Fort Trump

[Dill]

(09-18-2018, 08:40 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: Interesting.

Putin wouldn't like it. But I don't think he would be overly concerned with a small U.S. presence there.

As for Germany, I could see Trump trying to sell a small presence in Poland for a massive draw-down in Germany for sheer political or spite reasons (he seems entirely unconcerned with doing things for national defense considerations). And there may be some places we could cut troop levels in Germany. But Germany is our European logistical hub, especially around Ramstein A.F.B. That won't be changing anytime in the near future.

Actually, I think Putin would be quite concerned if NATO put a PERMANENT US base in Poland. Clinton signed an agreement with Yeltsin promising not put any US troops closer to Russia on a permanent basis.  He would be less concerned, or even happy, if Trump snubbed NATO and his own Joint Chiefs to do it. It is not clear whether such a base would be "insurance" or more an incentive to Russian mischief.

Excellent point about the logistical hub, located in central Europe. We are already down to about 30,000 troops in Germany (compared to 500,000 when I lived there).  Also, were something to happen in Europe and we need to plant 100,000+ troops there tout suite, we'd need facilities and bases in place to absorb them. Germany, Italy and Great Britain are all critical to the US ability to project power--but Germany especially.