farmgirl
03-25-2004, 03:36 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040325/ts_nm/arms_usa_troops_dc_5
By Charles Aldinger and Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (*******) - The commander of U.S. troops in Europe on Thursday outlined a plan for a reduced, more mobile force working from smaller bases that could dart in and out of hot spots and stabilize areas from eastern Europe to Africa.
Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, head of the U.S. European Command, said the Pentagon (news - web sites) was nearing final decisions on realigning operations in Europe and he expected to be ready to consult with allies on the plan in two to three months.
Jones, who is also Supreme Allied Commander of NATO (news - web sites) forces in Europe, told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the number of U.S. troops to be withdrawn from the region was still under discussion.
He declined to comment on a report in The Washington Post that up to half of the 71,000 troops based in Germany could be withdrawn.
"My view is that we're still negotiating. We're still talking about the size of the footprint and how it will look," he said. There are now about 118,000 U.S. troops in Europe, most of them in Western Europe and more than half in Germany.
The Post, citing U.S. officials, also said 15,000 troops of the 100,000 in Asia could be withdrawn.
It said under the draft plan, smaller bases would be set up in Romania and possibly Bulgaria and training facilities would be set up in Poland. Bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that were established in 2001 to support the war in Afghanistan (news - web sites) would be preserved as training sites and as quick staging areas for use in emergencies, the newspaper said.
MORE AGILE FORCES
Jones said the point of changes in Europe was "to make our forces more strategically usable and more effective both toward the greater Middle East ... and in my area which is emerging threats and conditions in Africa and the security of the Mediterranean."
He said more U.S. troops would be dispatched temporarily for regular joint training and exercises to increase ties with states in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.
While some large essential bases such as Ramstein in Germany would be kept, he said there would be more use of smaller bases and of temporary "bare bones" bases -- sometimes just a runway and a few buildings -- for special operations and expeditionary forces.
"At the end of the day, the picture is a strategically more agile force that is able to go out and confront the challenges where they exist before they metastasize, before they become real big problems," he said.
Jones said the plan was "specifically designed to be non-threatening to countries such as Russia."
It was intended "not to create a sense of encirclement but to create a sense that between the traditional eastern boundary of NATO and of Russia there's a lot of instability, and that together we can stabilize a significant part of the world."
He said having mobile operations was important "because one of the things that makes our Russian friends nervous is fixed installations beyond the traditional NATO borders, and the plan calls for non-fixed bases, smaller units."
He said he was to meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the plan later in the day.
By Charles Aldinger and Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (*******) - The commander of U.S. troops in Europe on Thursday outlined a plan for a reduced, more mobile force working from smaller bases that could dart in and out of hot spots and stabilize areas from eastern Europe to Africa.
Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, head of the U.S. European Command, said the Pentagon (news - web sites) was nearing final decisions on realigning operations in Europe and he expected to be ready to consult with allies on the plan in two to three months.
Jones, who is also Supreme Allied Commander of NATO (news - web sites) forces in Europe, told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the number of U.S. troops to be withdrawn from the region was still under discussion.
He declined to comment on a report in The Washington Post that up to half of the 71,000 troops based in Germany could be withdrawn.
"My view is that we're still negotiating. We're still talking about the size of the footprint and how it will look," he said. There are now about 118,000 U.S. troops in Europe, most of them in Western Europe and more than half in Germany.
The Post, citing U.S. officials, also said 15,000 troops of the 100,000 in Asia could be withdrawn.
It said under the draft plan, smaller bases would be set up in Romania and possibly Bulgaria and training facilities would be set up in Poland. Bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that were established in 2001 to support the war in Afghanistan (news - web sites) would be preserved as training sites and as quick staging areas for use in emergencies, the newspaper said.
MORE AGILE FORCES
Jones said the point of changes in Europe was "to make our forces more strategically usable and more effective both toward the greater Middle East ... and in my area which is emerging threats and conditions in Africa and the security of the Mediterranean."
He said more U.S. troops would be dispatched temporarily for regular joint training and exercises to increase ties with states in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Southeast Asia.
While some large essential bases such as Ramstein in Germany would be kept, he said there would be more use of smaller bases and of temporary "bare bones" bases -- sometimes just a runway and a few buildings -- for special operations and expeditionary forces.
"At the end of the day, the picture is a strategically more agile force that is able to go out and confront the challenges where they exist before they metastasize, before they become real big problems," he said.
Jones said the plan was "specifically designed to be non-threatening to countries such as Russia."
It was intended "not to create a sense of encirclement but to create a sense that between the traditional eastern boundary of NATO and of Russia there's a lot of instability, and that together we can stabilize a significant part of the world."
He said having mobile operations was important "because one of the things that makes our Russian friends nervous is fixed installations beyond the traditional NATO borders, and the plan calls for non-fixed bases, smaller units."
He said he was to meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the plan later in the day.