Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elsewhere who wrote (41492)	5/2/2004 10:34:31 PM
From: Neeka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793843

Jochen: IYO, are cost cutting reforms the only issue behind these decisions? M Germany to shorten missions abroad, take guards off US bases BERLIN (AFP) May 02, 2004 Germany will shorten the length of its troop missions abroad and stop guarding US bases on its soil by the end of the year, Defence Minister Peter Struck said in an interview published Sunday. The German military, the Bundeswehr, has more troops deployed abroad as peacekeepers and in the fight against terrorism than any country apart from the United States, but it is currently undergoing massive cost-cutting reforms. "We will reduce the duration of international missions from six months to four months in the second half of the year," Struck told the weekly Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Germany has some 7,700 soldiers deployed on foreign operations: around 2,000 with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan; 4,900 troops in Kosovo and Bosnia; 250 in the Horn of Africa and others on smaller missions. "At the end of the year, we want to stop the German federal armed forces guarding American military bases," Struck also told the newspaper. The US defence department is currently studying a "base re-alignment and closure" (BRAC) programme aimed at redeploying troop bases around the world so Washington can react quickly to new military threats. A number of bases are likely to close in Germany and tens of thousands of troops move out of the country, probably to central and eastern Europe. Some 2,500 German personnel guard around 100 US military facilities in Germany, and the Bundeswehr has been protecting the bases since January 2003, when it became clear that Washington was going to attack Iraq. Earlier this year, Struck announced a sweeping reform of the armed forces that foresees 26 billion euros (32 billion dollars) in military spending cuts in the coming years. At the heart of the reforms is a planned reduction of 35,000 troops in the army's manpower to 250,000 by 2010, but with a core element capable of rapid deployment abroad. spacewar.com