As part of its goal to cut $487 billion from the Pentagon budget, the Obama administration will remove two of the last four Army brigades stationed in Europe. The administration already has begun efforts to allay fears that the U.S. interest in NATO is declining,
The Washington Post reported.
Top Pentagon officials have met with European officials to assure them that the remaining forces in Europe will be augmented by other Army units on training missions.
“In the briefing we’ve been giving the Europeans, we have made clear that there is going to be this rotational presence there that will be conducting exercises,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Post.
The cuts are part of a plan to reduce the Army from its current size of 560,000 troops to about 490,000. Reductions overseas are viewed as more palatable by the administration because they are less likely to offend Congress than cuts in troop size domestically where soldiers are part of the local economy, the Post reported.
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