Pulling Thousands of U.S. Troops Out of Germany Is Bad for America

Mr. Kojala is chief executive of the Geopolitics and Security Studies Center, based in Vilnius, Lithuania.

President Trump is right to demand that Europe spend more on its own defense. But the Trump administration’s announcement on Friday that it would pull 5,000 U.S. troops out of Germany risks weakening one of America’s best strategic investments: a military presence that deters Russia and keeps Europe’s old rivalries from becoming America’s problem again.

NATO has never been only about Russia. Lord Ismay, the alliance’s first secretary general, is said to have stated that its founding purpose in 1949 was “to keep the Russians out, the........

© The New York Times