Military bases in Europe and elsewhere over the past fifty years, never mind our strategic armaments, is what has allowed many Western nations to be all "butter" and no "guns" at our expense. Of course, many of them never miss a chance to be smug about this.

Sometimes in my more cynical moments I think it might have been instructive during the Cold War, maybe somewhere in the 60s or 70s, to pick out a nice Western nation and tell the Soviets, "hey, we're pulling completely away from this one. This one, and this one only, is all yours. Send in the tanks, we won't say 'boo.'" Then watch the pathetic, defenseless country die screaming. An educational exercise for nations that have sat under our umbrella for half a century, and spit on us for it. Unfortunately, it would probably be pointless. They still wouldn't get it.

There's a reason that America is highly thought of in Eastern European nations nowadays. They know.