U.S. looking to East Europe for new military bases
U.S. looking to East Europe for new military bases
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Americans are lobbying Congress so that they, too, might face Nicolai Yordanov’s problem. A pig farmer who lives next to a military base in Novo Selo, Yordanov is leery about Pentagon plans to expand training at the post artillery range, which would bring hundreds of U.S. soldiers to his rundown village year after year.
“We disapprove,” he said. “We have animals here. Maybe we’ll have nowhere to shepherd them.” Farmers graze their cows, sheep and horses on the 90-square-mile range, herding their animals to other pastures when tanks, planes or cannon bombard the area.
Whether the Americans would allow the animals to remain is unknown, but if the U.S. military stays on a permanent basis it surely would improve the base’s rickety guardhouse, crumbling offices and antiquated computers. Washington already has paid for new toilets, said a Bulgarian officer who serves on the base.
Novo Selo illustrates the international side of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s proposed reorganization of U.S. military facilities. As the Pentagon prepares to close hundreds of military installations throughout the United States, drawing protests from members of Congress, governors and mayors, it is more quietly planning to open new bases in Bulgaria and other Eastern European nations.
Closing all the stateside bases targeted for shutdown — including the 911th Military Airlift Wing and other facilities in the Pittsburgh area — would save $5.5 billion and cost nearly 30,000 jobs, according to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which next month will forward to Congress its own proposals. Pennsylvania would lose almost 2,000 jobs.
Goodbye Germany, hello former Warsaw Pact!
