Posted on 08/03/2018 1:50:55 AM PDT by granada
In the wake of repeated attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump, Germans appear to be souring on the country’s relationship with America. The majority of Germans now believe Europe can defend itself without the help of the American military, a Forsa survey has found.
As reported by Reuters, only 37 percent of 1,004 Germans surveyed now think the continent needs help from the U.S. to defend its borders. There was little difference between the former eastern and western parts of the country, at 60 and 55 percent respectively. Western Germans have closer historical ties with Washington on account of the division of the country after World War II and during the Cold War.
During his visit to the NATO summit in Brussels earlier this month, Trump repeatedly attacked America’s allies for spending too little on the defense of Europe. The president reserved particular criticism for Germany, which he claimed is now “totally controlled by Russia.”
Trump was focused on the Nord Stream 2 project, an $11 billion expansion of the existing Nord Stream natural gas pipeline funded by the Kremlin-backed Gazprom company and five European nations. The president said this development was “inappropriate.”
“Ultimately, Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas,” he claimed, suggesting this would leave Germany “totally controlled by Russia.”
Around 84 percent of Germans asked about this exchange believed Trump’s stance was “completely absurd.” Ninety-two percent said they thought Trump’s motivation for the attack was most likely linked to his desire to sell more American natural gas to Europe. Two thirds remain in support of the project, which will double Russia’s capacity to deliver natural gas to Germany to almost 250 billion square feet per year. The extended pipeline is expected to become operational by the end of 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Great Make America Greater Again by redirecting the 700 billion NATO funding towards another project in America!
Billions are sent each year from Germany to Russia....to pay for natural gas, which some portion of this is taxed, and ends up paying for Russian Migs, tanks, subs and nukes. Why should the US stand in the middle of this? Let the Germans get defense from Russia.
Time to go.
I am so tired of Germany's bad attitude. Back in the late Cold War, I remember the aphorism that the attitude of West Germans towards the U.S. Army was a function of how close to the Iron Curtain one was.
If these dickheads won't pay for their military right now, what makes me think that they are ready to rearm and defend themselves?
Todays humor
But I wish DJT would use this as a suggestion that NATO has long outlived its usefulness and the US is ending its participation. Bilateral relationships with some Euro partners such as Poland will be negotiated indivdually.
The Euros can set up their own defense pact. They certainly have the money to do so and their industrial base could produce the necessary hardware in the needed amounts. NATO is getting ready to welcome its latest member state; Macedonia or however they spell it. Now contemplate that one for a minute as the NATO mantra has always been ‘A attack on one is an attack on all.” Are you ready to endorse US military action in Macedonia? Is there anything there that has a scintilla of national interest for the US. Once the collective defense chorus would start up here if this was pointed out and there was a small but strident segment that constantly defend Bill and Weasely’s Splendid Little War with Serbia as showing US leadership or aiding human rights or something or other that was very very important. While it won't happen I do wish the US would just end as many of these multilateral arrangements as possible as they mostly mean the US pays the freight and the Europukes get to engage in much virtue signaling.
Good. Let’s bring home every American service member and close the base in Germany. We’ll also stop funding NATO. Then they can take care of themselves.
Somehow, they think the US will rush to their aid when Germany's attacked. I think so, too.
The American base in Germany serves as more than protection; it’s a jumping off point for Middle East problems and home to an extensive medical facility. We need it as much as Europe does.
This kind of thing is to set the groundwork to divest America from Europe since we aren’t being taken as a chump under President Trump. It was fine as long as they were playing us for huge sums of free cash into their pockets. Maybe they feel we owe them something for the allies saving the world from Hitler and his regime.
Bye!!
“The majority of Germans now believe that Germany can defend itself without America.”
Defend itself against whom? They won’t even pay into NATO military readiness the 2% of German GDP that their country pledged to.
What these respondents are really saying is that with the Soviet Union gone, and commercial ties between Germany and the Russian Federation close and getting closer, they don’t feel a threat which would require US military help to defeat. And they may be right; the threats to German sovereignty and freedom, as they understand freedom, may not be coming from forces that US military assistance can overcome. Those threats may now be coming from inside NATO, even inside Germany itself.
Well, let them deal with the situation themselves, if they want to. We can find bases with other allies, who still feel the need for an American military presence to help defend their rights and freedoms. And who are willing to pay their agreed upon share to assure that we continue to provide that presence. I think that the German economy will miss the input of all those bases and personnel, and that the German taxpayers will find that it is more expensive to pay for their own defense than to avoid paying their share of NATO’s defense budget, but they may be right that Germany is now rich enough to afford it.
Let’s see, shall we.
Why do we need it?
Yeah, Russian love Germans......what could possibly go wrong ? Merkel is a little Stasi lover, unstable Muslim population within its borders and dependent on the good people of Russia for all their energy needs.
we should yank all our bases out of Germany and move them to a country that loves us......and knows that we would be welcome .....like Poland.
heck, just ask the good people in the leadership of the EU , “should I stay or should I go?”
Close Ramstein and expand Aviano (I tend to think the Lega Nord government would welcome an infusion like that into the Friuli region). Aviano would be a better jumping-off point than Ramstein anyway.
Do the majority of German military strategists think so?
Great
Way past time to yank our troops the hell out of Germany.
Let them defend their own sorry asses.
I agree.
all of Europe can take care of itself.
Nato funds can go to the US
and we can offer to purchase famous euro churches and museums and transport them here to enjoy.
They will need the money and their “replacement Population” will destroy them.
Time to divest from Europe.
Time to put lots of focus on our country and hemisphere.
Best to save your money to feed and house the invader. If you keep him fed maybe he will get lazy and forget about raping and killing you and your family.
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