US Orders 5,000-Troop Pullout from Germany amid Trump-Merz Iran Spat

Washington has been pruning its European deployments for decades—down from nearly 250,000 troops in West Germany in 1987 to under 40,000 before this cut—much as Britain dismantled its east-of-Suez bases after 1968 when its strategic center of gravity shifted. Trump’s move fits the long arc that began with Obama’s 2011 ‘pivot to Asia’: bipartisan U.S. retrenchment from the continent, accelerated whenever squabbles over burden-sharing flare. Europe’s reaction—rapid budget hikes and talk of “strategic autonomy”—echoes Charles de Gaulle’s 1966 decision to exit NATO’s command, which ultimately prodded allies to shoulder more costs without collapsing the alliance. Whether this 5,000-troop drawdown is a hinge point or another incremental trimming will matter less than the structural trend it highlights: in a century where U.S. power is increasingly contested in the Indo-Pacific, Europe must decide if it can defend itself when the American security subsidy no longer looks permanent.