A foreign military base on your soil: protection or occupation?

The framing is the trap. Every occupying force claims to protect. The question is whether you invited them and whether you can uninvite them.

Both at once. Depends on the agreement and who controls it.

Protection sounds nice until you realize you can't ask them to leave. Then it's occupation with consent that expires.

Small nations with real threats need this. Without external security guarantees they get swallowed. Call it what you want—it's survival.

It depends entirely on who's stationing them and why. A NATO ally is different from an unwanted power.