From today's Best of the Web...
Marine Gen. James Jones, commander of America's forces in Europe, has briefed members of Congress at a NATO conference on "a plan under study to scale back American forces in Germany," the New York Times reports. The Washington Post says U.S. officials "emphasized that the contemplated changes in force structure are not related to current U.S.-German strains":But those tensions could provoke efforts to reduce the U.S. military's reliance on its facilities in Germany, one conference participant predicted. "I think there will be a movement by some in the United States to say that the next time [there is a U.S.-German disagreement], they might not let us use the bases, so let's get a training base in Romania or somewhere," said James Steinberg, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. The plan to say goodbye to Dear Olde Deutschland has probably changed some since I commented on one of the early drafts — 12 years ago. |