U.S. Brigades To Leave Germany

German Angst As U.S. Troops Bid "Auf Wiedersehen" -- Alexandra Hudson, Real Clear World/Reuters

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany (Reuters) - Walter Brunner, a lively 82-year old whose blue baseball cap matches the color of his eyes, leans across a red leather booth at the American-style diner in this southern German town and tries to make light of the looming pullout of U.S. troops.

"We Germans fought for the Russians to go, now we are fighting for the Americans to stay," jokes Brunner, chairman of the German-American contact club in Grafenwoehr, whose lifeblood is its U.S. military base.

He watched a young Elvis Presley arrive here for training in 1958 and still goes tenpin bowling with his American friends every Monday night.

Read more ....

Update: DoD Identifies Brigades Slated to Leave Germany -- Military.com/Stars and Stripes

My Comment: It's not surprising that many Germans .... especially the older generation .... view the American departure with concern. The U.S. military has been an incredible stabilizing influence in the country since the end of the Second World War, and their departure is a milestone that legitimately raises concerns among those who remembered what life was like after the Second World War. My prediction .... life will go on .... and the Germans are going to get use to it (especially) after my generation (I am in my 50s) passes on.