Wrong answer, you did order it for 50 years during the Cold War, you did order it with missile defense even now; and yes, you do suck on globalization and the global economy while doing little to nothing for it and bad mouthing it the entire time.
Your economy will end if it's not fed gold, cesium, platinum, oil and other strategic resources required for an industrial and technological based economy. These are resources you buy in a global market place, one you do nothing for other than consume.
Your cars, industrial machinery, chemicals and other major goods are shipped around the world on open free water ways; water ways that take you through places like the Mediterranean (Libya), off the Coast of Somalia (Pirates), through the straight of Hormuz (Iran) or Malacca (Pirates). Your people do travel on open airways around the world, you do want regional stability in the Balkans, a war you ASKED for and were the political instruments behind. But no worry, the Schmarotzer usually has selective memory.
As an information based society you do need intellectual property rights enforced (patent, trademark, and copyrights), you do require the free flow of people and ideas on open channels of communication.
Yes, your people do have an unsatisfiable apatite for goods and services that have names like LG, Samsung, Hitachi, Kia, Daewoo, Hyundai, Hankook, and others, but you would do nothing if this trading partner, another free republic ruled by law were invaded by a despot regime from the North. It’s become EXPECTED that you’re useless, look at Israel and your two ships there.
Yes, you are exactly that which you can't accept, a Schmarotzervolk. Ask any kid sucking off his parents at 30 something if he's a moocher and you'll get the same sort of responses one sees from you and your people at large. Could you imagine the outcry by your people if we abandoned your people in a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) in Africa somewhere (And we have done them, picking up your citizens as well)? Several times even! People like you and in fact most your countrymen take it for granted, even expect and demand that when they call upon NATO it answers the call as in the Balkans, and seven years later when 2,800 Americans die in an unprecedented attack, you do what? As little as possible. Yes, you do order it, but there is no reciprocation.
You ride in our shadow, and like Switzerland in the Cold War not flinching twice about taking Nazi and drug cartel money even stand to benefit by not helping and standing on the sidelines when doing business in places like Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Syria……... Do you know who the major trading partner in Europe is for Iran? There are benefits to being a weasel that go beyond not paying for defense, lower threat levels, and less political pressure. But nonetheless, you’re still just a weasel. It’s not the weasel part that bothers many, it’s the fact that as a weasel you actually try to lecture us, or even put yourself on a pedestal declaring yourself moral and smarter for having done nothing, once again. I guess that best defines the difference between your people and mine (The conservative camp in our respective nations). We feel remorse, regret and guilt because of Vietnam; not because we fought there, but because of the outcome of the war, the people we abandoned when we left, the veterans returning home to an ungrateful nation…. You on the other hand also see Vietnam as a negative experience, but your argument would be that we should have never tried to contain communism, should have just left those people to be condemned like in Rwanda, and today people like you actually try to use Vietnam as a rhetorical club not even realizing that it’s a self defeating argument.
The reason why you get away with this behavior is because damage caused by sacrificing NATO or cutting you out of the economic benefits of certain areas even though you didn’t do anything there is even worse. The alternatives are worse and something even if disproportionately little is still better than nothing. So yes, do you do “something” and do did you pay some money on occasion. But it would be as if I put a band aid on a gushing head wound and then washed my hands free of any more work and responsibility. Imagine a scenario where Berlin is blockaded and we gave you three DC-3s and said, “There you go, we did our part.”
Think of it this way, what would be the consequence if we said Germany was not covered by Interceptor? What would happen if we began cutting out nations from partaking in the economic fruits of labor in areas where we and our allies bled? If we cut you (or others) off or cut you out of the picture we damage security institutions and/or cause a reverting to a near colonial era where certain nations control the economic output and resources within these regions, a horrible precedent with really bad outcomes for sure. You’re tucked away within the EU and NATO and no one can really force you to help, that has to come from you, and what we’ve seen over the last years is unimpressive. The US on the other hand is in a peculiar situation where she can’t shrink from her obligations. We are the leader within NATO, and ANZUS (The Pacific version of NATO), we are in a leading position even outside these security institutions when it comes to a broad range of Western security concerns. We can’t pick and choose when we will play, we can’t even really change our mind without causing a disaster, or decide to only help a little, and the consequences of our refusal to help would doom security institutions and in many cases change the outcome of war all together. If S. Korea is attacked tomorrow, we will fight, just like we would have defended Germany had it been invaded, but when we are attacked, you might help us a little, or maybe not.
The arguments used to prove and self rationalize amoral, apathetic behavior and spin it as some sort of superiority are ALWAYS based in Heuchelei und Schadenfreude. Example: http://www.dmko.info/coffinposter.jpg (Schadenfreude)
Let me give you concrete examples beyond Afghanistan which I have made my point with. When the international community and even within Germany voices screamed for help in Somalia Germany DID respond and send some troops. But where were they? In the North, far away from the hot spots, and that was by design! Did they ever attempt to engage in any operations to take warlords off the streets? Nope. In fact the Germans spent much of their time on very well protected and bunkered up bases but accomplished very little. So why were they there? Because when the voices screamed for intervention politicians wanted to reap the benefits, but NO ONE wants to be the one with their name associated with casualties. Look at what happened after the 2006 Lebanon War. Same deal. What the fu%& are two German warships going to do? The weapons come in over land, and so do the Hezbollah fighters. Your politicians once again offered their help, which really meant nothing other than they got their Kodak moment in the MSM. UNIFIL has about 27 nations playing in it, and Italy has the ground component commander with about 21 nations having troops on the ground, and the Germans have their ships patrolling, glad you haven’t suffered any casualties or that this hasn’t cost you much, very “intellectual.” What will you accomplish there? http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil
A long time ago I use to rationalize the Germans and why they are the way they are. Then I just gave up on that. My words probably do sound spiteful, but that’s not even the intent. It’s just the truth, and I am part German, speak the language, and grew up there. I stopped trying to put a “positive spin” on why the Germans would want to see lots of GIs die in Iraq. I stopped trying to explain why Germans would laugh when US jets get shot down in the Balkans, in a war the Germans pushed for and stood to gain from! I just quit pretending as if the Germans don’t wish us harm, because after a while I understood. There are in Germany deep ideological differences because of the socialist and secular society it’s become, and we're a largely religious nation and symbolically and literally a very open and free economy (capitalist). Maybe not for you, but for many we epitomize the antithesis of the big socialist nanny state; think about how a Gregor Gysi thinks of us. I realized that within the German psyche, even in the conservative camps there is envy; a pure envy because we are the leader, we are the biggest economy, we are the most powerful militarily, we do have more patents than anyone else, we will bring home more medals than anyone, we do lead the way in security establishments, we set the trends, we are nearly culturally dominant in the West ……….. Why do the French spit on Lance Armstrong, a cancer patient who won the tour de France more than anyone else? It's the same thing. There is a desire to see oneself in pole position and we do identify ourselves with our nationality. There is also human nature that likes seeing the big man fall, even if this means damage to oneself by him falling on top of you. The German deep down inside cheers if we have bad economic news, even if this will mean they will follow suit, because guess where ½ of all Porsches are sold? Guess what bad economic news in the US means for Mercedes, BMW, Audi…..? I realized that there are even still some hard feelings from WWII, despite the fact that the US is the most benevolent nation on earth. Why do you think German troops wanted taken prisoner by the US? The French had very different occupation plans in 1945………. What nation has ever been conquered by another, and then had the victor turn around and rebuild governmental services, prop up the economy with an artificial exchange rate intended to stimulate growth and a Marshal plan?????? But even there the German won’t talk about what WAS (The Marshall Plan); he’ll talk about some hypothetical nonsense like the Morgenthau Plan, which did NOT happen, and he will claim that the only reason why we did this is to build a “Bollwerk” against the East. Our benevolence is turned into selfish behavior, according to the Germans. But why, why would people be like that? Because the German DOES live in a world where even though they sit in the same boat with us in security and economic terms, where there are some cultural and genealogical ties, they have an animosity towards us and want to minimize us whenever possible. Ever notice the near obsession German papers have with the US?
Is this fiction or real? http://www.dmko.info/covers1.JPG You don't need to answer.
Yes, Germany is militarily irrelevant. I'd like that to be different. But that won't happen today, and it probably won't happen tomorrow. And even if we weren't, I wouldn't be in favour of projecting influence the way the USA deem it right. And I find it cute that if we play by the rules of the game, maximum gain for minimum investment, we are now a Schmarotzervolk.
I accept that Balkan thing as one situation where the USA really helped Germany and Europe without being strategically involved anyways. So thanks. But the USA didn't win the cold war for us. They won it for themselves. They did not choose to control Middle and South America for us. They did not involve themselves in the Middle East for us (except if us maybe means the British). They did not even protect Germany after the 2nd World War for us. These were strategic decisions, and while I am thankful for the protection after WW2 and the help on the Balkans, let's not pretend the USA don't have their own agenda. Gladio for example made clear that Europe can not choose to be protected. They WILL be protected.
Your ideas about Israel are even more unrealistic. Do you really believe Israel would tolerate a robust German task force really able to do things? The idea was funny if the reality wasn't so sad. We're still barely on speaking terms with Israel. I'm fairly clear about what the ships do down there, we sent em down there as a feel good mission. We sent em down there so Israel could have a reason to stop the war, which they wanted because they had no concept beyond destroying some of Hezbollah's military equipment, and they had already done that.
Haha, die Vietnamkeule. Ja, ihr wisst sichert wie das ist, wenn ein Krieg im Argument immer gegen das eigene Land verwendet wird. Niedlich.
I am not here to belittle Americans or because I wish to see US soldiers die. Yes, I think the Iraq war was a mistake, although I hope I am wrong. In my opinion, Iraq was morsch even before the USA went there. In much the same way as the KuK monarchy was morsch before WW1. I see no exit that leads to a stable Iraq, as it was before. I think in the long term Iran will profit from this. It's in no way the same as it was in Vietnam. There were some parallels in how parts of the war were conducted, but all in all it's a totally different scenario.
And honestly, I don't envy you for your position. All the poison you are spitting at me is coming from exactly this position. I envy Switzerland.
