Leave Germany?

From the DW:

"US considering troop withdrawal from Germany, report says"

EU officials are reportedly trying to figure out if a US evaluation of the impact of moving troops from Germany is a negotiating ploy ahead of a NATO summit in July. The US Department of Defense has rejected the claims.  The US Department of Defense is examining options for withdrawing US forces stationed in Germany after President Donald Trump expressed interest in such a move, The Washington Post reported on Friday. The newspaper, citing anonymous sources familiar with the evaluation, said officials were analyzing the cost and consequences of shifting either some or all 35,000 US troops to the US or Poland. Top defense officials, the paper said, have not been involved in the analysis. The US Department of Defense rejected The Washington Post's report on Friday evening. A Pentagon spokesman told German news agency DPA that the National Security Council had not received any cost analysis from the Ministry of Defense for relocating US troops stationed in Germany.  Trump had reportedly showed interest in shifting US forces during a White House meeting earlier in the year after he had voiced shock at how many US troops were in Germany, the largest contingent of US forces in Europe. Spokesmen for the National Security Council at the White House and the Pentagon said the Defense Department regularly analyzes the US troop deployments.  European officials have learned about the analysis, according to the newspaper, and are trying to ascertain whether it reflects Trump's intentions or is part of a negotiating ploy ahead of a July 11-12 NATO summit in Brussels. Neither German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen nor her US counterpart, Jim Mattis, mentioned such a plan after their meeting last week. The president has repeatedly condemned European NATO allies, in particular Germany, for failing to spend the NATO target of 2 percent of GDP on defense. Germany spent 1.24 percent of its GDP on defense in 2017 and plans to hit 1.5 percent by 2024. Poland spent 1.99 percent of its GDP on defense in 2017 and is set to join only three other European NATO countries ― the United Kingdom, Estonia and Greece ― that have met the alliance target.

^ This may not be that bad of an idea - and I say that as a military brat who lived in West Germany and then Germany. There are several factors to take into account: the cost of keeping the bases and soldiers in Germany, the cost of moving soldiers to a threat within NATO, the cost of new bases outside of Germany and when will Germany modernize their own military and up their NATO spending? This may be just a political ploy before the NATO Summit, but it is worth considering. Germany openly admits that their own military is not up to modern military standards and needs to be reformed yet the German Government has done little to nothing to work towards that. Also Germany is no longer on the front-lines of any real threat in Europe   - like it was during the Cold War. There are now other NATO member countries that actually border Russia (the biggest threat to Europe today): Latvia, Lithuanian, Estonia, Poland and Norway. Maybe the US should move out of Germany and make permanent bases in one or several of those other countries? I know that Poland really wants a permanent US pressure in their country and so it may be smart to move there. The Germans have become too arrogant ever since the Cold War ended and seem to forget that we saved half of their country from Soviet occupation. They are more focused on being the most powerful member country in the European Union then doing much else  - especially militarily in Europe or the rest of the world - hence their military is not that modern. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/us-considering-troop-withdrawal-from-germany-report-says/a-44467117