U.S. to realign military

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The Kremlin was quick off the mark.

Within hours of Washington's acknowledging in late November that it had begun formal negotiations to take over several Polish military bases, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned during a trip to Warsaw that any reconfiguration of the U.S. military presence in Europe must consider his country's national-security interests.

"The Kremlin is not concealing from the Americans or the Poles its negative attitude toward Polish-American discussions about relocating bases in Germany," a Russian official said.

But in the weeks to come, the Russians won't be the only ones jittery about a long-studied repositioning of U.S. forces and bases. For different reasons, allies and rivals around the globe are exercised about the ambitious Bush administration plans to shift and reshuffle tens of thousands of American troops stationed worldwide.

The Polish talks are just the start of the biggest U.S. military realignment since the end of World War II.

With the war on terrorism in mind and the need to rethink overseas base locations in the light of U.S. military commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Pentagon planners have been working for months on what Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld calls a "readjustment to fit the 21st century."

Last month, President Bush addressed the issue of a major realignment, saying: "The once-familiar threats facing our nation, our friends and our allies have given way to the less-predictable dangers associated with rogue nations, global terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. It remains for us to realign the global posture of our forces to better address these new challenges."

Informal talks have been under way for weeks with old allies such as Japan, South Korea and Germany about a possible reduction of U.S. troops in their countries, and there have been negotiations, too, about establishing new bases in the former Eastern Bloc countries of Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.