The Europeans are concerned, but seriously, why do we still need that many troops in Europe? The Soviets are gone, and the Russians aren't invading any time soon. Wash Post:
The Obama administration has decided to remove two of the four U.S. Army brigades remaining in Europe as part of a broader effort to cut $487 billion from the Pentagon’s budget over the next decade, said senior U.S. officials.The article notes that this translates to a decrease of 10k to 15k soldiers. The Post says we have 80,000 troops overall in Europe, including the other branches of the military, and the Army times says 40,000 of those troops are soldiers (i.e., Army), most of them in Germany. Positioning them in Germany made sense when we had an East Germany to worry about - but the DDR reunified with West Germany in 1990. That was over twenty years ago. Perhaps it's time.
The reductions in Army forces, which have not been formally announced, are likely to concern European officials, who worry that the smaller American presence reflects a waning of interest in the decades-long U.S.-NATO partnership in Europe.
