I think the defense spending reasoning particularly ironic, given that half of the troops being moved out of Germany are going to Italy and Belgium, which spend

I think the defense spending reasoning particularly ironic, given that half of the troops being moved out of Germany are going to Italy and Belgium, which spend a far smaller share of GDP on defense than Germany. I think the move is really poorly thought out if the goal is to penalize Germany and discourage their behavior. Because what is Germany losing? The political embarrassment of having troops leave? Is that really worth the billions it will cost to move troops? Because I feel like if the US was willing to spend billions to apply political pressure to Germany there could have been much more effective ways to go about it. And then there's the damage this does to the security of Europe broadly. If this in any way reduces our ability to deter Russia, that hurts all of NATO, not just Germany.