Finally, they do something smart:
Rip-N-Paste:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/16/bush.troops.home/index.htmlWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush is likely to announce Monday a major realignment of U.S. forces around the world, Pentagon officials told CNN.
The move has been in the works for a number of months, with some details trickling out about switching the military from a Cold War stance to one designed to fight the war on terror.
The announcement may come when Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Monday.
At the beginning of the summer, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said the United States had told him it would like to withdraw a third of its 37,000 troops stationed on the peninsula by the end of next year.
In early June, a U.S. delegation, led by Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless, said Washington wanted to withdraw some 12,500 U.S. troops by December 2005, according to Kim Sook, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American bureau.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hinted at the change earlier this month, saying the proposed troop realignment would take several years and would likely lead to more American personnel stationed in the United States.
"We've decided that it's time to shift our posture in Europe and Asia and around the world and move from static defense, which does not make much sense today, to a more deployable and usable set of capabilities," Rumsfeld said.
Pentagon and senior administration officials have told CNN that the president's announcement will describe a major reduction and repositioning of U.S. forces overseas, with most reductions coming from Europe -- the rest, from Asia.
One official said the plan would bring some 100,000 family members and military support staff back to the United States.
The move, officials said, is designed to reflect a ready posture for the war on terror, rather than the Cold War stance adopted decades ago when officials believed the Soviet Union posed the biggest threat to America.
"This is a fundamental change and is a change probably in the tactics of our military, so that our people will be more mobile, more available at other places all over the earth," Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday.
"There are some things that we should do to redeploy troops so that they are in the best position possible for what the new threats are," said Sen. Carl Levin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
According to the officials, the proposals have been crafted following consultation with American allies and members of Congress.
