I don't give a damn about the economies of those German towns. They've ridden the gravy train for generations*. Those troops are actually needed elsewhere. If that hurts the German economy, too bad, so sad, but them's the breaks. Boosting the ecomony of German towns is hardly a legitimate function of the US military.

As for Europe taking the efforts and spending the money to protect itself, it's about time they were weaned from the tit and became adults. If they see no military threat, then they don't need US troops there. If they see a military threat, then let them spend the time, money, and effort to put their own troops there. Either way, there is little need for any sizeable American military presence in Germany any more.

*Under the status of forces agreements, every American installation has employed many German nationals for a host of support functions. For generations, they've received quite good pay for quite minimal work. For example, if they want an extended vacation with full pay, all they have to do is get a doctor to write a note saying they're too sick to work. When I was in Ramstein, we had German nationals on extended sick call for months at a time while an American airman I knew had to return to work the same week after breaking his leg. We also had German shuttle bus drivers who drank on the job and there wasn't anything we could do about it.