TOI correspondent from Washington: In a move steeped in geopolitical tension and personal irony, US President Donald Trump, whose grandfather emigrated from Germany, giving him one of the closest generational ties to the country of any modern American leader, has ordered the withdrawal of roughly 5,000 American troops from Germany after a public clash with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over Washington’s conduct of the war in Iran.
The Pentagon said the drawdown would be completed over six to twelve months following what it described as a “thorough review” of US force posture in Europe. But officials on both sides of the Atlantic acknowledge the timing is anything but routine. It follows Merz’s unusually blunt criticism of the US campaign, in which he said Washington had entered the conflict “without any strategy whatsoever” and suggested Iran was outmanoeuvring and humiliating the US diplomatically.
