U.S. troops marching east?
Mark Landler/NYT NYT
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
iht.com
NATO chief sees some forces leaving Germany
STUTTGART, Germany NATO's top commander on Monday laid out his vision for a radical overhaul in the deployment of United States forces in Europe, which would reduce the American military presence in Germany in favor of smaller, less costly bases in Eastern Europe.
The commander, General James Jones, said that the plans, which were still at an "embryonic stage," would shift the weight of American forces from Western Europe to eastern countries, like Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania, which are closer to the post-Cold War conflicts of today.
"With an alliance that is moving to the east, it stands to me as eminently logical that we will have more contacts with the east," Jones said in a briefing here at the European headquarters of the United States forces. "We will be looking for ways to be more flexible, more agile."
He said he would visit NATO's future members in Eastern Europe this spring to brief them on the proposals, and would be in a position to begin implementing the first stages in about a year.
Jones, who became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military chief as well as the commander of American forces in January, portrayed the process as part of a broader transformation of the alliance's war-fighting capabilities.
But it is also occurring against the backdrop of a political rift between Germany and the United States, a rift that he said could propel the debate over where to deploy troops in unpredictable directions. "Timing is everything," said Jones, who first presented his thinking to members of Congress last month and plans to offer more details in testimony before the House and Senate this month.
Some angry lawmakers have called for the Pentagon to pull its troops out of Germany as a way of punishing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for his refusal to support an American-led war on Iraq. Jones insisted his plans had nothing to do with the trans-Atlantic tension.
"I cannot dictate what people think," he said. "But I will do everything possible to dissuade them." Jones said he had discussed the plans with German military officials by phone, but had not presented them formally. He said he did not detect any "trauma" on the part of the Germans.
Rumors of base closings, however, are already getting headlines here. On Monday, a German newspaper, Die Welt, reported that the reductions would fall heavily on Heidelberg, a romantic university town that is the European headquarters of the army and the base for its V Corps.
There are 78,000 American troops in Germany, many with families. In towns like Heidelberg, or Kaiserslautern, which is near the Ramstein air base, they are a critical part of the local economy.
Jones singled out Ramstein as a base with "enduring value," which would likely remain open, regardless of the movement of troops elsewhere. He declined to comment on Heidelberg, saying, "there's no pocket list of what bases might be closed or reduced, or where we might go."
Tamping down speculation about new bases may prove just as futile. Last week, the defense minister of Bulgaria returned home from a trip to Washington and told his country that the United States might put four or five bases there as a reward for Bulgaria's support of President George W. Bush.
Jones said he had not discussed bases with the Bulgarians - or, for that matter, with officials from Poland, Hungary, or Romania.
The plan has not even been formally presented to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, though officials said he generally supported its direction.
A former commandant of the Marine Corps, Jones championed the idea of compact bases scattered around the world - he calls them "lily pads" - from which soldiers can jump off into hot spots.
He noted two bases that could be used as models for Europe. The marine base at Okinawa, he said, typified his preferred approach to deployment. The soldiers serve four-month hitches, without families, and are rotated back to their home base in Camp Pendleton, California.
Camp Bondsteel, which was built to house troops during the Kosovo conflict, typifies his preference for stripped-down facilities, with wooden barracks and makeshift helicopter hangars. Asked how it qualified as a lily pad, Jones said, "I've got to come up with a better word."
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