U.S. Army? Not In My Backyard

Germany’s Left Party doesn’t want the U.S. Army to relocate its new headquarters to Wiesbaden. The city, the state and the German federal government favor the relocation.

No Support for U.S. Wars: That’s the motto Germany’s Left Party is using to protest the current plan to relocate the U.S. Army’s European and African command centers to Wiesbaden.

GIs have been relocating from Heidelberg to the Erbenheim section of Wiesbaden since the end of 2009. Another 700 GIs assigned to the legendary U.S. V Corps just arrived recently. By mid-2012, the Army’s main land force headquarters is scheduled to complete its relocation of some 4,000 troops to Wiesbaden.

All of this is much to the Left Party’s displeasure. State parliamentary leader Willi van Ooyen says that rather than spending billions on war and the expansion of military facilities, the money should be spent on improving social and educational services. To back up his demands, he is reminding the Hessen state president of Article 69 of the Hessen state constitution, which says that the state is officially anti-war.

Holger Bellino, head of the parliamentary union coalition faction, immediately criticized what he called Left Party cold warriors trying to propagate hate against the free democratic principles of the Western world. He added that van Ooyen’s anti-American campaign hasn’t ended, even some 22 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Does the Contingent Include Soldiers Who Were Complicit in Torture?

The coalition has scheduled a debate in the state parliament for Thursday, at which the Left Party intends to bring up the pussyfooting attitude of conservatives relative to the serious human rights violations perpetrated by U.S. troops — such as incidents that took place at Abu Gharaib, as well as the intention to include stationing U.S. military intelligence units thought to have used torture during interrogations, as Left Party parliamentary secretary Hermann Schaus alleges.

That charge will be difficult for Schaus to prove, however. V Corps is not a combat unit, its function being strategic-tactical and serving to coordinate the deployment of U.S. troops to overseas theaters. While 45 V Corps soldiers forming a special operations unit did take part in 2003 “Task Force Victory” operations in Iraq, they have never been accused of using torture.

The U.S. Army justifies the relocation with the fact that its headquarters facilities in Heidelberg are fragmented and scattered, making them more vulnerable to terrorist attack. In Wiesbaden, on the other hand, there is already a secure and compact facility with two access points. Construction of the command center, along with the necessary support buildings, is expected to cost $130 million, of which the U.S. Congress has already appropriated $60 million. The city of Wiesbaden has already assured the U.S. and German governments that the land necessary for construction would be made available and that it would undertake measures aimed at facilitating the acquisition of necessary permits.

Heidelberg is less happy about the headquarters relocation, since American soldiers are the source of some $45 million spent annually in the city.