Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided to freeze plans for further reducing Army forces in Europe and will maintain about 40,000 soldiers in Germany and Italy, nearly twice as many as had been envisioned under a drawdown that began two years ago, according to senior Pentagon and military officials.
In forming a new plan, Mr. Gates accepted proposals of the two senior Army officers in Europe, who advocated keeping the larger force on the Continent to sustain training and other exercises with foreign militaries and as a hedge against risks to American security.
The number of Army troops in Europe has already fallen to 43,000 from 62,000 two years ago under a plan signed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, and endorsed by President Bush when it was adopted in 2004. That plan had been described as the most significant rearrangement of the American military since the cold war, calling for the number of Army troops in Europe to be cut to about 24,000 by the end of 2008.
An order to delay the return of Army troops from Europe probably means that it will be up to the next president — working with Congress, the Defense Department, the military and host nations — to decide the eventual number and location of American forces in Europe.
Military officers who advocated reversing, at least for now, Mr. Rumsfeld’s decisions on withdrawing ground troops from Europe cited the great uncertainty about how long large numbers of soldiers and marines would remain in Iraq, and argued for continuing military commitments in Europe to reassure allies and deter adversaries.
Senior Pentagon officials familiar with Mr. Gates’s thinking said he was swayed by practical budgetary concerns as much as by the strategic policy arguments put forward by Gen. John Craddock, the commander of American forces in Europe, and Gen. David D. McKiernan, who is in charge of Army forces there.
The Army told Mr. Gates that not all of the housing was ready for the returning soldiers, and that it could waste millions of dollars to prepare temporary residences, and to move the troops and their families twice, first to interim residences, then to permanent ones, the officials said.
“The secretary is inclined to approve General Craddock’s request to delay the redeployment of the brigades, less from a philosophical standpoint than from a practical standpoint [emphasis added],” said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. “It happens to satisfy the needs of General Craddock and of the Army.”..
