LONDON -- The Americans are going home. Or, to be more precise, after more than 60 years, 70,000 American military personnel are to be gradually withdrawn from the European arena. Since the present number of American troops under "European command" is 116,000, this will leave in the longer term between 45,000 and 50,000 in place -- about the same as the number of U.S. service members stationed in Japan at present.
About half of the hundred or so U.S military installations will close, mostly in Germany. But bases will also be closed in Suffolk (England) and in Italy. Some transit points will be developed in Poland, and possibly Romania and Hungary, but there will be no new giant bases. Most of the departing forces will go back to American soil.
The strategy appears to make sense. After all, there is now no major threat to European security from next door. The position is quite different from the one in East Asia, where a "rogue" North Korea and a still unpredictable, and expansionist, China loom over the scene. The American view that the Europeans should nowadays look after their own local security problems, notably the turbulent Balkans, seems reasonable.