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U.S. Troops in Europe: Needed More Than Ever
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12508 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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7 / 1987 |
2,024 Words |
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Jacquelyn K. Davis
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Over the last decade, but particularly since the debates in Western Europe over deploying intermediate-range nuclear missiles, American dissatisfaction with its NATO allies over a range of policy issues has prompted renewed discussion of the possible withdrawal of U.S. forces from the European theater.
In recent months, we have read about "how NATO weakens the West" and have been privy to proposals from prominent policy analysts and congressional representatives that take as a given the benefits that would rebound to the United States and the West if U.S. forces were withdrawn from their forward-deployed positions in Europe. We have been promised immediate and long-term economic benefits from the action and have, at the same time, been asked to consider the potential political opportunities that such action will yield to the United States.
In a bizarre coincidence of views, neoconservatives have joined forces with isolationists of the Left in supporting the redeployment option, which, it is alleged, will ultimately strengthen the United States' hand in meeting its global responsibilities and commitments. Indeed, some pundits would have us believe that the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Europe will allow greater flexibility of options in dealing with threats arising in "out-of-area" contingencies. They argue that without the constraints of its NATO commitment, the United States could command the wherewithal to intervene wherever its vital interests were threatened.
Intangible benefits
In response, it needs to be stated clearly that the United States needs the Atlantic alliance as much as its European allies do. Before the United States undertakes to berate its European partners over a perceived inequity in burden-sharing, it should consider the intangibles that accrue to the United States as a result of its commitment to the defense of Western Europe. NATO provides the United States with the institutional basis for marshaling Western Europe's considerable resources in defense of a common set of values, life-styles, and freedom of action. It also offsets the political shadow cast by the deployment of preponderant Soviet military power in the European theater, and it has provided a convincing basis from which to stand firm in our resolve to defend those principles that we hold dear, including human rights and the dignity of man.
Without the transatlantic connection embodied in NATO, the United States would surely be a politically and morally impoverished nation whose global credibility as a world leader and ally would be seriously in doubt.
Beyond this, however, we have entered an era in which no nation can "go it alone" in either the military or economic arena. Western economies are interdependent, and today, more than ever before, our national security depends on collaboration with friends and allies in all defense-related areas, including military research and development as well as deployment postures. Emphasizing transatlantic differences over détente, trade, and technology-transfer issues risks a loss of perspective on the value derived from our historic experience of U.S.-European defense collaboration.
Possible economic advantages for the United States flowing from the withdrawal of forces from Western Europe have
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