Trump thinks America is helping Germany by stationing US soldiers there, when in fact it’s the other way round - Germany is doing America a favor by providing a strategic base.
That’s how stupid this guy is, he doesn’t even understand the basics.
Because the only foreign military in America is getting trained to use the equipment they buy from American companies…
He assumes the only reason countries let American military in, is another grift with kickbacks.
He doesn’t know what their grift is (likely because there isn’t one) but he literally can’t imagine anyone doing anything that doesn’t benefit them
So he just cancels anything, and expects it to “hurt” like when someone fucks with his grifts.
When people still negotiate because what he cancelled actually has a purpose, he just thinks that means he was right and they’re protecting a grift instead of having basic human empathy
I used to live in a city that had a large British base which got shut down during that time. The local media was full of stories of how that would negatively effect the economy and such, but overall it barely made a dent, and not having these drunk soildiers causing trouble every weekend sure was an advantage 🤷
yeah they won’t be missed. also there are still 30.000-35.000 US soldiers in germany.
there are still 30.000-35.000 US soldiers in germany.
But why?
to protect us of course. havent found out from whom yet, but i feel really protected right now.
Before Trump, it was pretty obviously meant to protect against Russia as well as part of Germany’s integration into NATO - and the majority of Germans were more than fine with it.
The disconnect is you’re talking about how it effects the people who live there…
Back in the day, a base would beef up local small businesses, who had to hire substantially more employees, who then spent their wages in town. Now it just means your chain stores take a profit cut. Not many people lose jobs, because there’s not that many to lose. The few who do, didn’t have much disposable income to spread around anyways
When the local media complains about it hurting an area, they’re talking about GDP level stuff. That just doesn’t really affect people’s day today lives, especially in the short term or if there’s corruption that was easting up those funds.
But all over, these a disconnect because billionaires syphon off as much as they can. So things that used to put money in local communities, just don’t anymore. So places need to re-evalute if they still have a benefit
The US military employees something like 12,000 German civilians directly. You will need new jobs for them. The US soldiers also spend some money in the local economy. So we are talking maybe 3,000 jobs or so, which can be replaced with some smart government spending if need be.
German town = an us themed restaurant, an high school teacher and some us Soldiers. lol
“I feel no ill will, it’s great, there’s cohesion,” he said of US-German ties. “But it’s not fair that we keep boosting your economy so y’all can make money off us.”
This is such a fucked point of view. What does he expect? That everywhere he spends money should be a US business? That all transactions should be in USD? That all sales taxes should go to the US government? Get fucked. He’s here on German soil using German taxpayer funded infrastructure. My all means, fuck the fuck off back to your shithole country. Once all the Americans are gone I would gladly move in if the lack of demand meant lower rent/property prices.
Get real, you love their dollars, who wants foreign soldiers stationed in your own sovereign country?
Germany is very different in this regard. They haven’t been perceived as occupiers in ages and rightfully so. Until Trump began destroying the close relationship with Germany, US soldiers on German soil weren’t seen as much of an issue. It’s not like they were omnipresent after the end of the Cold War, outside of close to where they are stationed. You’d occasionally spot a handful e.g. on the train (although these days, you’re more likely to come across Mormon missionaries, at least it feels that way) and it’s not like anyone has an issue with their easygoing nature. British soldiers had nowhere near as good of a reputation, by the way. It had nothing to with the British government, but rather with the behavior (often drunken excesses) of poorly disciplined conscripts stationed here and the (to Germans) shockingly rough discipline imposed on them by their officers and MPs.
That’s not to say that US soldiers being stationed here wasn’t controversial at times. When Bush Junior started his illegal war against Iraq (an immensely unpopular thing in Germany - I was one of millions protesting against it), the fact that Germany was a major logistics hub in the war despite not officially participating (it only secretly did) was being heavily criticized. Earlier during the Cold War, when Reagan had his “Star Wars” moment, it led to a surge in anti-American sentiment, since Germany would have become an irradiated battleground between the two superpowers in case of a hot war, so anyone heating it up wasn’t exactly looked at fondly. By the time Bush Senior was in office, the whole thing had cooled down again though and shortly afterwards, the whole thing was over anyway.
get real, who wants anyone from anywhere if not for the money – be they tourists or soldiers
