Those bases are actually more or less welcome - they certainly provide a couple of million-odd jobs to Europe, and mean that much of our territorial defense can be relegated to our Imperial Overlords in Washington.

Several items there:

• they are not welcome everywhere (see Italy, for instance. See debates on the missile defense);

• they are often paid, to a large extent, by the local host (cf Germany);

• I'm not sure they provide that many jobs: everything on these bases is imported from the US (as a French officer in Germany, it was eerie to see the difference between French and US bases: the French lived in the nearby towns or villages, shopped locally, employed locals in the base; the Americans lived on base, bought everything from the internal PX stores which carried only US-imported products); it's not millions in any case - maybe a few hundred locally supported by some of the spending power of the Americans.