[A-List] US imperialism: "lily pad" bases

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

America may slash military personnel in Europe
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, 11 February 2003

THE US is considering slashing its 100,000-strong Nato military contingent
in Europe to allow the storage of tanks, guns, and other equipment in
Germany while their crews are withdrawn to home bases in America.

Pentagon sources confirmed yesterday that plans for a radical overhaul of
the cold war-era garrison system had been drafted on the orders of Donald
Rumsfeld, US defence secretary.

The aim would be to achieve "a more expeditionary posture" based on mobile
units and skeleton staffs which could be reinforced rapidly by air in a
crisis.

The US military has operated such a system for the past decade by
pre-positioning enough armoured vehicles, supplies, and ammunition for one
full brigade in Kuwait, and equipment for a second brigade on transport
vessels anchored off the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Adoption of a similar strategy for Europe would have a wide-ranging economic
impact on Germany, currently home to the US 7th Army, with the closure of
schools, clubs, and military commissaries currently staffed by local
civilians.

The blueprint for change has been masterminded by General James L Jones, the
first US Marine officer to be appointed supreme allied commander Europe in
the 53-year history of Nato.

General Jones, a Rumsfeld appointee, came to the defence secretary's notice
by championing the idea of "lily-pad" bases scattered around the world as
jump-off points for rapid reaction missions, rather than tying down tens of
thousands of troops in large, vulnerable overseas complexes like those in
Germany.

A Pentagon spokesman insisted that the flexibility study had no bearing on
the current diplomatic row between Germany and the White House over the
question of war against Iraq. However, he conceded that even preliminary
discussions about pulling back troops would probably heighten transatlantic
tensions.

At the height of the cold war, the US had more than 300,000 personnel in
Germany as a bulwark against Soviet invasion. Even the UK cut its
55,000-strong British Army of the Rhine to its current level of fewer than
23,000 in the years following the collapse of communism.

The greatest opposition to any cut in US numbers is likely to come from the
army, already smarting under Mr Rumsfeld's criticism of its "hidebound"
solutions to problems in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its hierarchy is also unhappy
about soldiers being asked to implement a culture change geared to having
them operate more like marines.

The Pentagon is understood to be examining training options in former
eastern bloc countries recently admitted to Nato, where restrictions on live
firing practice are almost non-existent. Germany's politically powerful
environmental lobby has imposed severe limitations on realistic training at
the main US range at Grafenwohr.

A Pentagon source added: "The US Army has had a continuous presence in
Europe since the landings in Sicily in 1943. Even if the Kuwaitisation
policy is adopted, it will continue to have a presence, albeit in very much
smaller numbers."