Though the announcement has not been made yet, reports coming out of the Pentagon indicate that President Obama is planning to weaken the program of troop reductions in Europe that were promised by the Bush Administration.

The initial Rumsfeld Plan was to remove two of the four brigade combat teams currently assigned to Europe. President Obama, however, is planning to remove only one brigade. The move will come in 2015.

The Obama Administration has been keen to maintain a massive military presence in Europe, despite there being no conceivable reason for such a force decades after the end of the Cold War. Last April, they ruled out removing nuclear weapons from Europe.

Keeping troops deployed overseas is expensive. Though the Obama Administration has rejected military cuts as a way of balancing the budget, the move to one-up the hawkish Bush Administration in keeping massive numbers of of US troops deployed overseas may prove extremely unpopular as the deficit continues to soar.