How U.S. Forces Should Leave Europe

[rangerrebew]

How U.S. Forces Should Leave Europe
And Why Trump Should Start the Process Now
Christopher S. Chivvis
July 23, 2025
 
For decades, collective European self-defense was merely an aspiration. Today, the time to realize this goal is finally at hand. Momentum in Europe is building: years of marginal steps to bolster European defenses gave way to meaningful action after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and these efforts have accelerated in the six months since U.S. President Donald Trump came into office. European leaders promised a sharp increase in defense and defense-related spending at the NATO summit in June, raising members’ overall budget commitments from two percent to five percent of GDP. To make good on those crucial new pledges, Europe is introducing new financial mechanisms and breaking down barriers to cooperation in its defense industry.

The danger now is that Europe will lose its momentum—and that the United States, by delaying an expected drawdown of forces from the continent, will let it. Both sides have good reason to see Europe’s defense buildup succeed. The United States would be able to free up forces now stationed in Europe for other missions, or simply make cuts and pocket the savings. A more capable Europe would become the kind of partner that Washington wants and needs, and it would gain the freedom to set its own strategy as a global power.

To ensure that this necessary rebalancing proceeds, the Trump administration must withdraw substantial numbers of U.S. forces from Europe, starting now, and truly shift the burden of the region’s conventional defense onto the continent. Hesitating would undermine Europe’s progress and risk locking in a suboptimal security structure for years to come. To encourage Europe to follow through on its own promises, Washington must lay out a realistic, targeted, and phased plan that cuts U.S. troop levels in Europe roughly in half over the next four years while keeping in place forces vital to U.S. security interests or forces that Europe cannot reasonably replace in that time. If a drawdown is executed well, there is little reason to fear that it would end the transatlantic partnership or leave either side less safe.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/how-us-forces-should-leave-europe

[MeganC]

More Russian favoring defeatism and propaganda.

[MeganC]

Chris Chivvis is a senior fellow and director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has more than two decades of experience working on U.S. foreign policy and national security challenges.  He most recently served as the U.S. national intelligence officer for Europe. 

At Carnegie, Chivvis leads policy-focused research aimed at developing realistic U.S. strategy for an era of great power competition and building a foreign policy that serves the needs of the American people.

Chivvis’ experience with U.S. foreign policy spans government, academia, and the think tank world. Before joining the National Intelligence Council, he was the deputy head of the RAND Corporation’s international security program and worked in the Defense Department. He also has held positions at multiple universities and think tanks in the United States and Europe.

Chivvis is also the author of three scholarly books and several monographs and articles. His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the National Interest, National Public Radio, and several other outlets.

Chris holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins, where he teaches courses on international history and U.S. foreign policy.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Europeans are incapable of maintaining peace on their own continent because nations, nationalities, and national interests are divergent.  They need a babysitter.

Germany was perfectly willing to sellout Ukraine to Russia for natural gas.

When the Nazi's occupied Czechoslovakia, Poland took a little piece for itself.

Hitler and Stalin cooperated to seize pieces of Poland.

Europe stoodby while the Balkans ripped themselves apart.  NATO (the US) had to intervene in Bosnia and Kosovo to contain ethnic strife that could have spread beyond Yugoslavia and Albania.

Hungarian nationalists eye a piece of Romania that has ethnic Hungarians.

It never ends.