Ralph Peters:
ON Monday, President Bush announced a plan to improve military readiness by withdrawing our troops from Cold War-era garrisons overseas. This should not be a partisan issue. But it's an election year . . .Every Democrat jockeying for an assistant-to-the-deputy-undersecretary janitorial position in a Kerry administration attacked the proposed basing changes as calamitous: We'll throw away our influence in Europe. NATO will buckle. South Korea will be defenseless. And virgins will be ravished around the world.
In remarks on the subject yesterday, John Kerry lied to an audience of veterans. He knows the withdrawal plan will span a decade and isn't precipitous. He knows we're not abandoning South Korea. He knows the Germans and French won't join us in Iraq, no matter who's president. But he and his gang of has-beens will say anything.
Note that when the panderers speak few mention the well-being of our troops. Not one presents a reasoned strategic argument for maintaining wasteful garrisons abroad. And not one admits that the Germans only care about losing the jobs we provide.
The Dems' position boils down to this: Withdraw our soldiers from Iraq, where they're needed. Leave them in Europe, where they're useless and unwanted. And to hell with the welfare of our troops and their families.
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* Strategy. We need the flexibility to move our troops anywhere, anytime, without begging permission from foreign governments. Berlin could block our forces during a crisis — and came close to doing so during the Iraq build-up. We're even at the mercy of German labor unions. Germany itself no longer needs protection — except from itself — and the restrictions on our training make it difficult to maintain combat readiness.
And contrary to the nonsense you'll hear from those who never served and never will, it's far easier to move troops to distant trouble spots from Georgia than from a German barracks.
Regarding the Democrats' claim that we'll lose influence in Europe, the obvious question is, "What influence?" We're not stabbing our French and German "allies" in the back. They stabbed us. And they'll do it again. Our troop posture in Europe doesn't give us influence over the Europeans — it gives the Europeans power over us.
The only way in which the president could improve his plan would be to move more of our forces to Poland and other states in New Europe, where they would be welcome, respected, able to train and allowed to deploy without hindrance.
When it comes to defending freedom, one American soldier in Poland is worth a battalion in Germany.
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When it comes to the president's redeployment plan, it's absurd to ask ourselves if the Germans will be unhappy. The only factors that matter are strategic effectiveness, the wise use of defense dollars and the well-being of our soldiers and their families.
By worrying so much about Europe, the Democrats are forgetting about America. And our troops.
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