Louis J Sheehan 80059 A51H18

Gates Halts Cut in Army Force in Europe

By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided to freeze plans for further reducing Army forces in Europe and will maintain about 40,000 soldiers in Germany and Italy, nearly twice as many as had been envisioned under a drawdown that began two years ago, according to senior Pentagon and military officials.

In forming a new plan, Mr. Gates accepted proposals of the two senior Army officers in Europe, who advocated keeping the larger force on the Continent to sustain training and other exercises with foreign militaries and as a hedge against risks to American security.

The number of Army troops in Europe has already fallen to 43,000 from 62,000 two years ago under a plan signed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, and endorsed by President Bush when it was adopted in 2004. That plan had been described as the most significant rearrangement of the American military since the cold war, calling for the number of Army troops in Europe to be cut to about 24,000 by the end of 2008.

An order to delay the return of Army troops from Europe probably means that it will be up to the next president — working with Congress, the Defense Department, the military and host nations — to decide the eventual number and location of American forces in Europe.

Military officers who advocated reversing, at least for now, Mr. Rumsfeld’s decisions on withdrawing ground troops from Europe cited the great uncertainty about how long large numbers of soldiers and marines would remain in Iraq, and argued for continuing military commitments in Europe to reassure allies and deter adversaries.

Senior Pentagon officials familiar with Mr. Gates’s thinking said he was swayed by practical budgetary concerns as much as by the strategic policy arguments put forward by Gen. John Craddock, the commander of American forces in Europe, and Gen. David D. McKiernan, who is in charge of Army forces there.

The Army told Mr. Gates that not all of the housing was ready for the returning soldiers, and that it could waste millions of dollars to prepare temporary residences, and to move the troops and their families twice, first to interim residences, then to permanent ones, the officials said.

“The secretary is inclined to approve General Craddock’s request to delay the redeployment of the brigades, less from a philosophical standpoint than from a practical standpoint,” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. “It happens to satisfy the needs of General Craddock and of the Army.”

Mr. Morrell acknowledged that delaying the return of American ground forces from Europe “also fits with what the secretary feels we should be doing in projecting strength around the world.”

Holding the American troop level steady in Europe would be “a reminder to the rest of the world that, though we have our hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are still very much engaged globally, and our commitment to our allies is not at all diminished,” Mr. Morrell said.

While Mr. Gates has decided on sustaining Army levels in Europe, his formal order awaits analysis by Defense Department lawyers and legislative specialists on how the new plan would conform to decisions by the Congressional Base Realignment and Closing Commission, which mandated a number of troop relocations, senior officials said. Even with the commanders in Europe and Army leaders at the Pentagon pressing for the action, Mr. Gates has proceeded with caution in deciding, reluctant to be seen as rushing to reverse a signature Rumsfeld program.

Since taking office last December, Mr. Gates has also endorsed plans offered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to expand the overall size of the Army and Marines, reversing Mr. Rumsfeld’s public reluctance to take such a step despite the stress of long and repeated deployments of American ground forces to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Gates now plans to delay the return to the United States of two brigade combat teams and all of their support personnel, maintaining four Army brigades in Europe, Pentagon and military officials said. Two heavy brigade combat teams would remain in Germany, with a Stryker brigade that was to have been the lone American combat unit in Germany under the Rumsfeld plan. Plans for the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team to remain based in Italy would be unchanged.

Those members of Congress whose districts include the troops’ stateside bases would be told that the two heavy brigades in Germany remain on the list for eventual redeployment home; further, that the Army, in meeting a Congressionally approved increase in overall troop numbers, is signing up new soldiers who will also need new housing, and at some of the same bases. In recent statements recounting the case they made for delaying the return of American soldiers from Europe, Army generals described a world that was not the same as when Mr. Rumsfeld approved the redeployment plans.

“I told the staff, I want you to study whether or not we have adequate capability to accomplish the tasks we’ve been assigned by the department,” said General Craddock, who leads the American military’s European Command and is the supreme allied commander in Europe. “We did that. The result was it appears we do not. I then sent a recommendation to the secretary of defense.” Louis J Sheehan

Army generals warned that if the number of troops was further cut as called for in the original plan, they would be unable to engage with allies, in particular to conduct training exercises with foreign military partners, and to prepare for contingencies.

“What’s changed is we’re in a longer war,” General McKiernan said. “In this era of persistent conflict, we have some fault lines that are there in the European Command.” He cited concerns over “a resurgent Russia.”