U.S. to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany.

President Trump salutes after getting out of Marine One. Reuters. 

The United States is going to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany. Reuters. This will reduce the number of troops by 1/3rd from 36,000. The move is due to Germany not paying enough for their defense. Half of the withdrawn troops will be sent home with only temporary deployments to Europe. The other troops will be deployed throughout Europe with some being deployed to Baltic countries and Italy. Germany is upset about the plan and says it will damage NATO efforts to counter Russia. The withdrawals will not be a quick process as time will be needed to build new bases and move the troops. 

My Comment:

This is the right move. Germany has not paid their dues to NATO and I have heard reports that their military is hugely unprepared for any conflict. Much of their military is not able to even deploy and their tanks and helicopters are in desperate need of maintenance. The only way to fix that is to invest their money into fixing it and the Germans have refused to do so. 

I don't buy the idea that this will help Russia. Deploying troops to the Baltic is a bigger threat than having troops in Germany. That's more of a forward position and I doubt the Russians will be all that happy with this news. 

Germany is going to be in trouble as well. They will almost certainly have to spend more on their military but that's not the only problem. These bases provide a lot of income for local people and that money is now going away. This will likely damage Germany's economy. 

I personally welcome this move. It's been clear for a long time now that Russia is not our #1 geopolitical foe. China is and they are a lot more dangerous than Russia ever could be. China is actively messing with us and is largely responsible for the massive Coronavirus outbreak. And they have been very aggressive with their neighbors. A war with Russia seems almost totally impossible. But a war with China? Seems pretty likely. 

I don't have a lot of love for the German government regardless. To me they have made mistake after mistake. From the refugee crisis to their failure to keep their military well armed and supplied, they are not a country with good leadership. 

Of course even though this is the right move the usual suspects are against it. I don't buy their arguments. As I said before this isn't helping Russia as we are keeping many of these troops in Europe and in a better position. And Germany has been a pretty terrible ally. I don't know why we should continue to help them when they refuse to help us.