President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to pull nearly 10,000 troops out of Germany by September, which would mark a sharp drawdown in a country that is home to the largest number of forces in Europe, it was reported Friday.One obvious reason for this is that it will plese Trump's handler.
Pentagon officials on Friday said they were unaware of the plan. But the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed government officials, said White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien recently signed off on it.
The other reason is that Trump is piqued at the Germans and, like any undisciplined toddler, he lashes out.
Angela Merkel has rebuffed Donald Trump’s invitation to attend a G7 summit, which the U.S. president is keen to portray as a symbol of a return to normality from the upheaval of the coronavirus crisis.Trump wants to show his base that he's still effective on the global stage. The Germans are not really interested in being a prop to a wannabee dictator.
"The federal chancellor thanks President Trump for his invitation to the G7 summit at the end of June in Washington. As of today, considering the overall pandemic situation, she cannot agree to her personal participation, to a journey to Washington," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told POLITICO Friday.
Guess Trump could invite Duerte, Putin, Bolisarno, Orban, Netanyahu and Xi and form the Thug-7.
I have to say this is a trump decision stopped clock anomaly to me. It makes sense to draw down US forces in Germany. Like the Roman empire in 476-510AD, when empires fall the 1st move is to bring home detached military units.
ReplyDeleteAnd, there is no longer a good reason for the USA to garrison Europe. With the weakness of Russia's economy and military and the collapse of oil prices there is little chance of hoards of Russian armor boiling through the Fulda gap any longer. Bring them home.
How will we keep the Soviets from pouring through the Fulda Gap on their way to Belgium?
ReplyDeleteNATO expansion pushed the de facto Russian-German border several hundred miles east.
ReplyDeleteI’m not opposed to the drawdown. But the timing seems suspicious. And I’d rather have some thousands of troops there rather than have to kick the door to the continent in for a third time.
Germany knows how to deal with Russia and China
ReplyDeleteThe Bulgarians are about to get their Southstream prohibited by the Obama administration.
https://www.reuters.com/article/bulgaria-serbia/bulgaria-still-aims-to-complete-turkstream-pipeline-extension-by-year-end-pm-idUSL8N2DE27J
Russia sailed their only pipe laying ship around the world to complete Nordstream II.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/opinion/nord-stream-2-in-the-hands-of-akademik-cherskiy/
Eastern Ukraine probably goes to Russia when that happens. Situations to be managed.
Captain Chaos at the helm. Carry on.
Relatively speaking, this just pushed Germany a little further down the nuclear weapons path. While France is a temporary bulwark for them, and the UK is also, if the U.S. is leaving, Germany will unveil nuclear capacity. Same with South Korea. The era of of the nuclear standoff just got a lot murkier.
ReplyDeleteGenerally I'd be all for any kind of bring the boys and girls home, but under the circumstances, I'd rather they were there, than here.
ReplyDelete"there is little chance of hoards of Russian armor boiling through the Fulda gap any longer."
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't much of a chance of that back in the day, either. While here in the west the Russian soldiers were all 9 foot tall and bulletproof; by the 70's and 80's all those armored divisions were able to travel about....seven miles. Black market profiteering and theft was so prevalent, that valuable supplies (like fuel for their armored divisions) were kept in centralized depots far from the front.
All while Ronnie Ray Gun was spending trillions building up our military, because the scary, scary Russkies.