Beyond the Wasteland discusses whether Bush’s punishment of Germany for daring to disagree with him would be effective:
I would answer no for a number of reason. Almost every German I know talks about growing up seeing foreign tanks and troops on the roads, near their villages, on the autobahns, in the airports, and they say that although they understood why they were there, and that the troops were as polite and respectful as possible, that Germans saw those foreign troops as a symbol of the past failures (quite correctly) of Germany. My suspicion is that the German people will welcome the departure of American troops despite the financial loses. The German government actually has to pay for housing and feeding these troops, I have no idea if this matches the amount of money these troops bring into the country, I suspect not, but it will not be a total loss in any sense. The Pentagon taking this approach makes me wonder if they are not really treating the German government like a wayward congressman, removing some pork from his district. Is this an intelligent approach to take to foreign policy, or is it a sign that Americans have become so dense that they see the whole world through a blindly American perspective. Has there been any thought about the long-term effects of such a move? To the Germans, this signals the end of the post-war period, Germany will be no longer under the benign occupation of America. I am sure they will welcome this, Mr Schröder will be seen as the leader who made Germany German again.