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Monday, Aug. 16, 2004

Pentagon officials said Monday the 1st Armored Division and 1st Infantry Division probably would not start leaving their bases in Germany until 2006 at the earliest. They will be replaced by a brigade, a much smaller unit, equipped with Stryker armored vehicles, which are much lighter and quicker than the M1A1 Abrams tanks used by the divisions they will replace.

The United States will close nearly half of all its hundreds of installations in Europe as part of the massive restructuring, defense officials told reporters on condition of anonymity. A Pentagon spokesman said the officials had to speak anonymously because "President Bush made the announcement."

That announcement came in Cincinnati Monday morning, where Bush told a convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars that the moves were meant to enable the United States to react more quickly to developing trouble spots.

"Our armed forces have changed a lot. ... They're better able to strike anywhere in the world ... on short notice," Bush said. "Yet for decades America's armed forces have essentially remained where the wars of the last century have ended: in Europe and in Asia."

The changes would not affect the more than 150,000 U.S. troops involved in or supporting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The restructuring has been discussed for years. Bush administration officials say the realignment is needed to move from a Cold War structure to a more flexible one better suited to the war against terrorism.

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