Posted on 07/08/2018 1:49:15 AM PDT by granada
US President Donald Trump is heading to Europe next week amid concerns he could reach agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin that are not coordinated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Peter Beyer, the transatlantic coordinator for Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, told a German newspaper chain that NATO states had not been included in the planning for the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, which has alarmed many in the defense bloc.
The allies’ worries and Moscow’s hopes are rooted in Trump’s combative approach to foreign policy, the Washington Post said in a report on Friday, quoting a senior administration official who said that in recent days Trump has told senior aides that he wants to slash US spending on Europe’s defense if the allies are unwilling to contribute more to NATO.
Wolfgang Ischinger, head of the Munich Security Conference and a former German envoy to Washington, hinted at the possibility that Trump could refuse to sign a communique at next week's NATO summit in Brussels, mirroring what he did at the G7 summit.
"It cannot be ruled out," Ischinger told the German newspaper Die Welt in an interview published on Saturday.
Christian Lindner, head of the pro-business Free Democrats, told Deutschlandfunk in an interview that he did not trust Trump, and his actions on trade and in the security arena were not in the United States' long-term interest.
"He is too volatile ... Within 24 hours, Mr. Trump can change his position by 180 degrees," said Lindner, although he warned against growing anti-American sentiments given that the United States was and would remain Germany's closest ally.
Lindner called for Europe to take a united stance as the world's largest single economic zone, providing a counterweight to Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cgtn.com ...
So what?
Aww shut up.
I missed the ‘German officials concerned’ news when merkel met with putin back in May. Must be pretty focused concern there.
“Christian Lindner, head of the pro-business Free Democrats, told Deutschlandfunk in an interview that he did not trust Trump, and his actions on trade and in the security arena were not in the United States’ long-term interest.”
Uh, actually it may not be Europe or Germany’s best interest, but in fact, everything Trump does IS in the United States’ best interest. And that is what every nation’s leader is supposed to do.
They want the EU to be a superpower, but they don’t want to pay their NATO bill, in a nutshell. What they apparently don’t understand is, they will never be a superpower as long as they can’t pay their own bills. They’ll never be anything but our dependents.
“Germany’s closest ally”.....gee. You’d never know it judging by how Germans act and have acted for decades. They’re just worried the gravy train will stop and they’ll have to start paying for their own national defense or suffer the consequences for failing to do so. They’re also worried the US will slap tariffs on their cars equal to the EU’s tariff rate.
I fail to see what it does for us. Furthermore, I fail to see what the threat is that makes it necessary. Its not like Warsaw Pact forces are on the verge of pouring through the Fulda Gap anytime soon. Let’s get real. Russia is not the Soviet Union - not even close. Russia is not a threat to roll through Europe. They simply do not have the strength for it.
If Russia really is a threat worthy of keeping tens of thousands of US troops in Germany to stop and if the Germans are legitimately worried about it, what’s with their all fired hurry to get a pipeline built for natural gas from Russia? Do you normally seek to line the pockets of a hostile power who you fear is a real threat to you? Wouldn’t you instead seek to avoid making yourself dependent on them and buy your energy elsewhere - that is, if you were serious?
For decades I’ve said 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed. Regardless, we should have been out of there DECADES ago. I have been saying this for decades now.
They will never be a superpower without the credible threat of military force. That means they first need to actually cough up the money to have competent military forces and secondly, they have to demonstrate to everybody that they have the will to use it. The Yurps have neither. They suffer from the delusion that protest marches and stiffly worded letters actually matter. Everybody else in the world just laughs at them and always will.
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