US top diplomat Pompeo is in Germany to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall. He knows the country well, as he was stationed here during the Cold War. But how much longer will the US keep troops stationed in Germany?
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Following German reunification, the US pulled many of its troops from the country in a protracted withdrawal that would continue for decades. The base where Pompeo served, located in the strategic location near both the former East Germany and Czechoslovakia, would close like many other US facilities in Germany.
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In 1990, as the Cold War was coming to an end, the United States still had more than 200,000 soldiers stationed in the western part of Germany. In the eastern part of the country, there were more than 400,000 Soviet soldiers — reportedly the largest-ever occupying force to be permanently based in a foreign country.
While the last of these forces were pulled from the former East Germany in 1994, NATO troops remained in the western part of Germany. There are currently some 35,000 US soldiers stationed on German soil, predominantly in Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse.
Yet so far, the US has not delivered on its threat. Possibly also because today, the US military chiefly coordinates its African and Asian operations from its German bases, like Ramstein. […]
Full article at Deutsche Welle
