[Answer: symbolic protest removing small number of soldiers - not withdrawing from NATO - and NATO can already defend against Russia without US involvement] ◀ NATO

JasmineDubois

So apparently trump is planning to pull troops out of Europe, mainly countries bordering Russia.

BethanyRaisbeckBee

JasmineDubois confused as to why this is bad?

miffy

Robert-Walker

BethanyRaisbeckBee People who live in Europe can worry that it means they are less protected if they don’t know how prepared the European members of NATO are - and iti’s also a small fraction of even the US complement.

In reality we are very protected and there’s no way that Russia attacks us. Indeed we saw how Putin can’t even protect Moscow’s red square from Ukrainian drones and missiles. It won’t want to get in a real fight with the militarily far more capable NATO. Never would anyway.

There is no risk whatsoever of Russia attacking NATO. The feeble May 9 parade underlines how weak it is relative to Ukraine and NATO is vastly superior still to Ukraine especially in the air. If Ukraine had NATO air power support (just European fighter jets) or a loan or sale of European F-35s + permission to use retired F-35 volunteer pilots from other countries to fly them - then it could take over all the airspace above occupied Ukraine and the neighbouring areas of Russia probably within 24 hours which would completely change the balance in favour of Ukraine.

BLOG: Admiral Radakin says Russia does NOT want to attack NATO or start a nuclear war
— because of NATO’s vast overmatch in air and sea, and fast land response
— said to MPs in UK’s Defence Committee
You can read it here:
https://shortdebunks.substack.com/p/response-by-admiral-radakin-to-mps

Robert-Walker

It’s not a big deal at all. It’s symbolic really. Trump is doing it to kind of protest after Germany’s Chancellor Mertz said the US had been “humiliated” by Iranian negotiators in the ongoing war.

Germany has 36,000 active duty troops from the US so this will reduce them temporarily to 31,000.

That compares to 179,850 German troops and over 1.2 million in all the EU countries in NATO

150,000 in the UK and 355,000 in Turkey (which is not in the EU) and various other non NATO forces.

https://newunionpost.eu/2026/04/17/size-nato-armies-europe-infographic/

Europe trained last year in Steadfast dart on how to respond without any support from the US. It’s about 10,000 deployed initially for the immediate response expanding to 300,000 if needed without any extra commitments from any of the partners except to agree that it’s an article 5 situation.

https://www.forcesnews.com/services/army/defending-nato-member-how-allied-reaction-force-keeps-allies-safe

The US soldiers would most of them be late to the front line anyway apart from the ones already in Europe. Just because they have to get there from the USA. But Europe can do this without the US.

And many US legislators are opposed to withdrawing from Europe. There’s a law prevents Trump from going below 76,000 for an extended period of time in Europe.

QUOTE STARTS

Alarmed by Trump’s past criticism of NATO, lawmakers from both parties last year ‌backed a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, barring troop levels in Europe from falling below 76,000. Trump signed the measure into law in December.

However, the administration has some leeway. The NDAA provision allows the president to cut ‌troop levels below 76,000 if he certifies that he has consulted ⁠with NATO allies and provides independent assessments of how it would affect U.S. security, the alliance and deterrence of Russian ⁠aggression.
…
Late last year, there were about 85,000 U.S. troops in Europe

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/us-scraps-deployment-4000-troops-poland-rcna345283