The economic benefits of NATO for the USA wouldn’t change much today if Germany had its own troops instead of the US troops stationed there. Of course, if the t

The economic benefits of NATO for the USA wouldn’t change much today if Germany had its own troops instead of the US troops stationed there. Of course, if the troops were never there in the first place, that’s a different matter. The biggest actual difference isn’t US troops stationed in NATO countries but rather the extent of the US as a global reserve currency and the power of the petrodollar. The concerns over these are well-founded as the powers that be have willingly traded the latter in exchange for upping the US’ position in the current brinksmanship with Russia, when Russia was never the economic juggernaut to be reckoned with and certainly not worth giving up those cards for.