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However, the consequences of such a significant troop withdrawal have a couple of downsides, too, most of all for the Germans. One mostly overlooked but important side effect is the departure of the US troops themselves. With their visible presence of African-Americans and immigrants from Asia and Latin America, they enriched the German shopping malls and restaurants, representing a multi-ethnic society. If they are gone, German society will lose a bit of color, so to speak. This step will play into the hands of right wing xenophobes whose aim is to purify the German nation. Here, by accident, the goal...

On August 16, President George W. Bush announced a plan to restructure US military forces abroad significantly. Bush said the realignment would bring up to 70,000 troops and about 100,000 family members and civilian workers back to the United States within a decade. The decision will have a profound effect on the reluctant NATO ally Germany - which is host to the biggest American overseas contingent outside Iraq. But Germany, which maintains with 250,000 of its own troops by far the biggest army in Europe, does not need another 70,000 American troops to secure its borders. Germany is not at...

Tobyhanna Depot to hire 350 as closures eyed By RENITA FENNICK renitaf@leader.net As the Pentagon continues working on a plan to close some military bases by the end of next year, Tobyhanna Army Depot is looking to hire 350 people. The Monroe County facility, which employs about 3,300, will conduct job fairs Thursday in Scranton and Tannersville. The depot needs to fill the permanent positions over the next few months to meet increasing workload requirements and projected attrition rates. Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense released its final criteria for selecting the bases to be closed. Though the Base...

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Fireworks exploded and chanting erupted but there were also incidents of vandalism as the tiny Puerto Rican island of Vieques held festivities on Thursday to mark the formal end of its six-decade role as a staging area for U.S. Navy war games.Just hours after the party got under way, a group of young masked protesters overturned and vandalized U.S. Navy vehicles, destroyed a guardhouse and lit a U.S. Fish and Wildlife boat on fire, according to eyewitnesses.The transfer by the Navy of its bombing range to the U.S. Department of Interior followed four years of...

Saudis welcome U.S. pullout but fear for future By Andrew Hammond RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Many Saudis Wednesday welcomed a U.S. decision to pull troops out of the birthplace of Islam, but also said they were afraid it would affect an internal debate over reform in the strict Sunni kingdom. "Let them go home. The Americans prove every day that they are selfish and ruled by delusions of power," said Nasser al-Hamdan, a Riyadh trader. The U.S. troop presence has long irked many Saudis, already angry with Washington over its perceived bias toward Israel. The United States used Saudi...