I figured that an airborne brigade, two airmobile brigades, two Stryker brigades, and a brigade set for a heavy brigade would keep a combat ready force able to use Europe as a springboard for intervention from Africa to Central Asia and engage allies with military exercises:
Deploying anything less than a corps in Europe would create a force with no capacity for decisive, sustained action, and such a force would be correctly perceived as nothing more than a token force. A heavy armor capability (from the 1st Infantry Division) to bolster the corps’ light mechanized force and light infantry would be necessary.
Recently, questions about our plans to reduce our Army in Europe to a parachute brigade and a Stryker brigade have been raised:
US defense officials in Europe are reconsidering a plan to dramatically cut the number of US forces there – a potential change that illustrates how the war in Iraq and other threats are forcing the military to revisit a broader transformation that was to redefine its strategy overseas.
Many senior defense officials are concerned that the plan to cut by nearly half the number of forces in Europe could make it difficult to support American interests in the European theater. The troop reductions, they say, go too far.
An Army corps in Europe would represent the most powerful combat force on the continent. This provides tremendous leverage and reassurance of our commitment. Not just hostages or trip wires, an entire corps would be a decisive force at war in Europe, a force ready to leap to the arc of crisis and apply decisive force, and a robust force able to reassure European allies of our commitment to a free and democratic Europe.
As I noted:
A free, friendly, prosperous Europe is vitally important to America. The contrasting lessons of abandoning Europe after World War I and defending it after World War II argue for continued engagement. That a second world war occurred after the U.S. withdrew from Europe early in the last century speaks volumes.
It is far cheaper to preserve Europe than to rescue Europe once abandoned. A full spectrum corps in Europe will help preserve Europe for decades to come.
