[f_salmon]

> does that mean they'll at least start getting rid of the us bases?

It doesn't talk about that. And I doubt it's going to happen b/c literally nobody of the current European politicians has the balls to piss off the US (as for France, Obama has declared their president to be the new lap dog, recently, calling it another "special relationship" and saying he couldn't choose between the UK and France, would he be asked to). It's really a freak show nowadays.

[mfwoods]

Not only that, but these bases usually also have a non-trivial contribution to the local economy. Especially in smal(ler) towns, I'd expect there are quite some people who'd rather have a job because of those bases (directly or indirectly) than stop some of the spying (maybe).

[weinzierl]

As a German who lived near the bases Grafenwöhr (the base where Elvis Presley served) and Hohenfels I can confirm this. Wikipedia says Grafenwöhr alone supplies 3600 jobs for locals civilians. I've heard there has been resistance against the bases in the past, but now they are part of the local economy and every reduction in personnel has caused a small outcry.

[sirkneeland]

The current President may be clueless on this, but I'm sure that if the rest of America were asked whether they have a more special relationship with Britain or France (be they military members who share bases, business people who do far more inbound and outbound investment with Britain than with France, academics who collaborate far more with the higher ranked Oxford and Cambridge than any French Ecole, or just regular Americans who watch 'Sherlock' and Monty Python and listen to Britpop) that America has a more special relationship with Britain than France.

No offense to France as I am sure they prefer it this way anyway ...