President Biden moved Thursday to halt former President Donald Trump’s plan to drawdown U.S. forces stationed in Germany, a highly controversial move that was widely seen as a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The new commander in chief’s decision came amid a day in which he made his first major foreign policy address as president. He and his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, signaled a tougher stance against Moscow than that carried out by the Trump administration. Biden spoke about putting diplomacy ahead of other aspects of national security and foreign policy but made clear he also will make adjustments to America’s military posture around the world.
“We’ll be stopping any planned troop withdrawals in Germany,” Biden said Thursday at the State Department while announcing a new review of America’s military footprint.
“Defense Secretary Austin will be leading a global posture review of our forces so that our military footprint is appropriately aligned with our foreign policy and national security priorities,” Biden said alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Defense analysts responded with a collective sigh of relief, calling Trump’s European withdrawal plan unwise.
“Everyone could see that this movement, this withdrawal from Germany was not going to be completed,” Tom Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, told the Washington Examiner after Biden’s announcement.
“I’ve always been a bit perplexed by the underlying rationale for taking troops out of Germany and moving them back to the United States,” the retired lieutenant general said. “The message is that the United States is still very much interested in NATO and supporting the alliance and that they want to get this right.”
Russia deterrence
Trump stated that his June decision to pull 12,000 soldiers from bases in Germany was punishment for that country not spending 2% of its GDP on defense, which is called for under the NATO charter.
Nonetheless, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper stood alongside Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John Hyten and U.S. European Command chief Gen. Tod Wolters in July to make the case that the move was strategic.
“These changes will unquestionably achieve the core principles of enhancing U.S. and NATO deterrence of Russia, strengthening NATO, reassuring allies, and improving U.S. strategic flexibility and EUCOM operational flexibility,” Esper said.
But the move was anything but reassuring to allies.
At the time, Esper indicated that a small number of American troops would start rotating to countries in Eastern Europe, an aspirational statement given the lack of required infrastructure.
Congress, too, was skeptical. Lawmakers wrote into the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act a requirement that the defense secretary deliver them a report on the withdrawal’s impact on deterrence before the troop movement could be executed.
“This is not a surprise, and, frankly, I’m glad that they are looking at this,” said Spoehr.
Briefing at the White House earlier in the day, Sullivan made clear the administration would be taking a much harder line on Russia.
“Unlike the previous administration, we will be taking steps to hold Russia accountable for the range of maligned activities that it has undertaken,” he said in response to a journalist’s question.
“That includes interfering in America’s democracy, it includes the poisoning of citizens on European soil with chemical weapons, it includes the types of hacks and breaches that you just referred to and many other things, as well,” he added. “We believe that we will be able to take a firmer, more effective line when it comes to Russian aggression and Russian bad behavior.”
In his first weeks in office, the Pentagon has declined to comment on any force decisions, including the fate of some 2,500 soldiers now in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
The Iraq and Afghanistan decisions were characterized by Trump as ending “endless wars,” while the Pentagon spoke of reorienting America’s troop presence to threats in the Indo-Pacific.
Austin has indicated that he, too, views China as the department’s chief pacing threat but has given no indication how troop movements would reflect that belief.
Weakening ‘balance against Iran’
In his remarks, Biden also said the U.S. would end support for all offensive operations in Yemen, including related arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
“This war has to end,” Biden said. “And to underscore our commitment, we are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.”
Spoehr said the U.S. had very little if any offensive support for the conflict, adding that move could actually hurt U.S. national security.
“I think the conflict has been misportrayed,” he said. “Yemen, it’s a bunch of Houthi terrorists there, and they have seen fit to launch Scud-type missiles into Saudi Arabia, killing civilians.”
Ending support for the Saudis has been “a very popular topic with Democrats” and likely prompted the decision, Spoehr noted. “Saudi Arabia is by no means the sole belligerent in this matter.”
“Everything we do to strengthen Saudi Arabia helps the United States balance against Iran,” he added. “And so, everything we do that weakens Saudi Arabia requires that now the United States is going to have to do more in that area if we want to counter Iran.”
