Air Force Times/USA Today - U.S. lays groundwork for bases in Eastern Europe - WHY ISN'T THE EU REACTING?

Air Force Times/USA Today

U.S. lays groundwork for bases in Eastern Europe -WHY ISN'T THE EU REACTING?

Beginning Tuesday, 1,500 U.S. troops, some of them bound for Iraq, will join 400 Romanian soldiers in urban warfare training. The port and military air base at Constanta on the Black Sea also are part of the exercise, just as they are expected to play a role in future U.S. deployments. In neighboring Bulgaria to the south, 700 U.S. and Bulgarian troops are conducting armored warfare training. Both nations, once part of the Soviet Union’s bloc of Cold War military allies and now recent additions to the NATO alliance, are negotiating with the Pentagon over permanent U.S. basing rights, said Romania’s president and Bulgaria’s ambassador to the United States. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the U.S. military commander in Europe, called the joint exercises and potential bases part of an “eastward shift in the center of gravity” for U.S. military policy. They’re part of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s plan to shift troops closer to potential trouble spots in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Bulgaria and Romania have 450 and 860 troops respectively in Iraq. U.S. troops stopped at Constanta’s air base and port before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Though the Pentagon plans to keep thousands of troops in Germany, it will move roughly a third of the 75,000 troops there to stateside bases. It plans to establish smaller bases in Eastern Europe, where rotating groups of 3,000 U.S. troops would stop en route to more distant deployments. In the space of six weeks, the Army, Windmill and Romanian and Turkish contractors have turned an empty field near the town of Babadag into a functioning base for 2,000 with water and sewer lines, electricity, collapsible living quarters and mess halls, communication gear and mock urban areas for training. While Pentagon planners like the locations of Bulgaria and Romania, they also appreciate the nations’ support of U.S. military operations, Jones told the House Armed Services Committee. Germany, a longtime U.S. ally, opposed the war in Iraq and didn’t send troops to fight there. Saudi Arabia, which hosted U.S. troops during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, wouldn’t allow U.S. forces there for the Iraq war. Turkey, which borders Iraq, wouldn’t agree to let the United States open a northern front in the invasion of Iraq. Germany and Turkey are longtime members of NATO. Those nations’ opposition to U.S. policy is one reason Rumsfeld wants to move troops elsewhere, Jones said. The enthusiasm of Romania and Bulgaria toward their post-Cold War alliance with the United States indicates they would be more willing hosts. A European political observer noted: "It is important the EU Commission makes clear to Romania and Bulgaria that the presence of US troops on the European Continent, which are there with the intend to support US ground forces in Iraq and other US areas of interest, are not welcome and is not supported by the majority of Europeans. In addition it should be made clear to Romania and Bulgaria that the presence of US troops on their soil will seriously jeopardize their chances of joining the European Union. Turkey, Germany and France, who opposed the US invasion of Iraq should be complimented for their courage and encouraged to take the lead in getting US forces out of Europe. These forces have proven to be the direct cause of potential terrorist attacks on the European Continent."