Should more US troops be kept in Europe?

Some American defense officials are reconsidering a plan to cut the troop force there in half.

from the April 24, 2007 edition

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Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, newly minted as both head of US European Command and senior military commander of NATO, has directed his staff to study how the base restructuring plan would affect US strategy in Europe, as well as how reducing the size of the force by half could impede operations. A preliminary report to General Craddock will be complete next month, with a full report due by midsummer, defense officials say.

Last month during congressional testimony in Washington, Craddock indicated tentatively that he has reservations about the plan, without saying he would undo it altogether. While acknowledging that US forces across the Defense Department are strapped, Craddock indicated that the war is making it difficult to conduct other operations.

"We have very little capacity left after we source the global force pool, if you will, for these ongoing [operations]," Craddock said. Roughly 75 percent of the US force in Europe is either deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, is about to go, or just returned, according to the defense officials.

"Our ability to do that now is limited because we don't have the forces available since they are in the rotation to [Iraq or Afghanistan]," said Craddock.

There is another problem of a more practical nature: The forces the Army is returning to the US don't have a place to go. Congress has only partially funded the Base Realignment and Closure Act, which governs a series of base closings and consolidation. While military construction officials have tried to spend what they have to accommodate forces returning from Germany, shortfalls exist, defense officials say, which has delayed construction at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Riley, Kan.

"We're now in a position where we can't absorb many more," says David Reed, an assistant for construction in the Army's office of installations and environment at the Pentagon.

Whatever recommendation Craddock ultimately makes, it may come down to maintaining just enough American forces to send a forceful message to allies and potential foes alike, says Mackubin Thomas Owens, a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "The main reason for keeping troops in Europe is that it keeps us at the head of the table," he says.

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