Article

2003-03-04 Europe

Bulgaria finds itself in the frontline of US military build-up

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Posted by Steve White 2003-03-04 10:46 am|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Pay attention to the hoo-hoo in Turkey. The big issue is the basing and projection of the troops from Turkish soil into Iraq. There's not been a whole lot of noise about overflights, either of tactical or transport aircraft. How to you get to the Mideast from Romania and Bulgaria other than over Turkey? That's what makes these new eastern digs valuable. Without overflight it just bottles the force structure to the Black Sea.

Posted by Don 3/4/2003 8:19:46 AM|| 3/4/2003 8:19:46 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Be interesting to watch the Euorpean stockmarkets if the U.S. millitary moved lock stock and barrel to East.Euorpe.
30-40,000 year-round uniformed tourists spend a lot of money.

Posted by raptor 2003-03-04 06:31:55|| 2003-03-04 06:31:55|| Front Page Top

#3 Just a small bit of fact checking on your A**...Charleston is in SOUTH Carolina. Geeze guys, if you can't get the geography right can we trust the rest of the article?

Posted by Scott 2003-03-04 08:12:54|| 2003-03-04 08:12:54|| Front Page Top

#4 Pay attention to the hoo-hoo in Turkey. The big issue is the basing and projection of the troops from Turkish soil into Iraq. There's not been a whole lot of noise about overflights, either of tactical or transport aircraft. How to you get to the Mideast from Romania and Bulgaria other than over Turkey? That's what makes these new eastern digs valuable. Without overflight it just bottles the force structure to the Black Sea.

Posted by Don 2003-03-04 08:19:46|| 2003-03-04 08:19:46|| Front Page Top

#5 With unenployment in Germany so high, and Schroeder's popularity so low, and the awful state of the German economy, and their back-stabbing behavior toward the U.S., let's take our bases to the "new" europe. All of them!

Posted by Kamil Zogby 2003-03-04 12:59:43|| [zogby.blogspot.com] 2003-03-04 12:59:43|| Front Page Top

#6 Location Location Location

Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-03-04 13:43:36|| 2003-03-04 13:43:36|| Front Page Top

#7 That's what the U.S. had planned way before feathers got ruffled over Iraq.
It will cost Germany money, yes, but I don't hear a lot of people complain. A lot of Germans are quite happy if Germany is no longer used for more U.S. military adventures.
Good U.S. friend Putin will be so happy if you move your troops closer to him.
Lets see how long you keep your "new allies" happy with dollars. Worked well in Turkey, right?
But you will like Bulgaria. The strip clubs and the beer are a lot cheaper there. The German tourists know that already.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-03-04 15:13:25|| 2003-03-04 15:13:25|| Front Page Top

#8 "We're in the money, we're in the money!" Sofia sideshow says the wine is good in Bulgaria.

And TGA, of course it is just a a coincidence, but didn't Germany's economy start slowing down around the time we started pulling our troops out?

And since Turkey didn't get the $ in 1990, that was one of the problems.

Posted by Anonymous 2003-03-04 16:03:38|| 2003-03-04 16:03:38|| Front Page Top

#9 Anonymous you cleary overestimate the economical impact of U.S. troops in a country that is the third biggest economy in the world. The current economic problems in Germany stem from the fact that East Germany was in a far more rotten state than anyone had imagined at the time of the reunification. And up to now Germans have been unwilling to reform the economy: too much bureaucracy, tough labor laws, aging population etc.
In Bulgaria the stationing of U.S. troops will have a far greater impact on the local economy.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-03-04 16:19:17|| 2003-03-04 16:19:17|| Front Page Top

#10 TGA - I've read your comments and developed a respect for both your realism and patriotism....however, you are not personally responsible for actions your government takes, and I think most of the commenters would acknowledge that while they disagree with the actions (or nonactions) of the German leadership, they basically feel no dislike for the common volk, and you in particular. I strongly dislike the positions and rhetoric Gerhard Shroeder took to win reelection, and if it takes moving out of Germany to remind the people just who was an empire and who wasn't(?) then that's a move I'd celebrate, along with much of the former warsaw pact. We do spend a lot in your economy, along with providing much of your security $ during and after the cold war. That has enabled much of western europe to develop social welfare states without regard for providing for their own defense. NATO is dead, and so will be the UN. Defend yourselves, and start to make the hard budgetary choices others charged with defending you have had to make...not you personally, though, of course..

Posted by Frank G 2003-03-04 18:46:42|| 2003-03-04 18:46:42|| Front Page Top

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