Alarm bells rang among German business groups on Monday after President George W. Bush announced plans to bring home up to 70,000 U.S. troops from Europe and Asia. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Bamberg, home to one large U.S. base, said: "It's not just the withdrawal of thousands of troops, but also of their families."
"Well, Helga. There goes the knicknack business."
"We might as well pack up and move to Bulgaria, Fritz." |
"Initially, the retail trade would bear the brunt, but it would also have an affect on services, such as sports centres or swimming pools," said a chamber official. Bush announced plans to bring home the troops within a decade in a major realignment that Democrats said was politically motivated in an election year.
| Anything Bush does, to include breathing in and out, will be interpreted as politically motivated by the Dems. I think most of us saw this coming sometime early last year, and the clouds forming in mid- to late-2002... |
"The world has changed a great deal and our posture must change with it," Bush said of his plan for one of the biggest shifts of U.S. forces since the Cold War. Germany is home to 70,000 U.S. troops, many in the south of the country along the Rhine or in Bavaria, although some 20,000 soldiers normally based in Gemany are currently on active service elsewhere, notably in Iraq. The U.S. has made it clear that the Ramstein Air Base and the Landstuhl Medical facility, both much used during the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, will remain, along with an army training facility.
| Grafenwoehr Training Area, I believe they are also getting a Stryker brigade. |
A number of army bases are clearly under threat.
| 1st Armored and 1st Infantry coming back to states, don't know where. Rhein-Main AB being totally turned over to Germans. |
Edmund Stoiber, premier of Bavaria, which has many bases, said he feared that many U.S. soldiers would leave the state. "The plans have been on the table for some time, but now they are unfortunately firming up," he said. Germany has already seen some impact in the early 1990s when the U.S. Army cut its force in Europe to fewer than 150,000 from 210,000. However, that was in part compensated for by an economic upturn.
| In the U.S. or Germany? I thought they were busy getting indigestion from East Germany back then? |
Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Ohio, Bush said more troops would eventually be stationed in the United States, and those remaining overseas would have more combat power to "surge quickly to deal with unexpected threats." He said base closings would also save American taxpayers' money. |