“The German Army currently has fewer than 75 operational jets and 200 main battle tanks. They expect the American Army to defend them.”
Correct, but that was always what we and the other western nations wanted them to do.
There is always that worry that once a German goes to fetch Grandad’s old uniform from the attic things might not go well for the world.
ROTFL!
I thought the Europeans were all one big happy union family over there now? Stand as one for Ukraine, their European brothers and what not? Wouldn't the rest of Europe feel totally comfortable with their German brothers being armed to the teeth again? Shouldn't they all be armed to the max? After all, the Hitler of the 21st century is at their door.
A couple of years ago, I read a book written around 1900, on The World's Greatest Generals. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter on The Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill.
His claim to fame was The Battle of Blenheim, where his multinational forces knocked France out of Austria, to the point where the French military would not return to prominence for a century until Napoleon emerged.
What caught my eye was one of his final victories of the campaign occurred at Traben-Trarbach, Germany. From 77-81, I lived in Traben-Trarbach when I was stationed in Germany. I never saw a memorial noting that victory, but why would I? That area was fought over by the Germans and French for at least 1000 years, and Churchill was a Brit...iow, there was no love lost between the parties.
On a rare sunny Sunday afternoon, I'd drive south to Trier, and enjoy a glass of wine in an open air cafe, just a hundred meters or so from the Porta Nigra, built by the Romans when they founded Trier circa AD 6.
Or I'd travel north to Koblenz and stop by the Konigsbacher Brewery for lunch. They served bock beer year round, and their restaurant had a great view of the Rhine River. Konigsbacher has been in business since 1689, has always been a favorite beer of mine.
I've been a customer of Weingut Eduard Kroth for 40 years. It's been a family operated business since 1503, and their Riesling wines are my favorites.
An unspoken reason for the formation of NATO was to keep them from threatening the rest of the Europe, as they have been known to do for centuries.
No, we expected all of the NATO nations to put at least 2% of what I recall was their GDP into their military. On top of that, the US shouldn’t have people stationed in the EU, according to President Eisenhower, or “we failed.”
Germany is adding over $115 billion dollars just to get to one year’s worth of it’s 2% goal. Think of all the prior loss years that didn’t get that spend.
You have a poor understanding of the situation.
We have been screaming for about 40 years for the Germans to get serious and spend more on their defense....trying to tell them they had to act like grown ups if they wanted to have influence and be considered a serious country.
They scoffed and acted like protest marches and stiffly worded letters would be an effective deterrent.
I respectfully disagree. Do you know why Germany used the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to create World War I? Because not enough Germans died at home during the Franco-Prussian War.
Do you know why Germany started World War II? Because not enough Germans died at home during World War I (half a million to a million).
Do you know why Germany hasn't started World War III? Because 2 to 3 million German citizens died in World War II.