American troops in Germany

I understand that Americans needed to station their troops in Germany in Cold War... but why do they still stationed now?

Originally posted by Justinian I have wondered the same thing.  I would imagine because it gives us a base of operations in the heart of europe.  I find it unlikely we will voluntarily withdraw from advantageous bases like the one(s) in germany.

The bases in Germany, Japan, Phillipines, Korea, et. al. are part of the dream of glory of the United States. Theirs foreign bases are the physical evidence of theirs imperial power. They mark pressence in theirs host countries and mark them as dominated people: vasails of the U.S. empire.

Edited by pinguin - 21-Oct-2007 at 12:28

Personally I think it would be more advantageous for US interests to steadily scale back our forces in Germany and reposition them in Turkey and if that's not an option given current events, Then Italy. The reason I advocate this is because US forces would then be positioned closer to the action should things go down in the Middle East and a US presence is required(excluding the one in Iraq at the moment). Also we could redeploy some of these forces to Asia to possibly counter threats there(possibly China).

Well anyways it could be best just to keep those forces in Germany but we will have to judge by future events whether those are really needed there or not.   

Boy! Imagine moving the rest of the troops out of the rest of the German bases? Think we are hated now by german civillians. Give it a decade and they will be screaming for our blood for making them more poorer than they otherwise could be!

Personally, if i thought it wouldn't hurt their economy, i would say... pull them out!

when Poland joined the NATO there was a huge outcry about Poland inviting the US troops to be stationed in Poland, because it would have meant a significant economic blow to the regions in germany where the US had and partially still have their bases.

as far as i remember, there were never troubles with the US troops in Germany other than the Ramstein incident. but never anything comparable to the anti-US troops rally in South Korea for example. well, immediately after ww2, US troops (like any other of the occupation powers for that matter) weren't exactly popular but that changed over time.

Originally posted by pinguin The bases in Germany, Japan, Phillipines, Korea, et. al. are part of the dream of glory of the United States. Theirs foreign bases are the physical evidence of theirs imperial power. They mark pressence in theirs host countries and mark them as dominated people: vasails of the U.S. empire....

You're claiming that Germany, Japan, Philippines and (South) Korea are 'vassals' of the US?  For 'vassals' they sure don't seem very obedient, especially on things like votes in the UN.

The fact is that many of the remaining bases are a 'left over' from the Cold War era.  However, it's often easier to maintain an existing base than to move into one where's there's no presence.  So, many of those bases are simply maintained as a contingency.  Some are a 'convenience', for example for operations in Europe or 'staging' to the Middle East.  In spite of the tensions with N. Korea, the US maintains a relatively small presence in S. Korea.  The American forces total only about 34,000, which are dwarfed by the 'millions' on each side for the Koreans themselves.  In spite of the public 'rhetoric', the fact is that in some places (e.g. Philippines) the US bases have a significant positive economic impact that the locals themselves are loath to give up. 

Frankly, your comment sounds like some left over Cold War rhetoric.  It is honestly pretty ridiculous to try to pretend that US overseas bases are some sort of 'imperial' presence which is against the wishes of the local governments.

I'm not entirely sure why there are still American troops in Germany, but their reasons are probably similar to the British presence. Tens of thousands of people make up the British Forces Germany that includes personnel and their families/dependants. Extracting them would severely hurt the local economy and take away the best tank training facilities available to the British army at this time, also it would allow rapid response being placed so close to the heart of Europe.

Originally posted by gcle2003 It's an interesting side issue that a little while ago when the US started drawing down forces in Germany as part of the 'peace dividend', quite a few US soldiers decided to retire or buy themselves out[1] and stay in Germany rather than go back.   Anything that exposes Americans to the reality of life in other countries, rather than the fiction, has to have its good aspects.   [1] Or whatever the equivalent procedure is in the US.