I don’t have strong feelings about troops stationed in Germany oneway or the other. It probably is an outdated arrangement that is overue for reconsideration. However, I really don’t think withdrawing troops becauwe Donald Trump is mad at Angela merkel for efusing to attend his little G7 Party in the middle of a pandemic is a good reason to do it:
The New York Times reports:
When Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Trump last week that she would not attend the Group of 7 meeting he wanted to host in Washington this month, the call between the two leaders, normally respectful in tone, turned testy.
Ms. Merkel cited the ongoing pandemic. Mr. Trump responded with a wide-ranging monologue about his frustrations with the Group of 7 and NATO and the World Health Organization. America was doing great, he said, even as citizens rioted in cities across the country. The pandemic was China’s fault.
They hung up after only 20 minutes.
“It was not a nice call,” said one official who was listening and recounted the exchange.
One week later, Germans learned that the United States planned to cut its troop presence in their country by more than a quarter. Some 9,500 soldiers who have helped keep peace on the continent are to leave within the next three months. There had been no warning, and even today there is not yet an official notification.
It is not clear whether the two episodes are related. But together they signal a breakdown in relations between the United States and Europe’s most influential country, not seen since World War II as communication collapses and interests diverge over nearly every important issue, including Russia, Iran, China, and trade and security.
Of course they are related. Trump is a spoiled, emotionally stunted, petty tyrant. There can be no other reason for this decision at this time.
However, it’s a sign of the rapid deterioration of America’s relationship with its allies in ways that are likely to keep us in a precarious international position for a long time to come. It would be one thing if we were doing any of this with a strategic vision to change our military presence in the world but that’s not what happening.
A giant ignoramus with an extreme personality disorder is capriciously destroying the existing world order without any sense of what will replace it even as he’s bragging to anyone who’ll listen that he’s expanded the US military to unheard-of levels.
What is the world to think of this?
Trust between Ms. Merkel and Mr. Trump was lost long ago. Now, officials and analysts say, something much more fundamental was slipping away — trust in the strategic foundation of the trans-Atlantic alliance itself.
The lack of consultation on the decision, and the uncertainty and unpredictability in dealing with Mr. Trump — his decision to leave the W.H.O. similarly surprised allies — have become hallmarks of his years in office.
In the view of European officials, the United States has gone from being the indispensable ally to the undependable one. It is a frustrating turn of events that they have neither sought nor desired.
“It’s yet another wake-up call for us Europeans to take our fate into our own hands,” said Johann David Wadephul, a senior German lawmaker from Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
By unilaterally withdrawing troops from the United States’ most important European ally, Mr. Trump is hurting NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and directly playing into the hands of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has long resented America’s military footprint on the continent, said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, the Berlin-based vice president of the research group, the German Marshall Fund.
This is the state of America’s relationship with the world:
[B]efore the presidential elections in November, some say “America First” seems to have morphed into “Trump First.”
“It’s all about him, it’s not about a vision of the world, not about politics, it’s about him, about his need for validation — and sometimes his need for revenge,” said Norbert Röttgen, chairman of Germany’s foreign affairs committee and one of several candidates hoping to succeed Ms. Merkel as chancellor next year.
German officials are already bracing for more disruptive announcements from Washington in the months before the American election — and possibly after.
Many worry that Mr. Trump will unilaterally speed up the time table for troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, giving the Taliban the upper hand in peace talks. Some even expect him to bring troops back from South Korea.
“He is nervous and under pressure and the tighter it gets for him, the more critical the situation is for him, the more he will lash out,” Mr. Mr. Röttgen said.
Some fear that if Mr. Trump is re-elected, his first announcement will be that the United States is leaving NATO. Ultimately, Mr. Kleine-Brockhoff said, the question is: “How much can Trump destroy?”
That is the question for all of us, isn’t it? From the looks of it, his final (hopefully) year in office may end up being the worst on record. And he seems intent on making it as bad as he possibly can.
These next six months are going to be a very dangerous time.