American troops in Europe

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Britain has an all-vollunteer(sp) army, right? As a result they are;

(a) Better equipped

(b) Better trained

and
(c) More able to project itself.

Yes, but this plays mainly a role in international conflicts, here is Germany indeed not be able to meet British or even US standards. But if you take a classical attack from Britain against Germany (which is highly theoretical, since we both have soccer teams to fight it out ), the advantages are not that big, Germany may lack the ability to project its forces quickly around the globe, but not in Germany itself. And some equipment will be the same in the near future (Eurofighter) or is already (Tornado), others is at least of the same quality(Leopard2, Eurocopter). You have a point that parts of our army suffer from the rather low financial resources we spend for the military - I don´t know if the entire British army is in excellent condition...

[Kontiki]

re: differences in qualities of European militaries.

Two other key points:

1) Britain is still the most active "colonial" power in Europe, even though France still retains close ties to alot of Africa.

2) Unlikely as any European ground war may be, Britain is still in the unique position of being basically uninvadable. Therefore, just about all of its military can be dedicated to power projection rather than home defense.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by The Pioneer
IIRC there is a German Luftwaffe training center in Texas near the Mexican border. By the way Sprayber most of the equipment that Greece and other countries has had since WWII comes from the Americans. But this serves both parties, the Americans for the business and each country because it's getting good to top quality military equipment.

I have no doubt that both parties are well served by the US being there. I was just responding to Mark's and Axi's comments. We are there because it serves both our interests. Or at least the intrests of the leaders. I remember me and my friends spending lots of money when we were there. Enough that you can get forms so that you dont have to pay the local taxes.