>>Our once-strong allies <<
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When was Germany a STRONG ally?
They’ve been semi-pacifist since WWII.
Before that, on the other side.
Cold War face-off with USSR was primarily U.S. & U.K. protecting Germany.
While not being a huge military presence in the NATO lineup, W. Germany did provide us basing options which were valuable given the likely route that a Soviet land invasion might have taken. On balance, it was probably to our advantage to have those facilities available to us. Better that than nothing.