The American military is planning a major restructuring to better meet 21st-century terrorist threats with flexible rapid reaction units. Included in the implementation of this major reassessment, "the United States plans to withdraw its heavy armoured formations [tanks] from Germany next year [2005], in the largest reshaping of the European military landscape since the end of the Cold War" (The Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10).
EUObserver.com adds: "The U.S. is preparing to cut the number of troops stationed in Europe [the vast majority in Germany] by up to a third." American military specialists are scouting sites in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania as potential locations for new land, sea and air bases—which are greatly opposed by Russia.
This American move would leave Britain alone as a foreign power with heavy armor in Germany. And, of course, the United Kingdom still has 23,000 troops in the Fatherland. It might be asked what good will British forces and armament do if eventually integrated into a European Union Army? (Sources: The Daily Telegraph [London], International Herald Tribune , EUObserver.com.)
