It seems the Pentagon wants to reduce the number of US troops in Europe by one half

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What does everyone here think about it?

PM me on any opinion I missed!!!!

My opinion is that we need to have a presence in Europe, just not in huge numbers. We need to be in countries that were in the former Soviet Union or in the Communist Bloc to keep order until the countries are stable.

I'm not saying a withdrwal of half of the troops would be bad, I'm saying a COMPLTETE withdrawl would be disastrous. Terrorists would more than likely strike, look at what they did in Spain. Look at what happened in the 20s and 30s with Germany after we pulled out.

I voted that we need to stay.

Having troops over there will allow for quick deployment if something goes down.

It's good I suppose, it's not like Europe can't handle itself- though seems well to use the position to deploy in emergency situations- like the first gulf war.

From the readings in the list Doody provided us it appears the pace is a good one. As long as we still have the refueling airbases and force staging posts we need I think all will be well. Soviet Russia isn't on Germany's doorstep anymore though Russia has taken a much harder line under Putin. Even so there is alot of land between them and the West if something were to make Russia become more worth guarding against.

Seems Rumsfeld is taking a long look at this. We'll know more on Friday when he makes his announcement.

If we withdrew from Europe completely, Muslim terrorists would light that place up. They'd be complete goners. Our withdrawal would be a total nightmare for Europe.

Which leads to an ethical decision. Personally, I'd love to see something like that happen; they hate the United States so much, but without us to bail them out, they wouldn't exist. On the other hand, we in the States have an obligation to keep the world safe and to stem the tide of terrorism.


So it's a mess. Maybe an increased threat of terrorism in Europe'll make them show us just a little more respect.

let me remind you guys that european nations have armies of their own

the german army is pretty sophisicated, the french army is well funded with good equipment, teh british army is not far technologically from the american army, and various east european armies combined are a pretty powerful force

Originally Posted by rkmac48

If we withdrew from Europe completely, Muslim terrorists would light that place up. They'd be complete goners. Our withdrawal would be a total nightmare for Europe.

Which leads to an ethical decision. Personally, I'd love to see something like that happen; they hate the United States so much, but without us to bail them out, they wouldn't exist. On the other hand, we in the States have an obligation to keep the world safe and to stem the tide of terrorism.


So it's a mess. Maybe an increased threat of terrorism in Europe'll make them show us just a little more respect.

So apparently we are goners without the united states ok sure we are, and we also need the united states to bail us out or we would cease to exist really I like you rk your point of view is put across so brilliantly that it left me thinking, "what the hell were you trying to say"

Europe is not defenceless without the americans, and we don't hate all americans just the arrogant ones that seem to think that only they can save the world from terrorists I would like to remind you that americans were actually funding terrorists up until the planes hit the twin towers
IRA
Contra
Al Quaeda

But even after all that I like working with MOST americans just one or two get on my nerves so if mr Rumsfeld wants to pull those americans out of europe take them round the back of a shed and shoot them thats fine with me. But not reduce so much that we have no military infrastructure to work with

Originally Posted by rkmac48

If we withdrew from Europe completely, Muslim terrorists would light that place up. They'd be complete goners. Our withdrawal would be a total nightmare for Europe.

Which leads to an ethical decision. Personally, I'd love to see something like that happen; they hate the United States so much, but without us to bail them out, they wouldn't exist. On the other hand, we in the States have an obligation to keep the world safe and to stem the tide of terrorism.


So it's a mess. Maybe an increased threat of terrorism in Europe'll make them show us just a little more respect.

You know comments like this back up the view some people have in europe that US citizens know nothing about the rest of the world.
Europe has its own armies and its not armies its intelligence services that keep terrorists out of countries and the US does not have that much involvement in those intelligence services.
I hate to remind you that the founding fathers of the US were europeans, hence the close ties between europe and the US. And i dont know anybody with a severe hatred for america, they only thing they dont like is that americans still make comments as ignorant as the one you have made. The whole world appreciates that the US is leading the fight against terrorism, without the US we would not of been to afganistan.
Like zyon said, US citizens have been funding terrorists for decades seeing them as freedom fighters much like some muslims see al queda members as freedom fighters.

With regards to the topic, the withdrawl of US troops does have the negative effect of causing unemployment in the areas where the bases are as the local people who provide services will lose there jobs. But the bases are relics of the cold war and moving them to countries closer to the middle east/ asia would be beneficial and would create the jobs that they provided in western countries.