Why Europe must have the Bomb

America’s decision to pull troops out of Europe and the Far East should not be seen as a retreat into isolationism. On the contrary: it is classic ‘Rumsfeld-lite’ — the downsizing of old-fashioned Cold War units (principally in Germany) and a new emphasis on flexible, mobile, hi-tech forces to be located around the rim of the Eurasian heartland. By redeploying and streamlining its military the Pentagon believes it will be better placed to respond to threats anywhere in the world.

Maybe the Pentagon is right, for the time being. In spite of the streamlining, however, the Bush–Rumsfeld doctrine of ‘full spectrum dominance’ looks a lot less convincing now than it did two years ago. The ‘hegemonic’ superpower is now mired in a medium-sized Arab country whose military strength just before the invasion ranked about 50th in the world. And US forces are now so stretched that National Guardsmen and Reservists make up 40 per cent of US troops in Iraq — and a long-term occupation can only be sustained by bringing back the dreaded, and politically suicidal, draft.