(CNN)When United States and Polish officials signed a deal to support more combat troops in Poland, the country’s foreign minister, Jacek Czaputowicz, said the move put American troops where they needed to be.

“The presence of American troops in Poland enhances our deterrence potential because we are closer to the potential source of conflict,” Czaputowicz said in a joint appearance Saturday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Analysis: Trump's Germany troops pullout may be his last gift to Putin before the election
Analysis: Trump’s Germany troops pullout may be his last gift to Putin before the election
“It is important that they should be deployed in Poland, and not in Germany,” Poland’s top diplomat said. “The art of war assures us that the capability of deterrence is higher if the army is deployed in the right place.”
The boost for Poland is part of a Trump administration plan to pull some 12,000 US troops from Germany announced last month. While 1,000 of those will join 4,500 US troops already in Poland, others will move to Belgium or Italy or back to the US, available to be sent back to Europe or other world hotspots should the need arise.
For decades, US personnel stationed in Germany have been viewed on both sides of the Atlantic as the foundation of the post-World War II order. At the height of the Cold War, the US maintained up to 400,000 troops in Europe, the majority in Germany.
As was the case in decades past, the potential source of conflict remains Russia — and the threat of possible incursion, as alluded to by Czaputowicz.
However, elected officials in the US and among its NATO allies said the move to reposition troops could actually benefit Moscow.
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Republican US Sen. Mitt Romney last month called the plan “a grave error” and “a gift to Russia.”
The head of the German Parliament’s foreign relations committee, Norbert Roettgen, tweeted: “Instead of strengthening #NATO it is going to weaken the alliance. The US’s military clout will not increase, but decrease in relation to Russia and the Near & Middle East.”
How could that “military clout” decrease? Deterrence is one example.
The last large US reduction of its troop presence in Germany occurred in 2012. Two years later, Russian troops moved into the Crimea and Moscow annexed the Ukrainian territory, spiking tensions with NATO.

US and European military experts tell CNN the new troop reduction plan would provide few benefits on any potential future battlefield, and certainly not enough to justify its enormous cost, estimated to be in the billions of dollars.
Specifically, the Trump administration plan pulls 11,900 troops from Germany, redeploying 5,400 of those elsewhere in Europe and sending the remaining ones back to the US with some of them rotating back to Europe at some point.
Key movements include command and control centers going from Germany to Belgium as well as Army airborne troops and Air Force F-16 fighters moving from Germany to Italy.