It’s always interesting to see who’s celebrating. In German politics, that’s currently the Left Party, a descendant of East Germany’s former dictatorship that likes to brew anti-Americanism and Russophilia into a toxic populist mix.
The party’s bosses are delighted about a rumor, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, that the United States may pull out some 9,500 of the 34,500 American troops stationed in Germany, and then cap their numbers at 25,000. Dietmar Bartsch, the Left’s caucus leader, suggested that Germany should instead urge the U.S. to withdraw all its forces, and get it to take home American nukes as well. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin must be wondering at his luck.
As with other bluster emanating from the White House under U.S. President Donald Trump, this threatened drawdown may never happen. One reason is that it would simply be too stupid from a strategic and logistical perspective, as American experts such as Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, have pointed out.