Critics say pulling 12,000 American service members from German bases undermines global stability. But they clearly haven't looked at the lackluster quarterly earnings of our transatlantic alliances.
Over a delightful sea bass at the Capital Grille last Tuesday, the reality of our European footprint became abundantly clear to me. We are currently housing nearly 35,000 U.S. troops in Germany, a nation that consistently refuses to pay its two percent GDP protection fee with the promptness one expects from a subordinate client state. Let me be clear: President Trump is entirely correct to treat a seventy-year military alliance exactly like a delinquent country club membership. If Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the privilege of hosting American armored divisions in Bavaria, she needs to understand that geopolitical hegemony is not a complimentary service.
If a host nation cannot be bothered to cover the overhead on our nuclear deterrent, they simply do not deserve the retail foot traffic our infantry provides.
I have spent decades analyzing foreign policy, and I can assure you that the average European has grown far too comfortable beneath the umbrella of American security. Moving 12,000 troops out of Germany—and perhaps shifting a few to Poland, assuming Warsaw's wire transfer clears—is the only way to ensure the free world respects our billing department. Frankly, it is time we stop treating international diplomacy as a mutual defense pact and start treating it like the lucrative protection racket it was always meant to be.