The US Military In Germany

All this started nearly 60 years back

In my state, especially in my region, at first the Canadians left. Twelve years ago, all Belgian garnisons were closed and two third of the British Rhine Army barracks.

It was admittingly a shock for most locals - but now we can see even some advantages by that, especially in urban planning and town developments.

I spent 9 years in Germany at various bases. I had planned to take my kids back and show them around. I hope they stay at least that long.

My uncle is currently stationed at Ansbach, an operation which used to be much bigger but is steadily growing smaller. . . most of that city is built around the business those troops provide, and if the troops leave, Ansbach's going to fall on some hard economic times.

Seeing as how Germany's economy is already not stellar, the loss of the military dollars to the local economies would definitely not help. . .

Hmm:
Ansbach has the renotable abbey from 748, the castle is medieval in origin, the town rights are from 12th century ...

oh, Walter, sorry, I meant that metaphorically :-) I know Ansbach is much older than the US Army :-) I just meant that, if you go there today, I'd estimate somewhere between 40 and 70 percent of the Germans who work there are engaged in industries which the soldiers make necessary- even the workers on the base itself are largely German nationals. The malls, the restaurants, and especially the outlying base are all run by Germans for the Americans.

If the army left, the area would be devastated.

whoops this was an error.

Good thread, Walter.

Actually, I do think - and we have the proof here in the British Zone - that it sounds worse than it might develop later on:
- in Lippstadt, where I live, the music school, evening school, distant university, colleges got new rooms/locations; some smart restaurants/discos etc were established in the officer's masses, new houses built on the ground, apartments constructed in the old barracks ...
,
- in Dortmund and Münster, they built (and still build) new industry/offices/apartments/shops there,

- same in all other places.

(Not talking about the loss of work.)

Now Walter, you know that nothing else matters bu America! A pox on your so-called "history." Why, John Wayne never made movies about sissy monasteries!

Walter, you seem like a nice enough guy but the view from this side of the Atlantic is that the Germans bear an irrational hate for America. When I see photos of your president as a youth beating up a cop and read the news that a third of Germans believe America attacked itself on Sep 11 and hear high-ranking German politicians compare Bush to Hitler (irony of ironies) with a straight face, I think its time we part company. Germany's economy did fine before WWII without hosting an American army and it will do fine without us. It will build German character to take on all of their own defense. We need to leave Germany behind and move on to our new and better allies in Eastern Europe. We probably have 15 or 20 years before they turn crazy on us like Germany. By then our forward bases will be in Iran.

Tantor

Could you please share the source for this?

a) our president was always called by his nickname "Brother John", because he was and is very religious (and a real pacifist)
[I'm rather sure, you saw the fake photo, which was produced to bash our Foreign Minister Fischer - the paper already got fined for that :wink: ]

b) the only politican, who made a comparison, was the former Minister of Justice: she actually compared Bush's politic to that at the beginning of of Nazi times .... and had to resing afterwards.

The "Statistical Information on the Department of Defense" give a total of 75,000 US soldiers as stationed in Germany - that doesn't seem to be such a great number. (Within ten years, my small home county lossed some thousands of Canadian, Begian and British soldiers - we actually had no real problems to compensate that!)

But really would like to know about !
However, I would really be very interested

OK, Walter,

It looks like you caught me in an error. It was Foreign Minister Fischer in the photo, though I had not read that it was a fake photo.

I think Germany will do better with a reduced US military force there with the bulk of them moved forward to bases in Eastern Europe in countries that are receptive to Americans and are likely to be better allies. It will force Germany to mount its own defense, the cost of which may prove sobering.

Tantor

The German "economic miracle" was possible both because of American funds, but more especially in the "cold war" era, because that economy was not burdened by a heavy defense expediture. I have no problem with that, but i do feel it is long past time that we left. So long as relations are sufficiently cordial to make the maintenance of some air bases and hospitals possible, which is to our distinct advantage, i would hope that all other US military commitments in Europe be ended.

The German economic miracle happenned largely because the Germans had the human capital to succeed. American fiscal capital leveraged the German human capital. It's much more expensive and difficult to train a workforce than to build a factory. The Germans had the expensive human skills to succeed. They just needed the comparatively cheap tools to do the job.

This is a point often overlooked by liberals who think the lesson of the Marshall Plan is that any problem can be cured by dumping money on it.

Tantor

You are aware that the "lesson" you quoted as being representative of liberal thought is being actively pursued by the "conservative" administration, are you not?

Pure nonsense.

Tantor