Germany laughed

 Then it was our turn

In the late 60's the people of Germany laughed ti hear that the USAAF were pulling out of the UK, and villages around the bases in Norfolk would suffer an economic depresson.

They weren't so happy when NATO pulled out of Germany a decade later, and their villages, and in some areas rowns too, suffered the same fate.

The difference is that the UK recovered, and is thriving, while Germany goes from one disaster to the next; saved only by the EEC/ EU.