One of Donald Trump’s main election pledges back in 2016 was to ‘bring our boys home’. Alongside this came criticism of Germany and other NATO states for not paying their way on military spending. He has followed up on both themes this week, by starting to reduce the US presence in Germany, albeit shifting some to Poland and leaving all the mechanisms of a rapid return in place, so that the extent of the ‘back home’ is far from what it appears.
Extricating US forces from Middle East is another matter. Many army units are consolidating in fewer bases in Iraq or moving to nearby Kuwait. The US Navy is holding on, too, mainly because of the confrontation with Iran. It currently has two carrier battle groups within reach of the region.
When it comes to Afghanistan, Trump is hardly alone in wanting to get out of one of the longest wars in US military history. His problem is to do this while avoiding accusations of defeat. That is no easy task. Only this week there have been press reports of some of the most intensively cultivated poppy crops in Helmand province being dotted with solar power arrays providing pumping capacity for irrigating the crops. UN sources report that almost 80% of Afghan opium comes from Helmand, and since the country is the dominant global source that means this one province produces around two-thirds of world supplies.
