To the editor:

The president’s plan to withdraw 5,000 (or possibly more) U.S. troops from Germany over a spat with its chancellor shows shows the administration’s short sightedness and lack of an understanding of history and the country’s role in the world (whether it wants that role or not).

My Army family lived in then-West Germany from 1978 to 1981. The current U.S. permanent troop presence in Germany of approximately 36,000 is a far cry, according to the Heritage Foundation, from the 234,000 who were stationed there when we arrived in August 1978. They, and their NATO allies, served as a deterrent against the forces of the Soviet and Warsaw Pact; the Soviet Union had over 300,000 troops in East Germany at the time of their withdrawal.

Yes, the Soviet Union lowered its flag in December 1991 but make no mistake – Vladimir Putin, the one-time KGB operative turned ruler of Russia, harkens back to the “glory days” of the Soviet Union, when it was a presence to fear. He dreams of a return to that period. And his expansionist desire is out in the open for the world to see in his as-yet failed attempt to defeat and absorb Ukraine. Pulling troops from Germany and possibly Spain and Italy, which have much smaller U.S. troop contingents, sends the absolute wrong message to Putin and his ilk in the Kremlin – that the U.S. is turning inward, only concerned with its own affairs, and not of the world it inhabits. These are dangerous times (and China is also watching).

David L. Teska,

Lawrence