".
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.