IDK about France, but the Rammstein base is American, so I don’t know hoe much control Germany has over what USA does with it.

I think a stance like that of Spain would be ideal: close the airspace to US military aircraft. Let them use the base however the fuck they want.

I know they’ve made problems enough for Trump to be extremely pissed.

I feel like it had more to do with Merz making public statements humiliating trump. There was (and still is!) plenty of US military aircraft landing and taking off from Rammstein. The clown-in-chief is a narcissist who can’t stand public criticism or humiliation of his person, so a reaction like this sounds up his alley.

That is understandable IMO, refueling and recon are not acts of war. So I think they have found that a sensible balance to not seem unreasonable.

Both are logistical support for a war that is poised to seriously hurt their economies.

Look at it another way: what would you say if Romania let Russian spy aircraft use their airfields for recon over Ukraine, and Russian support aircraft fly refuelling missions for bombers, in exchange for “military protection” and “economic support”? Would it still be a “sensible balance” then?

it seems to me that most European countries have done a lot to prevent USA from having an easy time.

Idunno, almost all of them allowed the US to use their territories to wage an illegal war. Whether actual bombing runs were permitted is a bit immaterial here just like the “defensive” label on those operations. Recon and logistics are necessary components of a war, and allowing the US to perform them makes no sense for a war that will hurt you.

This is a very strong signal from Europe that we don’t agree with what USA is doing.

While I agree that there has been some good marginal changes from the last illegal war, it is still clear who is the empire and who is the de-facto vassal. If the relationship is that of equal allies, where are all the European military bases on continental US soil?