The largest American movement out of Europe since 1990 stops on the ramp at Ramstein. Not for politics: the asset freeze broke the payment chain, and no supplier can lawfully sell the Air Force any more Jet A. Berlin asks about the B61s.
Two C-17s that should have left at 0900 are still sitting there. Cleared three times by our side. Zero times by the Germans. Reason on the hold sheet: "security inspection."
Nobody is shouting. That is what is frightening about it. It is completely quiet out there.
The retrograde has started. ~38,000 personnel and families out of Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain. Largest movement out of Europe since 1990.
And it is already stuck, for a reason nobody planned: the asset freeze broke the payment chain. German suppliers cannot lawfully take US government money. Some aircraft are held because nobody can sell the Air Force jet fuel.
Europe froze the assets of a departing army and thereby prevented it from departing.
Nobody drafted that. It is the single most consequential unintended effect of the entire crisis and it came out of a payments annex.
The retrograde has started. ~38,000 personnel and families out of Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain. Largest movement out of Europe since 1990. And it is already stuck, for a reason nobody planned: the asset freeze broke the…