Germany Furious About U.S. Planned Withdrawal of Troops
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Senior legislators from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative block condemned Saturday the reported decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw a quarter of the American troops stationed in Germany.
The removal of nearly 9,500 forces would reduce the number of American service members in the European nation to roughly 25,000, U.S. officials confirmed. “The plans once again show that the Trump administration is neglecting an elementary leadership task: the involvement of alliance partners in decision-making processes,” complained Johann Wadephul, foreign policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in published remarks.
Another conservative lawmaker Norbert Roettgen called the planned troop removal “very regrettable.” Roettgen, a member of Merkel’s center-right CDU party, who chairs the German parliament’s foreign policy committee, told German media that there was no “any factual reason for the withdrawal” and that U.S. soldiers were welcome in Germany.
Johann Wadephul, the deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary caucus, said the U.S. decision to remove its forces without consulting with NATO member states “shows once again that the Trump administration is neglecting basic leadership tasks.”
German news agency DPA quoted Wadephul as warning that Russia and China would benefit from discord within the Western military alliance. Trump had already threatened to withdraw forces from German soil amid ongoing differences between Berlin and Washington over Germany’s contributions to NATO and U.S.-led military missions.
Currently, there are 34,500 American service members permanently assigned in Germany as part of a long-standing arrangement with America’s NATO ally.
Trump administration officials have suggested that the 9,500 troops would station elsewhere: some in Poland or other allied countries, and the rest would return home. Already about 6,000 U.S. and Polish soldiers will participate in the “Allied Spirit” exercise from June 5-19, U.S. officials told Worthy News earlier this week in a statement.
Poland is among several former Soviet satellite states that asked for more protection from the United States against what they view as an increasingly assertive and aggressive Russia.
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