Pentagon plans to cut by half forces in Germany: report

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 26, 2004

Pentagon plans to cut by half forces in Germany: report

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The Pentagon has drafted a plan to withdraw as many as half of the 71,000 troops based in Germany as part of an extensive realignment of American military forces around the world, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Under the plan, smaller and relatively spartan bases would be established in Romania and possibly Bulgaria, which are designed for the rapid projection of US forces against terrorists, hostile states and other potential adversaries.

The newspaper reported that in Central Asia, bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan established in 2001 to support the war in Afghanistan would be preserved as training sites and as staging areas that US forces could use in emergencies.

In East Asia, about 15,000 troops out of a total presence of 100,000 would be withdrawn, mostly by streamlining administrative staffs of the US military commands in South Korea and Japan.

But much of that reduction could be offset by a build-up of personnel and aircraft in Guam and the possible stationing of another aircraft carrier battle group in either Guam or Hawaii. The Pentagon plan also calls for new training and staging areas in Australia and expansion of military ties with Singapore and Thailand.

In the force adjustment, some of the overseas troops would be brought home, while vital equipment would be dispersed more widely to enable more rapid dispatch of forces. Another major objective, according to the plan, is to deepen military ties and joint training with a greater number of allies in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.

The planned realignment of American military forces represents a bid by the Pentagon to transform the US military into a lighter ,more lethal and more flexible force.

"One of the main arguments for forward deployment in the old days was that you had a sense that you knew where you were going to fight and so you positioned your forces where you thought you were going to fight," said Douglas J. Feith, Pentagon undersecretary for policy and an architect of the global realignment plan. "Our view now is you have to move to the fight."

The Bush administration still intends to retain a ring of permanent military hubs in closely allied countries, including Germany, Britain, Italy and Japan. But many other bases that the United States has relied on would be supplanted by a number of spare "forward operating sites" such as those planned for Eastern Europe.

Other countries would be designated as "cooperative security locations," providing staging areas that the US forces could occupy quickly in a conflict. These locations would have no permanent US military presence but could be used periodically for training exercises, said the report.

Besides the reduction of stationed troops in Germany, the nature of the remaining force would change as well. Armored units there now would leave and be replaced in part by lighter, easier-to-deploy forces, possibly including a brigade of Stryker infantry combat vehicles -- lightly-armored wheeled vehicles central to the Army's shift toward more agile, mobile units.

Additionally, some troops sent to Europe would go for short rotations without families, instead of more traditional three-year tours with families.

In the Washington Post article, Feith rejected the notion that the United States is withdrawing forces to punish Germany for its lack of support for the US-led invasion of Iraq. "What we're doing is not at all tied to current events. We're looking at this in terms of changes that will last decades."

Feith said German authorities had been kept informed of the US plan. But the German military attache in Washington, Col. Carsten Jacobson, told the Post that he was surprised by the scale of the reduction.

"It's definitely higher than what we've heard so far," he said, adding that his understanding was the proposed cuts were in the range of 20 to 30 percent.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said the global positioning of the US troops needs overhaul to better prepare for the new challenges after the end of the Cold War.

President George W. Bush and his national security advisers are still a month or two away from approving the changes, and key details have yet to be resolved, Pentagon officials said, adding that more consultations with allies will be held.

Source: Xinhua

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