The United States will withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months.
WASHINGTON — The United States will withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months, the Pentagon said Friday, fulfilling President Donald Trump’s threat as he clashes with the German leader oversaid the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iran ian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground. ” Germany hosts several U.S. military facilities, including the headquarters of its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base and a medical center in Landstuhl, where casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were treated. U.S. nuclear missiles are also stationed in the country.
The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called it “foreseeable” that the U.S. would withdraw troops from Europe and Germany, while he sought to stress mutual benefit from the U.S. military presence on the European continent.
“The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the U.S.,” Pistorius told the German news agency dpa, while adding that European allies needed to adjust their defense postures — and were doing so. “We Europeans must take on more responsibility for our security,” he said, stressing recent efforts by Germany to boost its armed forces, accelerate procurement and develop infrastructure.
News of the troop withdrawal drew swift pushback from Democrats in Congress as well as a hawkish Washington think tank. They said the move will benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin and weaken U.S. security interests. The withdrawal “suggests American commitments to our allies are dependent on the president’s mood,” said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“The president should immediately cease this reckless action before he causes irreversible consequences for our alliances and long-term national security,” Reed said. Bradley Bowman, a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the U.S. military’s presence in Germany and elsewhere in Europe “not only strengthens deterrence against additional Kremlin aggression but also facilitates the projection of American military power into the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Africa.
” Trump ignored questions from reporters about the withdrawal on Friday as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Florida, following a rally to tout his economic agenda. Trump made a similar threat in his first term, saying he would pull about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops who were then stationed in Germany, but he didn’t start the process and Democratic President Joe BidenTrump wrote Wednesday on social media that the U.S. was reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a “determination” to be made soon.
On Thursday, he was still thinking about Merz, posting that the German leader should “spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country” than concerning himself with Iran. American allies in NATO have braced for a U.S. troop withdrawal since Trump took office, with Washington warning that Europe would have to.
NATO allies have expected for more than a year that the U.S. troops deployed after Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022 would be first to leave. Ed Arnold, an expert in European security at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, in London, said Europe is more concerned about issues like a U.S.on NATO’s borders with Ukraine.
The move to cut 1,500-3,000 troops came on short notice and unsettled NATO ally Romania, where the military organization runs an air base. Man arrested after allegedly stealing gun from Montgomery policeMan sentenced in Alabama to 20 years for rape, unlawful imprisonment of two womenFirehouse Subs offering free sandwiches, but you have to have one of these names
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