Why U.S. Deployments in Germany Matter

Key points

• 0:00

  Donald Trump announced the imminent withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany.

• 0:00

  This is the beginning of the end of the alliance with Germany specifically.

• 0:00

  Mertz said the United States doesn't have a negotiating strategy and doesn't even really have negotiators.

• 0:00

  The prime point person for American negotiations is Jared Kushner. Not that he's incompetent, but his assistant is Steve Witkoff, who is incompetent.

• 0:00

  The only other person who's been involved to this point is J.D. Vance, who has never negotiated anything.

• 1:26

  Ramstein is one of the largest air bases in the world and allows the United States to project power throughout the European, the former Soviet spheres directly and then indirectly into the Middle East.

• 1:26

  Landstall, which is the military hospital that over the course of the war on terror served as the primary evacuation destination for any forces operating throughout the broader Middle East who were injured and in the end probably saved 100,000 lives.

• 1:26

  If we were to try to project power to any of those three regions without those German facilities, we would have no logistics support and no backup should something go wrong.

• 1:26

  But if you only have to make it to Germany, that's a different question.

• 3:49

  Anyway, bottom line is with the possible exception of American military forces in Okinawa in Japan, this is arguably the most important footprint the United States has anywhere in the world for power projection.

• 3:49

  It takes 30,000 American forces to keep these things open to the degree that's necessary to facilitate American military power.

• 3:49

  Just be prepared for spending a lot more than $2 trillion a year on the defense budget.

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