Let me get this abundantly clear. US has military bases in the EU(and elsewhere) for their own benefit. They are not protecting us, they are not here for any sort of contribution to military power - they are here to project American might across the globe. In case of actual global-scale conflict with say Russia, I have less than zero faith that US army would do anything to defend us, unless it aligned perfectly with their own goals.

I've heard this argument multiple times actually - that somehow EU states should be grateful for "protection" that US is providing the the rest of the world. No, it's the other way around - US should be grateful that those countries let US keep a solid foothold in those parts of the world, but let's not kid ourselves - protecting those countries is probably not even in top 3 of American priorities should an actual war break out.