PICTURED: Douglas Macgregor meeting with IDF Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi. CC 4.0.

WASHINGTON D.C. July 29th, 2020. Sec. of Defense Mark Esper announced that the Trump Administration is going to move forward with a withdraw/reshuffle of 12,000 American troops stationed in Germany after years of raising complaints that Germany isn’t committing the required 2% of GDP to military spending.

“We don’t want to be the suckers any more,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday about the decision. “We’re reducing the force because they’re not paying their bills; it’s very simple.”

Around half of those withdrawn will return home, with the other half moving to other bases in Europe, including Italy, Belgium, Lithuania, and possibly Poland.

The decision was announced last month and drew a significant amount of criticism. Democrats and Republicans then teamed up to try and stop the move by adding amendments to the recently approved 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, but they may come into force too late to stop this current troop cut.

Another attempt to block the move came from Eliot Engel (D – NY) who’s scathing review of the decision resulted in his sponsoring the Maintaining American National Security Interests in Europe Act, which details in the preamble that the vast military expansion of the United States across Europe and the Middle-East stems in a large part from Germany.

Eliot believes Trump is making the decision to somehow increase his standing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but perhaps misses the point that it is the vast military expanse across Europe and the Middle-East which is at the heart of Trump’s decision.

Mitt Romney (R-UT) also criticized the move as a “slap in the face to an ally” and a “gift to Russia”.

Col. MacGregor goes to Berlin

Retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor of Pennsylvania was appointed on the 27th as the new US Ambassador to Germany. An author and frequent foreign policy critic, MacGregor has frequently criticized the last 15 years of expansionary moves in the Middle-East and against Russia.

Kelley Vlahos writing for the American Conservative magazine described him as “a vocal critic of the Iraq War and its star General David Petraeus,” and that he “loathes blind fealty to orthodoxy, especially the failed kind.”

MacGregor is allegedly onboard with the cuts from Germany, and will stand by Trump to see them through.

Described as an expert in grand strategy, MacGregor will understand that the largest share of deterrence for Russian aggression against NATO countries has little to do with where 6,000 American pairs of boots are standing, as under Article 5 of the NATO charter, the aggression against one nation is aggression against all of NATO – a much greater threat than the troops to be withdrawn.

Furthermore, with Russia and the United States maintaining nuclear arsenals of almost 2,000 operational launchers, bombers, submarines, and warheads, the threat of 6,000 American troops seems miniscule.

Continue exploring this topic — Why are Congressmen Moving to Try and Stop Trump’s Troop Withdrawals from Germany?