How Many Troops Do We Need in Europe?

How many troops do we need in Germany, really? U.S. European Command chief General Bantz J. Craddock's answer: a whole lot. In this Stars and Stripes article, he tries to make the case to slow down the US troop reductions in his theater.

Shortly after taking command of the U.S. European Command and NATO’s military forces last December, Craddock expressed concern that he did not have enough Europe-based forces to conduct ample bilateral and multilateral military engagements with U.S. allies...

Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. Army Europe, said last month he wanted to keep four combat brigades in Europe...

“Regardless of what happens in terms of sizing, the key is there are going to be enduring main operating bases and non-enduring ones,” Craddock said. “We have to make sure those living in non-enduring ones still get the same quality-of-life advantages and same services … so they don’t feel second class.

“Second, we have to look at the future. We need a decision finally on how we are going to get arranged, and then decide if we have the right lay-down in these enduring locations, and then ensure the budgets and services fully support the quality of life commensurate with that [which] can be expected in the continental United States.”

Help me out here. The new Africa Command says it will not be conducting major troop movements in its area of responsibility, so it's not as if European Command troops will be going there. The Cold War is over, and Putin is our bestest bud ever (so I hear from the White
House). There's a ittle issue with Kosovo/Bosnia there, but (as US
officials once believed) that could be handled by the European Union.
I certainly understand the need to keep air bases in Europe and agreements to cooperate in training and operations exercises. But why do we need four brigades in Europe any more? Do we need four combat brigades to have personnel to conduct bilateral/multilateral military agreements? Why not reduce EUCOM's presence to something like Central
Command - forces assigned to the command only when required? We may need a new model here, something that allows for military personnel deployments without all the emphasis on hardware in theater. Let's not just retain brigades in EUCOM just as a way to keep the Army bigger, as a whole.