The US army said on Friday it would hand over 13 of its German bases to Berlin, some perhaps as early as next year, as part of the Pentagon's gradual draw-down of 50,000 troops stationed in Europe.
The army's European command said the preparations to shut the bases would affect 6,100 soldiers and 11,000 family members over the course of the next year. Another 1,000 army employees and 1,000 German workers would also be hit.
That's a total of 19,000 people; 17,000 military people will leave and 2,000 people will lose their jobs. But the loss to the Germany ecomony will be far greater. It takes roughtly 3 people to "support" each of these 19,000 people; support jobs such as local merchants, restaurants and landlords. That would equate to around 57,000 lost jobs; lost jobs that Germany can ill afford.
Watch for the demonstrations over this.
Medienkritik has more.
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