{"id":36503,"date":"2020-10-23T15:31:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T15:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/10\/23\/are-troops-really-leaving-germany-its-not-totally-clear\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:20:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:20:38","slug":"are-troops-really-leaving-germany-its-not-totally-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/10\/23\/are-troops-really-leaving-germany-its-not-totally-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"Are troops really leaving Germany? It\u2019s not totally clear."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost as soon as Defense Secretary Mark Esper<\/a> announced over the summer his plan to move about 12,000 troops out of Germany<\/a>, a bipartisan group of lawmakers stepped in<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An amendment to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act could put a hold on the repositioning of forces, but that\u2019s if the plan survives beyond October at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do believe that if there\u2019s a change in the administration, that this will not happen,\u201d Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told Military Times on Oct. 15 during a press call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the beginning, the plan was mired by politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump had been threatening Germany for years, questioning what more than 40,000 permanent troops were doing in that country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, minutes after Esper made a rare Pentagon briefing room appearance to unveil the plan on July 29, Trump insinuated to reporters outside the White House that Germany had it coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGermany is not paying their bills,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re delinquent. It\u2019s simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was referring to a goal NATO\u2019s member nations set for themselves<\/a>, to be contributing 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024. A handful of countries have met that benchmark \u2015 including Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Poland \u2015 but Germany is among the majority of countries who haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey owe NATO billions and they know it,\u201d Trump told reporters a month earlier. \u201cWhy should we be doing what we\u2019re doing if they don\u2019t pay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American troops have been stationed in Germany since the end of World War II, for an evolving set of reasons. The physical defense of Germany is not at the top of that list. Since World War II, most of that presence has existed to deter the Soviet Union from attacking or invading its neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. bases have also provided a lily pad for troops deploying to the Middle East and Africa, as well as a crucial battlefield trauma center at Landstuhl, where thousands of wounded troops have had their life-threatening injuries tended to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, as Russia has increased its own military activity along its western border, American troops have been training and exercising with local forces from the Balkans to the Baltics, lest Soviet Union history repeat itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper\u2019s plan acknowledged this current reality, offering that though thousands of troops would be returning stateside from Germany, they would \u201cbegin continuous rotations farther east in the Black Sea region, giving us a more enduring presence to enhance deterrence and reassure allies along NATO\u2019s southeastern flank.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan involves moving 11,900 troops total of out Germany. About 5,600 would move to other parts of Europe, like Belgium and Italy. That number also includes 2,500 Air Force personnel who will stay at RAF Mildenhall, England, rather than complete a long-planned transfer to Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another 6,400, including the 2nd Cavalry Regiment<\/a>, would head back to the States and become part of a rotational force that would deploy to Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But critics have asked the Pentagon where that 12,000 number came from, and whether ideas like moving the U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command headquarters to Belgium are just to make the math work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this plan was particularly well thought out and I worry about a number of aspects of its implementation,\u201d Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., HASC\u2019s chairman, said during a hearing Sept. 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an insurance policy, Gallego and his fellow House Armed Services Committee member, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., added an amendment to the House\u2019s version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which would block the Pentagon from reducing troop levels in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of what our military does is build those alliances and makes sure we don\u2019t have to actually use the military,\u201d Smith said during a mark-up of the bill. “All of those things should be thought about before we announce we\u2019re going to yank 10,000 troops out of Germany. By the way, the president has not yet been clear on what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amendment passed 49-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president may have his feelings, but this conversation also involves Congress, and Congress has a very different perspective when it comes to NATO,\u201d Gallego said. \u201cI did not want this to happen quietly in the night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making moves?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper told reporters during his July briefing that some units would be ready to start moving out of Germany in a \u201cmatter of weeks,\u201d but by all accounts, everyone has stayed put.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Pentagon officials who testified before HASC on Sept. 30 could not provide further details on the plan \u2015 including a timeline or a cost analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really having a problem connecting the dots with whether this is going to solve a problem, that I don\u2019t think exists,\u201d Jim Langevin, D-R.I., said. \u201cIn fact, I think it\u2019s going to create more problems than anything it\u2019s going to solve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t