Rumsfeld indicates U.S. troops to be pulled out of Germany

DW-WORLD.DE ^ | 4/30/2003 | Deutsche Welle

[Weimdog]

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been visting Iraq this Wednesday. Following a stop in the southern city of Basra, Rumsfeld moved onto the capital, Baghdad. He met with the U.S. appointed administrator for Iraq, Jay Garner. Later, he spoke to U.S. soldiers at Baghdad's airport. Asked about rumoured plans that Washington was planning to pull troops out of Germany, Rumsfeld said the rumours were true, but that the details had not yet been worked out. Those comments came one day after Rumsfeld announced that U.S. troops were pulling out of Saudi Arabia.

[Weimdog]

Just a blurb from the Germans. No source or quote.

Wait and see...

[johniegrad]

Could get interesting!!

[ican'tbelieveit]

I saw him reply to this question this morning, and he did make it sound as if we were withdrawing. The world has changed, no more cold war, need to reevaluate, etc.

[camle]

aw gee! that'll cripple the local economy for quite a while.

too bad, so sad, they should have considered this before siding with France against us.

(and they showed such class saluting our ships at sea after 9/11)

[johniegrad]

Maybe we could have joint exercises with the EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWArmy..........not!!

[onyx]

Bring them home and put them on our borders!

Base closings, (well, at least troop departures) in Saudi and Germany! Hope it really hurts Germany's economy!

[McGavin999]

I watched the program. I had to laugh because you could tell by the phrasing of the question that the troops don't want to go back to Germany. Above all, that will hasten the move.

[Shermy]

Need to be redeployed in Poland, Czech, Italy, Netherlands and Spain - deployed to contain the nascent Franco-German Empire.

[WarrenGamaliel]

I've seen Jacksonville, North Carolina; Clarksville, Tennessee and Fayetteville, NC. A military base does not create the kind of economy any sensible person would want.

[snippy_about_it]

Woo-hoo, let it be true!

[American Soldier]

The sad thing is I have heard those who grew up around the military bases tend to be decent and sympathetic to the troops, like people who grow up around military bases here.

Hopefully they will blame their liberal politicians' idiocy for the economic damage our withdrawal will inflict.

[riri]

Hurrrrayyyyy!!!! Get our guys out of that giant rain cloud!

[nkycincinnatikid]

I spent a day or two at Wetzlar and met several great people over beers. They all felt the American troopers were like family.

[RooRoobird14]

WOAH, I have a feeling the Germans are suddenly going to fall all over themselves being our "friends" now. They will absolutely panic at the thought of all those Americans and American dollars leaving their country.

[tracer]

Der payback ist nicht Himmel.....

[tracer]

"They all felt the American troopers were like family."

Indeed. A rich uncle.....

[SGCOS]

Great, I can see the headlines now.

'US soldier caught trying to smuggle into the United States a Porsche Carrera that was hidden in his backpack.'

[ellery]

It's about time. Why should we stay indefinitely where we're not wanted?

[ASA Vet]

This German made at least one unidentified American serviceman happy.

[trebb]

,i>I've seen Jacksonville, North Carolina; Clarksville, Tennessee and Fayetteville, NC. A military base does not create the kind of economy any sensible person would want.

Not sure what you mean by "economy" here. If you're talking about bars/strip clubs, etc., it's not the military that creates them, the town decides how to siphon the cash and inject it into the economy. As far as pure economic value, a bunch of pay gets spent on the local economy around a military installation and a sudden upheaval not only shuts off that faucet, but takes a lot of civilian jobs down (both from jobs on the base and from local facilities that don't have the business anymore).