President Donald trump confirmed his intention to withdraw from Germany almost 10 thousand American soldiers, reducing there the American contingent to less than 25 thousand. This is obviously a very bad decision. The reduction of the military presence in Germany is a true gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin, unnecessarily straining the transatlantic Alliance to reduce the global readiness of America to conduct short-term and prolonged combat operations, and not allowing America to save any funds.
Trump explained his decision by the fact that Germany “has not fulfilled its obligations” to Finance the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But it is not: the NATO budget are proportionally divided among 30 member countries, and the obligations of Germany at the present time comply with the rules. In fact, Germany has yet to fulfil the aims of the Alliance and to start to spend 2% GDP on their own defense, but it is moving in this direction.
I am well aware of these arguments. When I was the Supreme commander the integrated armed forces of NATO in Europe, I also had a completely different and parallel job is to be the commander of the European command of US armed forces. I was one of the six commanders of the geographic regions — all of these were 4-star admirals or generals, each of which was responsible for the conduct of military operations in a specific area of the world.
As for the European command of the armed forces of the United States, in my possession was a large and capable staff in Stuttgart, as well as a network of military bases stretching across all of Western Europe. In Europe there were about 64 thousand troops of all arms, and they were located in 21 key database. They were all under my command, including 40 thousand people in Germany. I should say, incidentally, that since the end of the cold war, the United States personnel in Europe was reduced by almost 90%.
When I think back to that time in my memory there were three episode.
The first is a visit to the hospital of Land forces in the German town of Landstuhl (Landstuhl) which is the largest medical center in the US Armed forces outside the continental United States. In addition to providing medical services to tens of thousands of U.S. troops and their families, this hospital was also an evacuation center for our soldiers that have received the most severe wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In those days we had thousands of soldiers with severe injuries, and was taken by aircraft to the hospital, and then transported to the United States. When I went through the wards, trying to support the wounded, I was struck by the geographicaltion need to have a place where our troops could be relatively quickly evacuated, and where they could be provided the best quality medical care.
I also remember his many trips to Germany to visit soldiers just before they are sent to the middle East or in Afghanistan. The soldiers themselves proceeded to tell me that their family members felt safe and was very happy with my stay in the German cities, which are strongly cared about them. Germany paid a significant portion of the costs of 40 thousand troops in their country and provided them with excellent conditions for living. It’s not outdated during the cold war, a forward basing of the XXI century.
And finally, I am reminded of his many trips during this period in Afghanistan, where under my strategic command were 150 thousand soldiers, and the decision was taken after the NATO-led International security assistance force (International Security Assistance Force) took the brunt of the responsibility for the war in this country. Germany was one of the main suppliers of troops to Afghanistan, and she lost a lot of its own soldiers. The Germans controlled the situation in the North of Afghanistan, mostly at bases located around Mazar-e Sharif, and they are perfectly carried out their work under the command of several German generals. I also visited 15 thousand NATO soldiers in the Balkans, which provided a fragile peace in Kosovo, and commanded them some great German two-star generals.
Good and very simple question you can ask about the main decisions on the question of the bases: Who benefits? In this case, the United States is certainly not profitable because they will lose a strategic base located near the territory of their opponents. This doesn’t save any money — in fact, the Pentagon will lose the German subsidies. When the soldiers return to America, you will need to have the appropriate base to accommodate them, and if they need to relocate, the cost of this will be significant.
NATO also plays: I can confidently say that every American soldier, present on this continent, helping to strengthen the Alliance and is the explanation for why America’s allies were willing to go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Ministry of defence will not get any benefits. It to forfeit valuable opportunities for joint training with highly capable Armed forces of Germany. America’s allies will be in disbelief and call into question our commitment to jointly deter Russia.
This brings us to the question of the only b��neficiary — Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader uses the unexpected withdrawal of troops for the purposes within their own country (“the United States are afraid of war with Russia”), in Europe (“the United States is, in fact, not going to fulfill the obligation to protect European countries”), as well as internationally in the middle East and other places (“you see how unreliable the Americans against its own alleged allies?”)
All of this actually applies not only to Germany. We are talking about the United States ‘ obligations in respect of their Alliance structures in General and in Europe in honesty. Why Europe is so important to the United States?
First, shared values in Europe are the most progressive democracy in the world, state with whom Americans share common values. Second, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of Europe, which has a GDP of 20 trillion dollars and is the main trading partner of America. Thirdly, the European theater [of military action] continues to be a critical strategic area, it provides United States the global access, which is necessary for conducting operations around the world. Fourth, Europe plays an important role in NATO, the most successful and the most capable Alliance in history. Fifthly, Europe is now a “security exporter”, it has the best-trained and best-equipped in terms of technology of the armed forces in the world.
There are many good reasons to keep our armed forces in Germany. But I can’t imagine any reason why one would have them out.
