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.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (52075)	8/4/2004 8:08:16 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Thanks, DJ!

To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (52075)	8/17/2004 6:30:28 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 74559

US troop pullout will hurt German economy Defence revamp causing concern in Germany where thousands of jobs depend on the American presence BERLIN - German officials have voiced concern that their country has the most to lose with US President George W. Bush's announcement that tens of thousands of troops will go home over the next decade. But their concerns seemed to be about the economic impact that the troop cutback will have in places where Americans are based. Advertisement With about 70,000 soldiers and 100,000 dependants in Germany, thousands of local jobs - from bakers to maintenance workers and office personnel - depend on the Americans, who first came to Germany after World War II. European and Asian countries with US troops have braced themselves for the changes for several years, but Mr Bush's announcement on Monday brought home the full impact. 'Base closures would hit us very hard,' said city spokesman Ole Kruse in Wuerzburg, home of the United States Army's 1st Infantry Division. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Bamberg, home to one large US base, said: 'Initially, the retail trade would bear the brunt, but it would also have an affect on services, such as sports centres or swimming pools.' Pentagon officials confirmed on condition of anonymity late on Monday that the 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division, based in Wiesbaden near Frankfurt, will return to the US. Under the Pentagon's plan, both divisions would be replaced by smaller units equipped with Stryker light armoured vehicles. US troops were based in large numbers in Germany during the Cold War to deter a then-feared Soviet invasion. But most of the 100,000 US troops based in Europe are still in Germany. The US will close nearly half of all its hundreds of installations in Europe as part of the massive restructuring plan, defence officials told reporters. It also plans to reduce troop numbers in South Korea, where they have held static positions for 50 years. 'The world has changed a great deal and our posture must change with it,' Mr Bush told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati. The US needs 'a more agile and more flexible force' to help fight 'wars of the 21st century'. But for places like Baumholder, a rural town with a US military training area, that spells problems. About 11,500 residents are matched by a US military community of the same size, and the local economy would lose US$150 million (S$257 million) a year if the Americans left, Mayor Volkmar Pees said. 'The Americans are part of us,' Baumholder resident Iris Schoen said. 'You build up great friendships.' German officials have travelled to Washington in recent months to lobby against troop withdrawals or propose alternative solutions. In Bamberg, officials said the utility company could lose a major customer and that real estate prices would decline if the US military left. Details of which bases might be closed have been sketchy, but officials have indicated that the huge Ramstein Air Base and the Landstuhl military hospital in the south-west, as well as the Grafenwoehr training grounds in Bavaria, are not on the table. -- AP, Reuters