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SW: →2004 = 1992 [[George H.W. Bush]] Redux: tidy
===2004 = 1992 [[George H.W. Bush]] Redux===
In an August 2004 speech to an Ohio veterans' group, President [[George W. Bush]] said "one of the largest planned troop redeployments since the onset of the [[Cold War ]] 50 years ago"—an initiative that would be "implemented over 10 years and bring home up to 70,000 U.S. troops from major bases in Asia and Europe"—would "create a 'more agile and flexible force,' as well as 'reduce the stress on our troops and military families'," Eli Clifton [http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25112 wrote] August 17, 2004, for Inter Press Service.
In May and June 2004, the Pentagon "confirmed plans to sharply cut forces stationed at large U.S. bases in [[Germany]], [[South Korea]] and Okinawa, [[OkinawaJapan]], Japan, and to redeploy many troops to smaller, more widely dispersed facilities—sometimes called 'lily pads'—along an ''arc of crisis'' stretching along a wide band from Southeast Asia to West Africa, as well as to bases at Guam in the Pacific Ocean and back home," Clifton wrote. [http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25112]
"To many military analysts, the plan makes a lot of sense. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the need for large military bases housing conventional forces in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe evaporated from a strategic point of view." However, Clifton wrote, others viewed the redeployment "as both a pointer of the United States' imperial overreach and a contradiction of the [[Bush administration]]'s stated policy of supporting the global spread of democracy." [http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25112]
