US planning to slash troops in Germany: report

It is not only Trump who has complained about Germany not spending enough on their own defense and readiness towards their obligations to NATO. Last year or a couple of years ago (?) there was a thread about Germany's inability to field even 1/3 of their fighter aircraft that were flyable and if I remember correctly they could only fully arm maybe 8 !!

Other than supporting Germany's economy and manning some listening post (you can hear taxi cabs in N.Y. or Moscow or other interesting conversations) I personally do not understand a need for troops there. With today's push button warfare I do not see Russia invading Germany as they have other ways of gaining control of European countries with trade ties.

I probably do not have the big picture but I applaud this move by the administration. Beside I was always told the big picture was a pastoral scene with not much going on hung in the puzzle palace of the pentagon.

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to slash the number of troops it maintains in Germany by more than a quarter in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The newspaper said the Defense Department would cut the number of military personnel by 9,500 from the current 34,500 permanently assigned to Germany postings.

The Journal also said a cap of 25,000 would be set on how many US troops could be inside German at any one time,

www.bangkokpost.com...

www.reuters.com...
Warsaw hopes some U.S. troops based in Germany will be moved to Poland

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday he hoped that some of the U.S. troops that are set to be removed from Germany will be reassigned to Poland.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to cut the number of U.S. troops stationed in Germany, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. The move would reduce the U.S. troop presence in Germany by 9,500 troops from the 34,500 troops that are currently permanently assigned there.

That would be a big boost for their economy and status IMO.

The US president wants almost 10,000 US soldiers assigned out of Germany by September.

Yeah! Good job!

The move is reportedly down to Germany not increasing its defense spending sufficiently.

Wut?

Source

a reply to: 727Sky

Personally I fully support that, in fact I wish it'd go further, bring all of them home, or reassign them.

Germany shouldn't have any military. It's good the equipment is not working, one might say that's "divine intervention/sabotage".
(Haha did I just say divine sabotage!?)
Anyhoo, good.

a reply to: Peeple

Still afraid of us? ;-)

No, seriously, usually you pull back troops because that corner of the earth has become peaceful enough.
But to punish a friend? Reeeaaaaally?

-> How do you personally view a friend who (tries to) punishes you for not following his orders/ideas? He is still a good friend?

a reply to: ManFromEurope

We are not friends since Bush jr axis of evil, remember?
And that's fine. Germany is on its way, the US is on theirs and they're not the same.

In regards to your "afraid" question: the question is who is afraid of Russia? Germany is obviously not.

a reply to: Peeple

Russia is not the military superpower anymore, no need to be afraid about that kind of power.

We like to have NorthStream 2, and we know that it drives some US-americans crazy, and there is a little bit of smirk about that, too.

And we do not need to discuss NS2 here, as we all know that Russia = 100% bad and commie and mafia and putin=bad and mafia and so on.
Germany likes reliability.

Tired of foreign intervention no need. Defend for yourselves. I am sure everyone would agree.

a reply to: 727Sky

About time. There hasn't been any realistic threat of a boots on the ground invasion of Europe in 30 years.

Most US troops in Europe aren't there to defend the Europeans, they are there in order to maintain bases that can be used to supply wars in Africa and the Middle East.

Bring the troops home, end these meaningless foreign wars. These forces can better protect America from base in America.

a reply to: 727Sky

There are plenty of Germans who will be quite happy to hear that. And a few who would be even more happy if all US troops left Germany.

Trump should pull out of every country...

what makes the sentiment from Germany different with other countries? we know what they would love to see, but only few countries had the gravitas to tell the US to get the hell out.

why does this country insist on having military on foreign soil? weird...

kick American military out of your country. I see a trending hashtag or a movement like against police brutality?

how about a March against world-police brutality...

oh we all know it's coming. anyone denying is just secretly praying

originally posted by: moebius
a reply to: 727Sky

There are plenty of Germans who will be quite happy to hear that. And a few who would be even more happy if all US troops left Germany.

99% will be happy. I know this, because I was in the military and in Germany.

a reply to: 727Sky

The U.K. closed it's last Barracks in Germany 4 months ago, bringing 20,000 troops home.

Personally i don't know why any foreign military should still be based in Germany.

The British army has relinquished control of its last remaining military headquarters in Germany following 75 years in the country, ahead of the final withdrawal of serving personnel

www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: alldaylong

location, that's really about it as long as anyone is mucking around in the stan region germany is a good location for wounded to pass through.

As for pulling out of germany completely Id be fine with that, for the most part greatly enjoyed my time over there till running afoul of some of some of those laws specifically targeting non-germans.

This is terrific news as far as I'm concerned. Keep pulling troops back. Re-train and redeploy some at the Southern border. Imagine what a garrison of 100k troops spread from Texas to California could do to limit illegal border crossings.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Plenty of training down there rooting out cartels.

a reply to: 727Sky

We should have been out of Germany a long time ago. I lived in Europe for 6 years and the people hated it that the US was still occupying Germany. The government of Germany liked it because they used the US $$ to take care of their defense and liked the massive $$ spent by the soldiers and their families. However, the everyday people hated it and saw the US as an occupying force, which it is/was in reality.

I say get out of Germany entirely except for 2 bases: Ramstein Air Base, because it is so large and well equipped and allows for quick deployment of troops from the states within a very short window to that side of the world. Kaiserslaturn Army Base, where equipement is stored for the deployment of troops who need to defend Europe. (Although, the only reason we do that is because of NATO, it could easily be closed). And the Landsthul Hospital facility in the same location as Ramstein, as it is a well equipped hospital for the rapid care of US soldiers on that side of the globe. The rest should be gone entirely.

WWII was a long time ago, we don't need to be in Europe in the massive numbers we are any longer, it is expensive and not necessary. Not in this day and age where we can have troops from the US to Europe on the ground in 48 hours.

Good for Trump, it will save a massive amount of money for the US and we need to encourage Europe to learn to defend itself and not rely on the US for most of it's defense.

France kicked the US military out a long time ago.
The only reason the German government has been keeping the US troops
is they don't want to spend the money to defend themselves.
A rotten reason and a parasitic reason.

a reply to: ManFromEurope

Time for Germany to take care of themselves. Russia can do whatever they want and so can Germany. I'm tired of the USA being the police from Russian influence.



Just raise taxes and pay for your own defense

a reply to: ManFromEurope

Russia is not the military superpower anymore

maybe in the conventional sense, but that is questionable. your navy lacks in some areas, in others not so much, aircraft and tanks i'd say are pretty sporty, but russia still has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons
last i heard 6,550 warheads, the U.S. has 6,330 close but still in the lead.

and ol vladimir has said he will use them if attacked even if just conventional.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday endorsed Russia's nuclear deterrent policy which allows him to use atomic weapons in response to a conventional strike targeting the nation's critical government and military infrastructure.

Putin Signs Russia's Nuclear Deterrent Policy

so yea, Russia is ranked 2nd in the top three according to every military analytical group out there.

I think they should diversify the troupes and maybe putting some in Poland might be a good idea. We have too many in Germany right now, I thought there were a little under thirty thousand there. Maybe there are more now.