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2004-08-16 Home Front: WoT
Bush Announces Large U.S. Troop Realignment
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Posted by Spot 2004-08-16 1:51:16 PM|| || Front Page|| [11127 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night!

You been great, folks. Don't forget to tip the wiatresses!
Posted by Chuck Simmins  2004-08-16 2:44:45 PM|| [http://blog.simmins.org]  2004-08-16 2:44:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 ABOUT FRIGGIN TIME! Finally an ending to the WWII fighting and occupation!
Posted by Cyber Sarge  2004-08-16 2:58:34 PM||   2004-08-16 2:58:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 We still get to keep the AFRC hotel in Garmish, right? Please?
Posted by Steve  2004-08-16 3:48:30 PM||   2004-08-16 3:48:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Evidently, some person from the Clinton Administration named Holebroke (sp) is claiming that it will be too expensive to bring our troops and their families back from overseas deployment. Does he think that we are truly not smart enough to see through an accounting fiction?
Posted by Super Hose 2004-08-16 5:03:14 PM||   2004-08-16 5:03:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 SH - Richard Holbrook - Clintoon Bosnia negotiator and Skeery Foreign Policy asshat consultant. Regularly shows up on Fox to be Skeery nay-sayer and apologist regards anything in Bush Doctrine.
Posted by .com 2004-08-16 5:24:37 PM||   2004-08-16 5:24:37 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 I saw Richard Holbrook in Winchester Va about 12 years or so ago... in a holiday inn... very strange, one of his chilliuns was being Apple Queened, I wanted to ask him for a few insights on negotiations but I was shy and having a tough time getting back to my table, the damn lounge was crawing with the scaly types and the floor was slick with dead carters.
Posted by Shipman 2004-08-16 6:09:39 PM||   2004-08-16 6:09:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 [Holbrook] is claiming that it will be too expensive to bring our troops and their families back from overseas deployment.Does he think that we are truly not smart enough to see through an accounting fiction?

Maybe just the ones who think it's going to happen all at once. It's planned for 10 year period.
Posted by Pappy 2004-08-16 6:43:32 PM||   2004-08-16 6:43:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 What they are all snivelin' about is the fact that there fellow travelers (socialist international members) are going to lose $US to help prop up their cradle to grave welfare system in the EU.
The EU leadership hates the US. They are fully training their population to hate the US, even in the U.K. Screw them get our troops out now. Don't wait 10 years. When the Russian wolf starts growling in their direction screw them again. Some ass hat on Fox from the Kommie Kerry Edwards Camp was going on about how our troops are "closer". Well being close is worthless if NATO refuses to act or if they don't allow us to use their airspace. Get US out now lock stock and barrel don't even leave one rusty nail behind. Fact Germany can not defend it's self. It can't afford to. We are being used as their protection at our own expense. Screw them.
Posted by Flamebait93268 2004-08-16 7:35:55 PM||   2004-08-16 7:35:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Flamebait, you are talking nonsense. Germany certainly hasn't denied the U.S. the use of airspace. Instead German soldiers stood guard to protect U.S. military installations so U.S. troops stationed in Germany could go to Iraq without worrying (free of charge btw). Just about every wounded soldier gets his first treatment in Germany.

Germany spends more than a billion euro a year on American military presence here.

U.S. troops are not in Germany to protect us from some bear growling, but because it's logistically and strategically convenient.

If the Pentagon thinks that their new strategy is better, so be it. Whether it's cheaper or not, I don't know. The restaurants and nightclubs of Würzburg and Wiesbaden will have harder times but that's about it. The reduction of GERMAN troops has been far more painful for the cities involved.

German can defend herself against current dangers. Should there be major terror attacks in Germany, there is nothing that a strong U.S. presence could change.

Fact is, the Middle East will be the major battlefield in the next 5 years. From what I hear the two heavy armored divisions in Germany will be replaced with one brigade, a unit roughly one-third the size of a division's 15,000 or so troops. Instead of tanks, the replacement unit will be outfitted with new Stryker vehicles, the smaller, lighter and faster armored vehicles that are a key part of the Army's future strategy. That makes sense, because it's no longer the Soviet troops we're facing. It's likely that America will have to be present on several smaller battlegrounds (the massive involvement in Iraq is rather the exception to the rule).

The different European armies will have similar choices to make if they want to be relevant. Lean, mean, fast... this is the ticket for the future.
Posted by True German Ally 2004-08-16 8:00:45 PM||   2004-08-16 8:00:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 TGA, what do you think that the German Government will do with the land as it's made available? It looks like the pullout will be slow to allow for an orderly transfer. With the fencing and such already installed, I would think that research type industrial use would be a good fit for some of the land.
Posted by Super Hose 2004-08-16 8:34:38 PM||   2004-08-16 8:34:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 TGA: “Germany certainly hasn't denied the U.S. the use of airspace. Instead German soldiers stood guard to protect U.S. military installations so U.S. troops stationed in Germany could go to Iraq without worrying (free of charge btw). Just about every wounded soldier gets his first treatment in Germany.”

FlameBait isn’t talking nonsense. While the US hasn’t been denied use of airspace by Germany to date, other EU nations have denied airspace, rail travel, and port rights to US armed forces. Given the current German political wind, removing US troops makes good sense.

Weren’t there news reports that Germans wanted to charge the US for providing German guards to protect US military installations? Presumably from demonstrations by Germans. Here’s a related article:
http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_1187965_1_A,00.html

Didn’t a German doctor refuse to treat US soldiers?

Isn’t FlameBait correct that the German leaders and the German media are teaching the German populace to hate Americans?

“German can defend herself against current dangers. Should there be major terror attacks in Germany, there is nothing that a strong U.S. presence could change.”

On this we agree.
Posted by Anonymous5032 2004-08-16 8:36:07 PM||   2004-08-16 8:36:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 SuperHose we'll see... anyway it won't be the Schröder government to decide on that.

But I bet the land will be in better shape than those poisoned landfills the Russians left behind.
Posted by True German Ally 2004-08-16 8:37:49 PM||   2004-08-16 8:37:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Anonymous 5032 (its nicer to talk to a person btw).

If I remember well the major obstructionist was Turkey, not an EU member.

The cost free protection has been going on for 3 years now. Not that anybody in the U.S. seems to notice this. Has nothing to do with demonstrations. Those are taken care of by German police.

The doctor? If I remember well there was a doctor in Hanover who'd said such a thing. Needless to say that he was hundreds of miles away from the nearest U.S. soldier and he got rapped badly by the local medical association.

The government and "the" media teaching Germans to hate Americans? That's nonsense. Some SPD guys have said hostile things about Bush but nobody is in the business of hate teaching. Our media is as multifacetious as it can be, so you'll find just about anything... from sense to nonsense.

And those current "political winds" will change even before the first troops move back to the U.S.

This has little to do with Germany. U.S. and German military have a perfect working relationship.

From 1989 to now U.S. presence in Germany has been reduced from 250000 to 75000, yet nobody took this as a sign of worsened relations between the two countries.

The focus has shifted, that's all. I don't miss the Soviets, thank you.

If you think you're better off in Romania or Uzbekistan, so be it. But I bet the locals won't be invited to guard your installations.
Posted by True German Ally 2004-08-16 9:10:07 PM||   2004-08-16 9:10:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 TGA I am glad you were able to inform me. All I have seen in EU news here is Cafes that said they would not serve people from the US and anti US protests (typical anarco nut jobs) I just get the feeling from reading the press of Europe that we are hated in Europe. Europe expects us to behave as they wish blaming us for everything wrong in the world. I am not getting that from the US press but the Eu press.

I don't want to put any US troops in any other counrty than the US. I am for protecting our own border (with Mexico.)
Posted by Flamebait93268 2004-08-16 9:35:17 PM||   2004-08-16 9:35:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 Clearly the Kerry camp is afraid the votes of servicemen will actually be COUNTED this time if they come home to the states they are registered. (CF. Florida, Gore, denial of absentee ballots from servicemen oversees.)
Posted by eLarson 2004-08-16 9:39:27 PM|| [http://larsonian.blogspot.com]  2004-08-16 9:39:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 Flamebait

We get millions of U.S. tourists every year. I haven't heard of a case that they got refused service. There may be isolated cases. Of course those will be the ones you read about.

Germans are more willing to talk politics with foreigners, so that may cause conflicts sometimes. I never start those with strangers. An American abroad (or a German for that matter) will always be in an odd position when he has to talk about politics at home.

I reserve this for good friends, who know who you are.

Or for blogs like Rantburg :-)
Posted by True German Ally 2004-08-16 9:49:29 PM||   2004-08-16 9:49:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 TGA - the only time I've ever gotten bad service and snobbery over there is when I was in France and spoke English.

Funny thing is, I went back to that same place a few months later (on business) and spoke German (I have a fairly lazy Bayerischer accent) with my wife and the Frenche treated us German speking people VERY nicely - at least to our faces.

You Germans sure have trained the French. Shame your leadership will not remind them of the same.
Posted by Oldspook 2004-08-16 11:43:14 PM||   2004-08-16 11:43:14 PM|| Front Page Top

18:00 Halfass Pete
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