Bush/Rumsfeld unveils large-scale troop redeployment plan

I've always had love-hate feelings toward Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. I've applauded him for his efforts to end rivalry between the army, navy and airforce, and to reallign our troop assignments around the world to get out of the Cold War mentality into the modern state of the world. I applaud this latest move by Rumsfeld in that effort.

I still despise Rumsfeld for everything else he has stupidly done, especially for believing the con-artist Chalabi. For example, initiating the war in Iraq; then going to war on the cheap with less than half the forces required to defeat Saddam's followers and, most importantly, failure to have a plan to provide security to all of Iraq and prevent the intrusion by terrorists. ---BBB
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Posted on Mon, Aug. 16, 2004
Bush unveils large-scale troop redeployment plan
By Ron Hutcheson and Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers

CINCINNATI - President Bush on Monday announced that 70,000 U.S. troops based overseas would be brought home under a massive global redeployment plan that could cost billions of dollars before it begins to produce any savings.

Most of the 70,000 troops, including two heavy divisions in Germany, would be pulled from Europe, where about half of the U.S. bases would be closed, said U.S. defense officials, who briefed reporters but requested anonymity so Bush could play the leading role in unveiling the plan.

Some troops would also be pulled out of Asia, although the withdrawal from that region would "not be very drastic," said a senior State Department official.

There are currently about 230,000 U.S. troops based overseas, including more than 100,000 in Europe. Another 87,000 are based in Japan and South Korea. The realignment wouldn't affect the 150,000 troops serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Many of the troops would return to the United States, though details of how many and where they would be based weren't announced. The redeployment would also bring as many as 100,000 family members and civilian workers back to the United States.

Bush's long-expected realignment plan would involve one of the largest shifts in U.S. troop deployments since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It was immediately attacked by Democrats, who said the plan would hurt U.S. security because it would take longer to dispatch troops based in the United States to overseas trouble spots and would weaken relations with foreign allies.

"As we face a global war on terror with al-Qaida active in more than 60 countries, now is not the time to pull back our forces," retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former presidential candidate, said in a statement released by the Democratic National Committee.

The plan reflects the Bush administration's view that the current overseas basing structure is an expensive and outdated legacy of the Cold War strategy of containing the Soviet threat and that new technologies and basing plans need to be employed to confront new threats, such as terrorism or unexpected regional instability.

To compensate for reducing the number of troops permanently stationed overseas, the United States would rotate units on short-term foreign assignments, training operations and exercises, said senior defense officials.

The Pentagon is also holding discussions with allies on upgrading bases in Eastern Europe and elsewhere that could be used for training and during crises. U.S. officials are also looking at increasing the amount of military hardware pre-positioned abroad that could be used by troops rushed from the United States.

Bush, unveiling the realignment plan at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, said it also would improve life for soldiers and their families.

"Our soldiers will have more time on the home front, and more predictability and fewer moves over a career," Bush said. "The world has changed a great deal and our posture must change with it."

How much the plan would save is open to dispute. The Pentagon will almost certainly want to buy more long-range transport and refueling aircraft and high-speed ships if it wants to be able to send large numbers of forces overseas quickly at short notice. Some Democrats note that billions of dollars would have to be spent renovating U.S. bases to absorb the returning troops.

A May 2004 study by the Congressional Budget Office, a watchdog agency, warned, "There would be limited annual savings to offset the large initial investment needed to re-station U.S. forces unless U.S. presence overseas was greatly reduced. In that case, annual savings could exceed $1 billion, but the net upfront investment would be substantial - on the order of $7 billion."

A senior U.S. defense official disputed that finding, saying it was based on erroneous assumptions.

Administration officials declined to provide many details of the plan, including where U.S. forces now based abroad would be relocated in the United States.

Those decisions will depend on the outcome next year of a new round of domestic base closings, they said. For that reason, they said, the realignment process likely will not begin at least until mid-2006 and continue through 2010.

But senior defense officials confirmed at a Pentagon briefing that the 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division, comprising some 30,000 soldiers, would be withdrawn from Germany and replaced by one of the Army's new 3,600-strong brigades equipped with the Stryker armored combat vehicle.

They also said that most of the U.S. military facilities to be closed in Europe were small, comprising less than 100 acres.

The officials declined to say if U.S. forces now based in Japan and South Korea would be reduced beyond an already announced redeployment of 12,500 soldiers from South Korea.

Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry are in fierce competition for military voters. The nation's 26 million military veterans account for about 13 percent of the voting-age population.

Kerry, who's made his Vietnam service a centerpiece of his campaign, is scheduled to speak to the 15,000 VFW convention delegates on Wednesday. The organization claims 2.6 million members.
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(Hutcheson reported from Cincinnati; Landay from Washington.)