Posted on 03/12/2005 2:12:20 PM PST by Lukasz
The Bulgarian Ministry of Defense said Friday it is confident that thousands of United States forces will be deployed as early as this year in Bulgaria and neighboring Romania to give logistic support for American-led missions in Iraq and around the world. A defense official revealed the plans to VOA after the Bulgarian government approved Thursday NATO efforts to modernize two of its military airports.
A senior Bulgarian defense official, Lieutenant Colonel Sevastian Dobrev, tells VOA that the nearly $80 million deal with NATO to upgrade two of Bulgaria's military airports will precede the arrival of American troops in the small Balkan nation and neighboring Romania.
Mr. Dobrev reveals that many troops are expected to arrive in the region within the coming months. "I expect towards the end of this year we will have in Bulgaria and Romania, in this broad new NATO member countries, the United States will deploy one brigade," he said. "Four thousand troops. Four thousand!"
Bulgaria and Romania joined the NATO alliance last March. Analysts say stationing U.S. forces in these countries shows Washington shifts from large Cold War deployments in Central Europe and Asia, to sites closer to potential conflicts in the Middle East.
Defense official Dobrev explains the cabinet agreed this week to a complete upgrade at its air base in Bezmer which he says will be used exclusively by U.S. forces. He adds American troops will also share another airport, Graf Ignatievo, with NATO units, after work is finished on the expansion of an airfield there.
Because of Bulgaria's strategic location, Mr. Dobrev says, U.S. forces will form a logistic center at the two airports to support military missions in hotspots such as Iraq. "Bulgaria is at the south gate of NATO. All these airports will be used for transportation jets, for the transportation of all this logistic equipment, to the different parts of the world, or something like that," he said.
While there has been opposition in Bulgaria to the American effort in Iraq, Mr. Dobrev claims most Bulgarians support the deployment of American forces in their country.
He says many people believe the American presence will boost economic growth and help to reduce poverty in the former Communist country. "Most of the people, more than 67-percent, expect we will have good profits [from the arrival] of American troops in Bulgaria, because we have too many jobless people. For this region it will be very useful because we expect that many people will be engaged [in] supporting this airbase," he said.
Both Bulgaria and Romania are keen to promote their military sites and capabilities to the United States and NATO at a time when they hope to attract more foreign investments to close the huge wealth gap with the European Union.
And the Germans are very saddened. At least the ones with more brains than Schroeder.
Good to reward an ally.
That map shows that Romania is a very nice location...
Do they have any kind of a seaport?
Hmmmmm.....Maybe we're planning for the eventuality that the Turks will boot us out of Incirlik
.. as $5.5 Billion USD and uncountable jobs leaves their economy. 25% unemployment, anyone?
Well not all of Romania shows on the map, but I think the main seaport is Contanza on the Black Sea. There are also port facilities further north (off the map) near the mouth of the Danube.
That is quite a bit closer to the action.
The Turks will probably boots out if we attack Iran or Syria. We really need to get our of Germany.
I much prefer to put bases in Romania than Bulgaria. Since Romania is much larger therefore important for the security of the region.
Romania has a myriad of Ports of Call, the most important one is Constantza. Also the entire Black Sea board from the Danube Delta all the way down to Bulgaria is a dream come true for vacationing folks.
I will bet that our soldiers will have a great leisure time, relaxing and along the way visit some of the most ancient sites from the Roman Empire occupation.
The people are very friendly and pro American, no radicals like in Germany, simply put they love Americans.
Romanians (named after the "Roman" Empire took over the country) are very fond of Americans because for what we stand, the huge technological and economical power we are, plus there is an aura of something special coming from the only "Superpower of the World" a nation 10,000 miles away! It has something mystic in a certain way,...it sure convinced my father!
I should know...I was born there...
Information ping
This two country Rumunia Bulgaria Grecja Turcja NATO will do control Black See total. Please do know were is Wolgograd where is Basra:}}}}Thank you
I wish we could transfer all of our german forces to Romania and Bulgaria.
A naval base in the Black Sea for us is equivalent to a Chinese naval base in Cancun, Mexico.
This is a huge development.
It feels good not to have everyone hating us for doing the right thing. This world is so topsy-tervy. Freeing people is bad and oppressing them is good. What a crazy mixed up world we live in. Suicide bombers are good, American soldiers are war criminals. What a world, what a world.
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