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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

Maybe the 36,000 US troops in Germany?

EU countries don't get to have "national security" that conflicts with the US to more than a trivial extent, like the Airbus/Boeing conflict. That's been a tradeoff that was accepted since the end of WW2. The US now complains about Europe not having strong militaries, having forgotten that for decades it was policy to discourage Europe from having strong militaries in case that started another war.

The US and China only get to play the national security card like this because of a high degree of conventional military and economic power.

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> Maybe the 36,000 US troops in Germany?

Do german people really care about those? (besides the obvious economic benefits in the towns where those troops are stationed due to local spending)

I always thought it benefited the US more than germany (easier access to eastern europe and middle east).

I think GP meant to imply that parts of the EU are effectively still US client states and not totally void of US influence on their politics. It's pretty common for top politicians in Germany to be part of some transatlantic organisation set up by the US ("Atlantikbrücke", ...). Same goes for journalists in leading news papers, which will result in more favourable US press coverage.

My point was that any consideration of the US as a "national security threat" to Germany should take into account the physical national security and ask what national security actually means when there are troops from the other country stationed in yours (along with their associated CIA listening posts etc). It makes it very hard to suddenly treat the US as a hostile power. "The cars have to go but the troops can stay" is obviously nonsense.

Germany has the largest overseas hospital for Americans. Its an extremely important strategic resource.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landstuhl_Regional_Medical_Cen....

Not really, Trump wants to pull over 10.000 troops out of Germany because of an oil pipeline deal with Russia. The public opinion pretty much is that, while he's at it, he should also take his bombs with him. But the public opinion probably not is the best deal politically.

The plan is to relocate them to other bases in Europe (mainly Italy and Belgium) so in the big picture it really doesn't matter.

Germans are actually happy that Trump wants to remove US troops.

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