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PHOTOS STORIES NEW YORK Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on the Pentagon's plan to withdraw troops from stations abroad. The Pentagon's decision to break up its heavy footholds in Europe and Asi a has been lauded by many in the defense community as overdue, but some military analysts and members of countries to be vacated are asking the Defense Department to rethink its plan.
search) told Congress th at reshaping the current alignment makes sense not only because the Cold War is long over, but because the move would allow the United States to better fend off its newest enemies. "We do not expect our forces to fight where they are stationed," Rumsfeld testified on Thursday. "We know that our forces will need to move to th e fight, wherever it is."
search) made plain that the newest threats to Western democracy aren't armies or even enemy governments, b ut rather shadowy players willing to die in self-declared violent crusad es, rendering force-by-force matchups irrelevant. Because the United Sta tes' global defense posture has been "virtually frozen in place" for 50 years, Rumsfeld said, a military that stresses agility and flexibility i s now needed.
US troop levels in Germany have steadily declined over the past two dec ades from a quarter million at the Cold War's close to the 73,000 US t roops currently stationed there. With the communist threat gone and fron tlines shifting to the Middle East and North Africa, the Pentagon's new plan will split up the cluster of firepower there and spread smaller uni ts east and south.
The new units will be able to mobilize and reach hot zones faster than U S forces can today, he said. Defense officials said that high-tech, rapidly deployable forces would al so be installed in the Eastern European countries of Bulgaria, Poland, R omania and Uzbekistan. "There will be no giant sucking sound in Europe," Swiergosz said. Some German business owners in military towns have lamented the loss of a bout 170,000 Americans, a figure that includes family members and civili an employees.
search), whose lon gstanding mandate has been to protect member countries in the Western al liance. But officials from both countries have said discussions to remove the tro ops began years ago, and while unemployment is expected to climb in base towns like Kitzingen, home to 2,600 1st Infantry Division soldiers, man y Germans recognize that the country's economic woes can hardly be blame d on US troop movements. "I think most people, in terms of the economy, are concerned with what's going on in eastern Germany," said Fabian Marco Loehe, a reporter at the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. A Stern magazine poll released earlier this month found that one-fifth of Germans regretted reunification and wanted the Berlin Wall back. com that Germans were not surprised by Bush's rec ent announcement to institute the plan, saying his countrymen expected t he United States to reconfigure its troop placements after the Sept. "This administration has consulted extensively with our allies old and new on a multitude of levels, every step of the way," Rumsfeld said in his congressional testimony. The plan will force relatively conflict-free Western European nations to take more responsibility for their own security, and not a moment too so on, say some US officials. In 2003, Germany spent $351 billion on def ense, less than 10 percent of the US defense budget, and 15 percent o f its own annual gross domestic product. Rather than weakening NATO, some analysts add that the Pentagon's move co uld spur the alliance to streamline and reprioritize its mandates. "The base closures should make NATO a more effective organization. It wil l make US forces more effective on the world stage, and will therefore strengthen NATO as an organization," Dr. "The realignment is a wake-up call for the European countries who are complacent about spending money on their own defense, in particular Germany." Gardiner added that America's increasing reliance on smaller Eastern Euro pean allies could change the dynamic in NATO, to the point where giants like France and Germany would no longer be so dominant. "This has strengthened the position of new European countries on the worl d stage. For example, Poland is emerging as one of Europe's major powers partly as a result of its major role in Iraq," he said. Realignment to Impact Far East, Too In the East, American forces are most heavily concentrated in Korea and J apan.
But as soldiers sta tioned there like to say, there's nothing "D" about the DMZ with the t wo Koreas still technically at war, it remains one of the tensest places in the world. US defense officials have argued that pulling American troops out of th e North's immediate line of fire would better position them for a counte rattack. Rumsfeld has already told Seoul of plans to bring the Army's 2n d Infantry Division, stationed just south of the DMZ, farther south from the border an idea that coincides with South Korea's plans to pull it s capital down toward the tip of the peninsula to reduce the threat from the North. Rather than rely so heavily on ground troops to protect the South, the Un ited States is expected to bolster air units in neighboring Japan, Singa pore and especially Guam, a nearby US territory. Should Pyongyang stri ke first, US warplanes stationed in Guam can be in fighting position w ithin a matter of hours. "What we are doing there is consolidating some of the many facilities tha t are no longer needed. We are moving our forces to places where they wi ll be not so close to Seoul and, therefore, not an irritant to the popul ation of South Korea," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told F OX News in August. American troops stationed on the peninsula have not always enjoyed a warm relationship with South Koreans. Incidents such as the accidental mowin g down of two schoolgirls by an Army vehicle two years ago have touched off massive protests, mainly by young South Koreans who were not alive d uring the Korean War. In addition, South Korea has over the past 50 years transformed itself in to an economic powerhouse with a 700,000-strong military on perpetual wa r footing. Rumsfeld said more responsibility would be transferred to Kor ean forces and he had every confidence the peninsula's defense would be "stronger than before." But few defense experts believe the South could take on North Korea's 11 million troops on its own, and some are skeptical of the timing of Bush 's announcement to slash troop numbers in the Pacific theater given the possibility of a nuclear arms race between the Koreas, Japan and an asce ndant China, with its increasing anxieties along the Taiwan Strait. "Taking troops out of Korea makes sense but not now," said Lawrence J Ko rb, assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan.
Many Korean papers, surprised at the announcement that US troop numbers would actually be reduced on the peninsula, expressed concern that the United States was so tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan that it was abandon ing the Cold War's last frontier. The 3,600-strong 2nd Brigade of the 2n d Infantry Division, permanently stationed in Korea, was deployed to Ira q last summer and the Pentagon has given no signal on its return.
is sleeping better at nig ht because of the atomic bombs under his bed." But not all Koreans are unhappy with the realignment plan. "The redeployment of US troops would influence not so much on North Kor ea's strategy," said Tae-Gyun Park, a history professor at Seoul Nationa l University. "The most crucial fear for the North Korean people is the US military presence in South Korea, regardless of its size and locati on." "As long as the US and South Korean alliance is strong, security will s tay the same," the 71-year-old physician said. It is unclear how the Pentagon's plan would affect relations between Kore a, Japan and China. China remains a close ally to its communist neighbor , and talk of a remilitarized Japan puts both China and South Korea on e dge. In addition, recent revelations about Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions have prompted speculation of an India-Pakistan-style arms ...
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