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

DW-World.DE ^ | 4/30/03

[areafiftyone]

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 rumours that Washington was planning to pull troops out of Germany, Rumsfeld indicated that 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.

[Steel Wolf]

I wonder what this will do to the german economy

It's only a couple billion dollars being pumped into the local businesses, I'm sure they'll hardly notice. Of course, they'll have to raise taxes some to field a larger military to compensate for our moving out. Another few billion dollars, big deal. The German economy is so robust due to the privilage of supporting a socialist welfare state, that they'll hardly feel a thing. < /sarcasm >

[Beck_isright]

I'll buy it. The rumblings I heard from my friends was that Poland was about to reap a bonanza. Good bye you pigs. Enjoy your new alliance with the frogs.

[Beck_isright]

" Can't help but wonder what is in store for Russia."

70,000 US troops on their western border.

[Beck_isright]

"Had me chuckling most of the day, especially one that said Belgium was the driving force behind the effort."

In other news, white flag production is peaking now.

[Beck_isright]

"I have visited Germany many times. Have lots of friends there. I have had them all tell me that the last thing they want is for the US Army to pull out of Germany. They have all told me they worry alot about the Nazi Party coming back."

The DNC has offices in Germany?????????????????

[POGIFFMOO]

......German Beer Consumption Collapses!!!!

[SunStar]

Woohoo!!!

[POGIFFMOO]

If the 8 million Muslims in France have anything to do with it don't be surprised if they don't want the French out of France too!!!

[Beck_isright]

Infrastructure yes. However they were able to reduce their defense budget by over 70% in the last 15 years thanks to us. They are getting their just deserts now. Payback is a female dog.

[DeathfromBelow]

We need to demolish all base structures, runways, and facilities as we leave. It was our tax dollars that built it.

[Nick Danger]

Hoping this is a credible report!

It is. Believe it. It will be official when it's official, but in the meantime consider it true. If I told you how I knew this I would have to kill you.

[RetiredArmy]

Probably it will help it, the German government has paid most of the bills for the U.S. forces being stationed there for some time.

Actually, that is not true. The US had to pay rent on every kasarne, housing area, training base, etc. that we had in Germany. My boss, a JAG officer in Frankfurt, and our German attorney who worked for the US there at 3d Armored Division were involved in some negotiations regarding use of facilities. Every scrap of ground that we had troops on, the Rec Services places in B'gaden and Garmisch, all of it we had to pay rent on. The Germans made millions upon billions off of us being there, plus them hiding under our wing of defense.

[section9]

I'm hoping that Rumsfeld isn't just breaking the china again.

There is little need for us to keep forces in Germany, much less redeploy them to Hungary. The German divisions should be returned to their home forts in the CONUS. This would allow them to be used in any eventuality in the Pacific Theater.

Pacific Command will, in all probability, be the next area of our operations in future. We're already conducting a secret war against Al Qaeda, while at the same time keeping an eye on the North Koreans and the Chinese.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[hchutch]

Punish France and Germany - forgive Russia.

I like that approach. :)

[Yardstick]

Good post and well said. This administration has such great follow through. When it says something, the Weasels had better listen up, because before long it's going to be doing what it said.

Too bad the Great Reagan isn't around to witness all this. He'd be so proud.

[americanbychoice]

russia will occupy the empty U.S. Bases. You don't believe for one minute that these selfish socialist countries will pay for their own defense? The new Axis will be Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Greece and russia. A shame we didn't let the Russians have them after WWll, would have saved a lot of lives and Money.

[Wolfstar]

It is credible. Since I live in the Pacific time zone, sometimes I'm able to catch these kinds of events live. I saw the entire "town hall" meeting Rummy had with the troops at Baghdad International Airport. A soldier asked if we would be pulling out of Germany. The gist of the Secretary's answer was yes, but not all decisions have been made. We may leave a small force if we choose to keep facilities such as the hospital at Ramstein.

[Beck_isright]

The Russians can't afford to move troops into Germany. They have a problem with their Islamic neighbors and Western China (the war no one wants to talk about inside China). Not to mention the symbolism of that would backfire on Putin in every way. And Greece won't dare let the ruskies in, that's like giving Turkey a blank check to go shopping for arms from us and they know it.

[americanbychoice]

Germany has paid 29% to our 71% for the privilege of protecting them. They were able to spend just 1.3% of their GDP for defense. Guess what..............?

[Southack]

Bump