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Jeff LPH 3 sends this one in.<\/p>\n
Military Times is reporting on a hearing the House Armed Services Committee is conducting into the Pentagon’s plan to pull 12,000 or so troops out of Germany. Some would be relocated to other countries like Belgium and Italy. More than half of the 12,000 would be reassigned stateside.<\/p>\n
But without a cost analysis, no timeline and, according to lawmakers, scant reasoning for the move at all, the plan has gotten a resoundingly poor grade from a committee with the power to approve or deny it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this plan was particularly well thought out and I worry about a number of aspects of its implementation,\u201d Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., HASC\u2019s chairman, said in his opening remarks.<\/p>\n
First announced by Defense Secretary Mark Esper at the end of July, the proposal was borne of a U.S. European Command review, which each combatant command has gone through in recent months.<\/p>\n
Esper has argued that redistributing some troops throughout other points in Europe, while specifically bringing the 2nd Cavalry Regiment home and deploying it and similar formations as a rotational force focused on countries east of Germany and closer to Russia, would bolster the mission to deter that country\u2019s encroachment across its western border.<\/p>\n
Critics of the plan have pointed out that it seems to fall directly in line with recent rhetoric from President Donald Trump, who has threatened to pull troops out of Germany for not meeting its non-binding goal of contributing 2 percent of its gross domestic product to NATO.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gotta say if the only reasoning is that Germany is using our troops and military resources to secure their national defense and haven’t met NATO funding requirements, then why are we there? I know we won the right to be there in perpetuity, unconditional surrender has that effect, but Americans are sick of being the world’s police. That includes being Europe’s deterrent to Russia and Iran. There’s a difference between helping an ally and being used by someone who’s supposed to be your friend.<\/p>\n
Source; Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n
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