Posted on 04/12/2006 2:11:09 PM PDT by americanbychoice2
45% of Germans believe the US is a greater thret to world peace than Iran, 28% believe Iran is a greater threat and 16% believe both are equally as dangerous. This is according to a study by the Forsa group authorized by the German television media.
Thats right!
Whatever happened to "Zu Befehl!?" And smack those heels!
davidsmedienkritic.com
The best rapper is a white guy,,,,
the best golfer is a black guy,,,,
the French think we're arrogant,,,,
and the Germans don't want to go to war!!How crazy can things get?
That one does not work either. Do you have a working link which goes to the actual article?
Well, their brand of Islam is most Turkish. I fear, however, that as the tradition of Ataturk fades away, the new generation of non-Germanized Turks will because more like their Arab "brothers."
Time to stop having sentimental feelings towards foreign nations. Be cold, scheming, and calculating, like what Lord Palmerston said more than 160 years ago: "We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are perpetual and eternal and those interests it is our duty to follow."
Remember, Europe think they are following this script by their rhetoric. They don't really see Iran a threat to them at all "See! This is used to deter the United States and Israel! It is not for us!".
I personally think the Europe Alliance is already over. They are basically friends (the US State Dept's polite term for "just another foreign country that is not really a threat to us") now. They "have moved on", so why can't you?
"I think they should demand all US forces leave Germany. Hell, *I* would demand all Iranian forces leave the US. Then watch the fun as they try to live without us."
I think their hard Left does and have been for years. Imagine their shock they they hear "Yeah, me too!" when you respond to their "US troops out of Germany!" talk.
This is what the anti-war protesters in Berlin said in Feb 2003:
http://www.paddavis.de/dualism/activist_aesthetic/debate-2003/The_Global_Antiwar_Movement.html
The US has been winding down its military presence in Germany for years. It is gradually but firmly bipartisan. For instance, the Rhein-Main air base (which shares runways with Frankfurt-Main Airport FRA) was given back to Germany last year, and no US troops in the state of Hesse anymore. From the current trends, I don't see US troops in Germany beyond 2015.
Victor Davis Hanson has pointed out maintaining a fleet of mobile aircraft carriers achieves the same results. Also developing a rapid mobile response team that can be rapidly deployed from the US itself is advantageous.
Even if these two don't come to pass, remember most future trouble spots will be quite near to Asia. Guam is the US itself, and the US could well use Guam and refuel at India (which is fast becoming an unofficial ally of the United States) to reach the trouble spots in the Middle East.
And not to forget agreements the US has with New Europe's nations like Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, to allow the US troops to use their countries as transit points if necessary.
NATO is pretty much a joke now, as it is pretty much the US, UK, and a few Eastern European countries.
I found it here http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/
Believe it or not, some Euro Left in non-NATO countries still make a pretty big scene out of it though. For instance, in Finland's presidential election in January this year, the current incumbant (a social democrat) stays elected by using this point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_presidential_election,_2006
"Another important election theme was the threat of international terrorism and how to counter it. The main right-wing candidate, Sauli Niinistö, stated in the last presidential debate that he would consider Finland's membership "in a more European" North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) after 2008 to achieve such an end, but this was strongly rejected by the other main candidates. The only candidate openly embracing NATO-membership was the other right-wing candidate, Henrik Lax, of the Swedish People's Party. According to a poll carried out by the Taloustutkimus polling agency in July 2005, most Finnish people believe that NATO membership would increase the risk of international terrorism in Finland instead of decreasing it. This is also the view held by Vanhanen, of the Centre Party, and Halonen."
I really have to search around to see if it were a joke. Alas, it isn't, which shows you how really politically sensible Finland is.
I fondly recall when Bush cut some of our troops out of Germany and the Germans were up in arms. Those were the days...
I have already forgotten that. Did they cheer or beg you guys to stay? I read that when Bush was re-elected, Norway's (Swedish like) socialist Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik publicly discussed whether Norway would benefit from strengthening her defence relations with the EU. In other words, Bondevik wants to cut from NATO after seeing American conservatives are firmly ascendant in the US, which is after all in NATO.
Yes, definitely pull our troops out of Europe ~ Iran already has missiles that can hit most all of it, and that crazy guy who speaks for the Ayatollahs is going to be tossing nukes their way pretty soon ~ 3 weeks, 2 months tops!
My opinion is that many Germans basically see (mistakenly) the United States as an irrelevant has been. Found this on a blog's comment section by a German (not sure if he is left or right, but he sounds "realpolitik"-oriented)
It's interesting and perfectly predictable that Germany so loves to predict the demise of the country that helped them so much post WW2 without our being direct neighbors. It really seems to annoy them.
In fact, it was the United States that was the first Western nation to realize they need to pick (at least the western) Germany up after the war. They know the Germans are starving and something needs to be done so that Europe becomes more stable.
Of course self-interests motivated by fear of Communist expansions were there as well. But hey, this fact didn't stop France of wanting Saar to be under their domination, and this didn't stop Britain from demanding limited industrial outputs in Germany either (although the Poms under Atlee were later convinced to the US position).
And fast forward to 1989. Even Lady Thatcher had her reservations of whether Germany should be reunified - they really are still afraid of Germany. Not to mention Mitterand's France. Only the elder Bush supported reunification right from the beginning.
And now fast forward again to 2006. Many Germans would actually love to see the US become a glorified New Zealand. To be honest, sometimes I would rather want the Soviet Union to administer the whole of Germany post-WWII wise. After you take all the good and valuable in Germany (their best generals not tainted too much by Nazism, V-2, paintings, scientists, engineers, architects) out to the US, of course ;-).
Forgot to add this to the previous post. The Germans are commiting a fundamental logic error. How can the US pose a great threat to world peace when it is already waning in influence as the Dave fellow claims? If you say the US can't make Europe obey it, then by definition it can no longer pose a threat to Europe, and how does this square with hypothesis of posing a great threat on the part of the US?
Have all the professors in Logic at places like Humboldt or Heidelberg universities slacked off?
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