The Pentagon will fulfil President Trump’s demand to move almost 12,000 US troops out of Germany. About 6,400 forces will be brought home and 5,400 shifted to other countries in Europe. While Pentagon officials claim the action is part of a plan to strategically ‘reposition’ forces in Europe, the move is widely seen as an attempt by Donald Trump to punish Germany for its supposed failure to spend more on defence.
Trump announced last month that he wanted to cut the number of active duty US troops in Germany from roughly 36,000 to slightly more than 24,000. His comments indicated that the move was tied more directly to his anger over Germany’s failure to meet Nato defence spending goals. Germany has not complied with the goal set in 2014 for members to halt budget cuts and move toward spending at least 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence by 2024.
But Washington’s troop withdrawal might do more damage to its own interests than to Germany’s. The
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