Aside from Russia’s nukes, and general aggressiveness in the past, there is another reason we kept a dominant military capability in Europe for a long time, and, that reason hasn’t really gone away. It is, if anything, resurgent, with new actors present (but their presence is not the root problem.)
At least one FReeper (besides me) should be able to figure it out...
BTW, that’s not to say there are not other possible solutions, instead of dominant US forces in place, but, they tend to be quite long-term risky if the basic problem cannot be corrected. And THAT (problem) is VERY tough.
IMO, the best solution is to keep our forces in place, but at greatly reduced cost, with the Euro’s contributing a fair share. And maybe “give up” Turkey if they don’t play nice...