Posted on 06/29/2018 7:42:35 PM PDT by tcrlaf
The Pentagon is analyzing the cost and impact of a large-scale withdrawal or transfer of American troops stationed in Germany, amid growing tensions between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to people familiar with the work.
The effort follows Trump’s expression of interest in removing the troops, made during a meeting earlier this year with White House and military aides, U.S. officials said. Trump was said to have been taken aback by the size of the U.S. presence, which includes about 35,000 active-duty troops, and complained that other countries were not contributing fairly to joint security or paying enough to NATO.
Word of the assessment has alarmed European officials, who are scrambling to determine whether Trump actually intends to reposition U.S. forces or whether it is merely a negotiating tactic ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels, where Trump is again likely to criticize U.S. allies for what he deems insufficient defense spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The hospital at Landstuhl (I believe) has been a huge benefit to us, many times in the past.
I think he might even go to coin some phrase of ‘Cold War II’ ending, giving everyone who was in the military from 1990 to today....a second Cold War medal.
It just hasn’t been any need to keep 65,000 troops in Europe.
“leftists everywhere suddenly turning into hawkish world policeman...”
And, after 100 years of denial, the left has suddenly decided that Russian dictators are a threat to the West.
Yeah, it was great when Trump complained in the campaign that we should require other countries that benefit by the US Military to pay us - and not take advantage of our so-called “kindness.”
I’ve often thought that same thing when the Germans come over here and piously state how “Ya, and the German socialized healthcare is so much better than the American system.”
Well yeah, since the Germans haven’t really had to pay big money out of their national budget for a national defense force (the Americans have done it), the Americans have essentially subsidized their “wonderful” health care system. These arrogant Germans should actually be thanking us.
Also have heard them arrogantly say that “und ve get 4 weeks vacation every year, unlike the Americans...” Yet again, if the Krauts were paying their own way for their own national defense, they would be working more and vacationing less.
Most demographic projections show Europe will be Muzzie-dominated in several generations.
We shouldn’t spend another red cent defending rich countries like Germany (via NATO) because it’s pointless to do so, knowing the demographics. Europe has committed cultural suicide!
Instead, let Putin have Europe (sans our Brexit Britain friend) and Putin can strong-arm the Muzzie problem much better than the spineless PC Euros.
Better to let Putin have Europe than the Muzzies (he at least represents Western Civilization). France is now 8% Muzzie with a high birth rate, so in perhaps 20-30 years, Muzzies will democratically control France — and their nukes. Scary!
Putin can be a good ally of ours in the forthcoming clash of civilizations (Western Civiliaation vs. Muzzies).
There is no reason why we should be sparring with Putin because Europe will actually be our new enemy in decades to come.
A gradual downsizing wouldn’t be bad though. Bring it down to 25k troops and see how that works out then year by year downsize by 5k until a good troop size for the region is found. I would think 10k would be enough. That means 25k more troops could be in our homeland or elsewhere as needed.
A large part of that 35k is medical people. When troops were hurt in the middle east they would be stabilized there then sent to Germany for further treatment. If they couldn’t get back in the action they would be sent home and discharged.
I have claimed that the reason we have NATO and forces still in Germany is to protect the Russians from the Germans not the other way around.
Exactly. Islam is a street gang which killed its way to power.
The Russians are crazy (read Dostoevsky, and other Russian novelists and look at the political history from 1860 or so till the Revolution) but they produced a Tolstoy, a Rachmaninoff, a Tchaikovsky and a Rimsky-Korsikoff. Islam is the religion of the Antichrist.
They also free ride off of our healthcare system in the form of us doing the R&D for new drugs and medical devices. 2/3rds of all the pharmaceutical research in the world goes on in the US. Part of the reason they’re so expensive in the US is that the socialized medical schemes in other countries don’t pay full price for those new drugs so the companies having to recover their R&D costs somehow, jack up the price in the US market. Ever wonder why those Canadian drugs are so much cheaper?
They do get 4 weeks vacation....of course they don’t get to choose when. Its in July-August for everybody in Europe so things shut down and it gets incredibly inconvenient. Also all the tourist destinations get disgustingly overcrowded.
Americans have more living space - ie bigger homes, more square footage, more home appliances, and more wealth in general than even Germans do. Yes its quite obvious to anybody who has lived in both countries as I have.
and that’s despite us forking out an extra 2-2.5% of GDP every year for Defense.
I agree and on top of that we will be real close when in the future we have to go back into Germany and kick their sorry asses again.
Russia can’t invade Germany without invading Poland first. That’s punishing Poland for Germany’s sins.
We have a resident Berliner here always posting how wonderful the economy and the surplus in Merkle’s muslim shithole is...we’ll see once they start paying their own way.
Influence, not invasion. An invasion would be counter productive to everyone.
But the influence through military intimidation needs a credible threat of invasion and Poland is in the way.
We pay for Europe’s defense while they put invading Muslims on welfare.
>>Europe has grown stupid and lazy. Let them defend themselves.
Worse than that - we are paying to defend them on the east, and they are willingly letting themselves be invaded on their southern borders
Bring the troops home - all of them - let them pay for themselves.
As we all know, since the end of WW2 and the rise of the USSR, Europe depended on the US military for it’s defense. The US bore the costs taking on the Soviets. Bases all over the place. American’s loved those overseas postings. The locals were 50/50 because the got those American dollars, but also had to deal with a bunch of crazy American’s. The governments were ok with it because they could funnel all their money to social spending because they didn’t have to pay for beans, bullets or boots. Thus creating the cradle to grave welfare state all over Europe. Well.....
Now they want to allow the tsunami of muslims and african’s that can’t rub two sticks together and cause nothing but chaos, violence and despair everywhere they go. And, that’s just the ones that aren’t jihadi’s. Toss them in there and the Europeans have created a deep and cavernous hole that they have to dig themselves out of. And with current leadership in most of the countries, it ain’t gonna happen.
The continent needs to look at Hungary, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Macedonia and now Italy, to see what needs to be done. You can’t include the UK, IMHO, because I think that place is lost. London may as well be another middle eastern city. You have cops covering up mass rapes and grooming gangs. They put Robinson in jail for stating his opinion. I think she’s lost and Churchill and Thatcher are rolling over in their graves.
The Poles have offered to build a base at their expense.
Watch the Norwegian show called Occupied it is on Netflix and elsewhere....addresses just what you say...
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