[caisson71]

It is time the US reduce its military presence in Germany. If the Germans can't pull their share of the load in NATO, why should the US be expected to protect their sorry posteriors.

[pepsionice]

The US has invested too much money into the installations in Germany to make a big threat to leave. You cannot replace a lot of these places. It would cost well over $20 billion to reestablish the forces back into the states....and then you have to ask where. Most communities don't want a larger military installation.

As for the German government....most folks are now laughing, on a nightly basis. Schroder is now the best comic character of the decade. There are tax comedies appearing each night...people just start laughing about the entire episode. They raised flower taxes from 6 percent, where it had been for 40 years....to 16 percent. It starts to become too much to believe.

[Polybius]

It is time the US reduce its military presence in Germany. If the Germans can't pull their share of the load in NATO, why should the US be expected to protect their sorry posteriors.

With the Soviet Union dead, we are no longer protecting Germany. We are simply using Germany as a forward deployment staging area just as we use the British island of Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean for the same purpose.