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US delays troop drawdown in Europe
Washington (AFP) Dec 19, 2007 Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed to delay a drawdown of US troop levels in Europe, the Pentagon said Wednesday, following requests from commanders to maintain its military personnel levels there at around 40,000. Two brigades had been due to come back to the United States, but the decision has been made that they "will remain in Europe within EUCOM (US Europe Command) for a couple of more years," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters. "That is a temporary delay, nothing permanent," he stressed. The army's Vice Chief of Staff Richard Cody said the US would retain "two heavy brigade combat teams" in Germany "to meet the near-term theater security requirements." These brigades will later be returned to the United States by 2013, he said. With his decision, Gates has in part given in to demands from top US commanders in Europe to halt the drawdown of US troops in Europe begun two years ago. At that stage, there were 62,000 US troops in Europe. Under a withdrawal plan drawn up by Gates' predecessor Donald Rumsfeld, US troop levels by the end of 2008 were to have dropped to 24,000. However, generals Bantz Craddock, Commander of US European command, and David McKiernan, top US Army commander in Europe, asked that US forces be maintained at a level including the current four combat brigades, citing budgetary as well as strategic reasons. Morrell recently said that maintaining US troop levels in Europe would tell the rest of the world that the United States remained globally engaged, especially with its allies, despite the ongoing military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, military lodgings for thousands of US troops are lacking, and it would cost the Army millions of dollars to find temporary housing for the returning soldiers and their families. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links The Military Industrial Complex at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
A Growing Edge To Russian Military Sales Part Three
Washington (UPI) Dec 18, 2007 Russia's 21st century ability to out-sell the United States in a remarkably broad spectrum of conventional heavy weapons systems to countries around the world can be traced to one fundamental contrast between the U.S. and Russian economies: America invests in cutting-edge technology and leads the world in software and electronics engineers: Russia is still mired in the old supposedly -- but not really -- obsolete world of "heavy" industry -- working with machinery, steel and metal alloys. |
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