A Move on Eurasian Chessboard

Robert Bridge

Presently, there are 119,000 U.S. troops in Europe, 80,000 of which are now stationed in Germany.

While it may seem the U.S. is punishing its former allies in Western Europe for their staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, America also announced that new military bases will not be built in the "New Europe" of the ex-Soviet bloc states. "If anything, the troops taken out of Europe will be sent home," stated a NATO spokesperson. "From there, they will be sent on exercises or training missions to small bases established on a temporary basis in Poland, Romania or Bulgaria. The old days of the giant U.S. barracks with the shops, the schools and ice-cream parlors are over."

This announcement will be open to all sorts of interpretations. First, Poland must be feeling a bit red-faced for sending its troops into Iraq after being indulged by Americas bold vision of a "New Europe," which Poland believed it would lead like some modern-day Charlemagne. Indeed, on Friday U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, called on NATO to take over command of the Polish-led multinational force in Iraq (did Warsaw dare express its ire with Washington behind the scenes?).

Another big question mark hangs over recent comments by Rumsfelds colleague, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Although Mr. Powell expresses himself with a bit more diplomatic etiquette than the Defense Secretary, it would be idle to ignore poison for the sugar-coating. At their January meeting, Powell assured Russian President Vladimir Putin that Washington had no intention of encircling Russia.

"We are not looking to move bases, of the kind we used to have during the Cold War, closer to Russia," Mr. Powell stated during his Kremlin visit. "What were interested in are, perhaps, forward operating locations that we could train at temporarily, or we can have access agreements at particular airfields that make it easier for us to deploy to particular areas of potential crisis."

But it is not too difficult to see the jagged little fishhook in Powells statement. The U.S. is not looking to move bases "of the kind we used to have during the Cold War." So exactly what type does it hope to deploy - and where?

This subtle comment reflects the new "Rumsfeldian" military philosophy of the U.S., which has no need for large clumsy bases, or even clumsier allies, as poor Poland belatedly discovered. In these days of IT, precision high-altitude weapons and remote command and control centers, less is more. In a study just released by the EU Institute for Security Studies, it was stated that "the American concept of network-centric warfare [using satellite technology]" communicates "a large amount of data to the lowest possible level of fighting unit (ideally, the individual soldier)Е" I.e. the average foot soldier can now initiate far more destruction on the battlefield than could his predecessors.

Therefore, Russia should feel very little consolation if it successfully kept large-scale bases out of the old Warsaw Pact countries, Georgia included. Perhaps the U.S. used the threat of establishing East European bases in order to maintain a permanent presence in the South Caucasus. The U.S. already has a "training facility" in Georgia, as well as several hundred rotating troops. Moreover, Russia just announced its intent to pull out its troops there in 5-7 years, which is less time than previously stated.

This proves that America doesnt have much interest in Europe anymore. After all, the expanding EU is in the process of creating its own 60,000-troop "rapid reaction force," which threatens to conduct missions outside of NATOs command structure. Besides, Europe is beginning to put up stiff competition against the U.S. defense industries. Europe was an attractive place when America was the only game in town, and the Soviet Union was alive and kicking, but those days are over.

This suits the neo-conservative Bush party just fine. With NATO adding another seven members to the alliance, thats free parking for a lot of American military assets. And now that U.S. bombers make the transatlantic flight on a single tank of gas, those innocent little "training facilities" can be rapidly filled on very little notice.

Perhaps it would be wise to reflect upon the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book The Grand Chessboard: "Americas global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained."

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