In concept, “there aren’t any vital authorized or political obstacles” for him to strive pull troops out of Germany once more, mentioned Jennifer Kavanagh, director of navy evaluation on the Protection Priorities suppose tank, given the “very restricted leverage” U.S. Congress has over navy issues.
The one concrete restrict is a 2025 law that stops the president from leaving fewer than 76,000 troops in Europe. With as much as 85,000 troopers on the continent, that provides him a authorized most of 9,000 troopers.
However even doing that might take “4 years on the minimal” and will price “lots of of billions” of {dollars} when accounting for oblique bills too, mentioned retired Gen. Mark Hertling, the previous commanding officer of U.S. Military Europe who helped handle a big American drawdown between 2003 and 2011.
That doesn’t account for broader complexities and prices, he argued, together with shifting hundreds of troopers’ households, firing native German staff, closing down hospitals and leaving newly upgraded bases deserted.
A speedy pullback would even be “extraordinarily damaging” for the U.S. navy marketing campaign in Iran, he added, given bases like Ramstein play a big function in coordinating drone assaults and delivery personnel and tools to the Center East.
There are additionally different sensible obstacles for eradicating troopers. “The place would they go? You want infrastructure, you want bases, you want housing — that doesn’t simply exist someplace else ready,” mentioned Claudia Main, senior vice chairman for transatlantic safety on the German Marshall Fund.
