Wilfried Wiegland @WWiegland - Twitter Profile

America’s “Favor” That Powers Its Empire U.S. troops in Germany are not there out of charity—and certainly not to “protect” Germans. They are there because without German soil, American global reach doesn’t function. Ramstein is the largest U.S. air base outside America. Stuttgart hosts EUCOM and AFRICOM—the command centers for operations across Europe and Africa. Landstuhl has been the lifeline for wounded U.S. soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan. Even drone operations in places like Somalia rely on infrastructure routed through Germany. Remove that, and you don’t weaken Berlin—you blind Washington. Yet somehow the narrative persists: America is doing Germany a favour. That Europe is the dependent, the beneficiary, the so-called “freeloader.” It’s a convenient story. It’s also strategically backwards. Because the reality is simple: those bases are not acts of generosity. They are instruments of power. And they exist in Germany not for Germany’s benefit—but for America’s ability to operate far beyond its own borders. Take them away, and the question isn’t what Germany loses. It’s how much the United States does.

VickyR1chter's tweet photo. America’s “Favor” That Powers Its Empire

U.S. troops in Germany are not there out of charity—and certainly not to “protect” Germans. They are there because without German soil, American global reach doesn’t function.

Ramstein is the largest U.S. air base outside America. Stuttgart hosts EUCOM and AFRICOM—the command centers for operations across Europe and Africa. Landstuhl has been the lifeline for wounded U.S. soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan. Even drone operations in places like Somalia rely on infrastructure routed through Germany.

Remove that, and you don’t weaken Berlin—you blind Washington.

Yet somehow the narrative persists: America is doing Germany a favour. That Europe is the dependent, the beneficiary, the so-called “freeloader.”

It’s a convenient story. It’s also strategically backwards.

Because the reality is simple: those bases are not acts of generosity. They are instruments of power. And they exist in Germany not for Germany’s benefit—but for America’s ability to operate far beyond its own borders.

Take them away, and the question isn’t what Germany loses.

It’s how much the United States does.

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Wilfried Wiegland

@WWiegland

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