Bush to move forces from Europe, Asia
By Kathleen Koch
CNN
 |  President Bush did not mention bringing troops home in his Saturday speech in Sioux City, Iowa. |
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 Bush expected to announce re-positioning of troops.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush this week will announce a major reduction and re-positioning of U.S. forces deployed overseas, according to Pentagon and senior administration officials.
The announcement likely will be made Monday when Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Pentagon and administration officials would not give the precise total, but they said most of the reductions would come in Europe, with the rest of the troops being pulled from countries in Asia.
One senior administration official said the move would bring some 100,000 family members and military support staff back to the United States.
"These initiatives will strengthen our ability to respond to threats abroad. It will help us better protect America and its allies," the official said. "It will also ... ease the burden on U.S. military members and their families."
Pentagon officials have for some time been reviewing America's global military posture, with an eye toward transforming it to meet post-Cold War threats.
In a recent briefing, a senior administration official explained, "There's been no argument inside this administration about the proposition that a lot of where we have forces around the world, our relationships ... sort of froze in place a long time ago. [They] had a logic that was based on an earlier time technologically and an earlier time historically."
The official said the planned changes would focus on improving speed, flexibility and capability, while at the same time strengthening existing alliances and building new ones.
Another official said the administration had been crafting the details of the troop reductions and re-positioning in cooperation with U.S. allies around the globe, as well as lawmakers in Congress.
