Huge news about our military presence in Europe (in an Observer article that paints it as negatively as possible): US to redeploy 100,000 troops and shut bases. (Hat tip: Ronald.)

President George Bush will announce tomorrow that the US military will pull up to 100,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the biggest redeployment since the end of the Cold War.

The plan will see a number of US bases in Germany closed down, and troops returned home or redeployed to Eastern Europe.

The redeployment - first reported by The Observer in February last year in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq - will be presented by Bush as a logical response to the war on terrorism when he addresses the 2.6 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars at its annual convention in Cincinnati. …

According to the Post, two-thirds of the reduction will come from Europe, most of them Army soldiers in Germany, and most will be reassigned to bases in the US.

Officials said exact details of the moves have not been finalised, but some of the troops from Germany and South Korea will be moved to Nato expansion countries in Eastern Europe.

Victor Davis Hanson has been arguing relentlessly in favor of this move for years; it’s one of his powerful recurring themes. And it makes incredible sense for the US to stop defending Europe against a nonexistent enemy.

But it isn’t going to be good for the economies of Germany or South Korea. Maybe the hordes of anti-American protesters will have to find jobs when the dole shuts down.

McDonald’s is hiring.