Bush Plans Large U.S. Troop Realignment
Monday, August 16, 2004
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday announced massive troop realignments, marking the most comprehensive restructuring since the Korean War.
"We have to make sure forces are well prepared and positions to meet the threats of the future," the commander-in-chief said during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati. "The world has changed a great deal and our posture must change with it for the sake of our military families, for the sake of our taxpayers and so we can be more effective at projecting our strength and spreading freedom and peace."
Over the next 10 years, Bush's plan will affect 60,000 to 70,000 or more uniformed military personnel plus 100,000 of their family members and support personnel.
U.S. armed forces stationed abroad in places other than Iraq and Afghanistan number about 200,000. About half are in Europe. The Pentagon advised German officials earlier this year that it was thinking about removing two Army divisions from Germany and replacing them with smaller, more mobile and lethal units.
Saying the armed forces abroad have pretty much stayed where old wars have ended in Europe and Asia to protect from Soviet aggression where "the threat no longer exists," Bush said a three-year review of the country's military concluded that the new plan would have multiple benefits, including allowing the United States to deal with "unexpected threats" with the latest technologies on little notice.
"Over the coming decade, we'll deploy a more agile and more flexible force, which means that more of our troops will be stationed and deployed from here at home," the president said. "The new plan will help us fight and win these wars of the 21st century. It will strength our alliances around the world … it will reduce the stress on our troops and our military families."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld briefed his Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, over the weekend during a visit to St. Petersburg. He told reporters later that the Russians "have an interest" in the redeployment plan, presumably because some of the countries that could play host to U.S. troops are former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact states.
U.S. negotiators have been involved in talks with several foreign governments about troop shifts, and that preferences appeared to be to move troops out of South Korea and Germany. Many units now based in Europe could be moved further east, into new NATO member countries such as Poland, Bulgaria and possibly Turkey, while many other forces could be repositioned around Asia, and some other brought home.
Administration officials have insisted that this shift is not due to troops being stretched too thin fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but rather, it is part of a broader initiative to reshape the military for the 21st century.
Bush: 'We Will Stay Until the Job Is Completed'
Bush's speech comes as the U.S. death toll in Iraq is approaching 1,000 and National Guard and Reserve troops are serving extended tours of duty.
Aides to Democratic challenger John Kerry (search) blamed a lack of postwar planning by the Bush administration for the increased burden the reservists are shouldering. They also noted that the Massachusetts senator has proposed adding 40,000 troops to the regular Army and expanding special operations forces.
Kerry has said he would try to withdraw some troops from Iraq during his first six months in office. That idea has drawn criticism from Bush, who says that simply would urge insurgents to wait until the U.S. presence was thinned before attacking.
"I think that sends the wrong signal — I think it sends the wrong message to our enemy, who can wait six months and one day [to attack], it sends the wrong message to our troops that we won't complete the mission," Bush said in his speech Monday. "Our friends and allies must know that when America speaks, we mean what we say: we will stay until the job is completed."
Bush also took a pointed shot at both Kerry and Edwards. The president argued that over the past four years, his administration has enacted the largest increase in defense spending since the Reagan era, increased military pay by 21 percent, provided better housing, training and maintenance for the military. In the supplemental budget request sent to Congress last September, Bush added, he proposed more money for body armor, hazard pay, health benefits, fuel, ammunition, spare parts and other items.
Twelve senators voted against the legislation, "two of whom were my opponent and his running mate," Bush said.
Taking another swipe at Kerry, Bush noted that the senator has said while he voted in favor of the $87 war funding package earlier in the year, his vote against the supplemental was a "complicated matter."
"There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat," Bush countered.
Honoring the Nation's Vets
Bush also vowed that his administration would further help the nation's veterans who fought in various wars overseas throughout the years. Kerry has used his veteran status much on the campaign trail and is trying to round up most of the veteran vote.
"Our nation's veterans have made serving America the highest priority of their lives and serving our veterans is one of the highest priorities of my administration," Bush said, pointing out that so far, his administration has "a solid record of accomplishment for our veterans."
If Bush's proposed 2005 budget passes Congress, it would increase overall funding for veterans by almost $20 billion — a 40 percent increase since 2001.
"We have increased funding for our veterans more in four years than the previous administration did in eight years," Bush said.
Veterans' medical funding has increased by 41 percent over the past four years; since 2001, the government has enrolled 2.5 million more veterans in health-care services, increased outpatient visits from 44 million to 54 million and increased the number of prescriptions filled for this demographic from 98 million to 116 million. The backlog of disability claims has been reduced by about one-third, Bush said, and the processing time has been cut by 70 days.
"We're getting the job done," Bush said.
Both Bush and Kerry, who is to speak Wednesday to the 15,000 VFW convention-goers, have been trying to bolster their national security credentials.
It's a time-honored, political tradition for VFW to invite not only the sitting president but a challenger, if it is an election year. Secretary of State Colin Powell, himself a veteran, is slated to speak to the group Monday night and receive the Americanism Award.
The VFW convention is getting special attention from both political parties partly because it is being held in Ohio, perhaps the hottest battlefield of this year's election. Bush carried Ohio by 3.6 percentage points in 2000 over Democrat Al Gore.
Later Monday, Bush travels to a campaign rally in northern Michigan, a state he lost to Gore. Bush's visit to Traverse City, Mich., will be first by a sitting president since Gerald Ford in 1975.
FOX News' Bret Baier, Ian McCaleb, Liza Porteus and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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