Q: ... Does this budget anticipate that the two brigades in Europe will be brought back to the United States? ...
MS. BONESSA: In accordance with SecDef guidance, the force structure for Europe is still being assessed at the Defense level. And we will -- we will await the outcome of that.
We need a robust United States Army Europe (USAREUR) to remain in place, despite the changes since the end of the Cold War. Even maintaining two brigades isn't enough. I blogged about it here:
We may be looking at a Pacific century developing, but Europe is still the most important piece of real estate to keep in friendly hands. And it is a staging area for deployment into the arc of crisis from Morocco to Afghanistan.
Military Review published an article of mine back in 2003 on this subject. We have many reasons to keep our Army in Europe.
As I concluded here on the subject, when the Pentagon started to rethink the wisdom of withdrawing Army combat brigades:
History hasn't ended in Europe. The Army must not leave Europe.
Let's not get stupid and believe we can come home, even after all these decades. The arc of crisis is on fire or smoldering after Tunisia and with ongoing fights in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia is rearming, pining for their Soviet glory days, and not acting "reset" at all. Western Europe itself teeters on the brink of financial crises. Is our mission in Europe really over?
