This report is right:
As part of a policy that is shrinking America’s military presence in the world, the Obama Administration’s recent defense cuts heavily impact the U.S. military footprint in Europe. These cuts are sending the wrong signal on America’s commitment to transatlantic security and will embolden U.S. adversaries in the Euro–Atlantic region. Most importantly, the cuts will reduce the ability and flexibility of the U.S. to react to the unexpected in Eurasia and the Middle East.
I pretty much addressed this ten years ago in the pages of Military Review.
Defending a free and democratic NATO Europe and being prepared to intervene in an arc of crisis from West Africa to Central Asia seemed like vital missions at the time.
As Europe shakes under the Euro crisis and sees Russia increasingly aggressive toward NATO, this hardly seems less relevant a decade later.
And as Russian power revives a bit and Russia seeks control of the Arctic, that arc of crisis now heads north from Central Asia all the way to the Arctic Circle, making this arc nearly encircle NATO Europe.
If I was more focused on writing for publication, perhaps this lacuna in their research wouldn't annoy me. So my bad, in the end.
The important thing is that the word gets out. Nearly seventy years after VE Day and nearly twenty-five years after the Warsaw Pact collapsed, we need a robust American military presence in NATO Europe to keep this alliance relevant.
