New European base construction contradicts the military’s own drawdown posture

Evidence

While sometimes you need to spend money to save money, it’s hard not to question the logic of spending billions on new and expanded European bases when the military is vacating so much space, downsizing its troop presence so dramatically, and shrinking the size of the entire military by tens of thousands, leaving plenty of excess space at domestic bases, too. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 806