GLOBE EDITORIAL
Troop movementsPRESIDENT BUSH is proposing a pullback of overseas US troops that probably makes sense in Europe but could be risky in Korea. The redeployment would be the biggest change in US forces since World War II and should be the subject of congressional hearings. It would be a mistake to make moves hurriedly that could provoke adversaries.
The greatest danger is on the Korean Peninsula. The United States has already begun shifting 12,000 of the 37,000 US troops out of South Korea, with many headed to Iraq, where they are needed because the administration did not make adequate plans for occupying Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall and failed to get enough support from allies. A troop shift could have been a bargaining chip with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, but he will now likely see it as a sign that US forces are overstretched, which they are. With the United States trying to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, the pullout of US troops from South Korea could also register in Pyongyang as a signal of a weakened US commitment to its ally. The movement of US troops out of Europe, especially Germany, makes more sense on a long-term basis, though it risks being construed as a punishment for "Old Europe's" opposition to the Iraq invasion. It probably isn't, since Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld started talking about restructuring long before the conflict. But the United States should coordinate its withdrawal carefully with NATO allies. It would be a mistake to alienate Germany, which has several thousand soldiers in Afghanistan. Rumsfeld plans to move the two heavy US divisions in Germany back to the United States and replace them with a light-armored brigade. In addition, he envisions smaller bases with prepositioned vehicles and equipment in Eastern Europe and in Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan. If the changes are done well, US forces might still be able to reach hot spots as quickly as they can now from their big German bases. But the administration's failure to get Turkey to be a base for US ground forces against Iraq in 2003 is a warning of what can go wrong.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of the troop shift at $7 billion, in part because of the loss of payments that Germany, Japan, and South Korea have been making. Congress must also consider expanding the Army, at least for the short term, so the Pentagon has the forces it needs and won't have to extend troops' tours of duty beyond their agreed enlistments. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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