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Angela Merkel’s Limited Regrets
Wall Street Journal Opinion Page ^ | June 8, 2022 | Editorial Board - WSJ Opinion Page

Posted on 06/09/2022 10:43:47 AM PDT by Wuli

Rarely has a foreign policy legacy been discredited as rapidly, and thoroughly, as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s . In 16 years at the top of the German government, she thought she could moderate Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions, and in the process she made Germany and Europe vulnerable to his energy blackmail.

But as for regrets, she hasn’t a few. That was clear from her first major public appearance since she left as Chancellor last year.

“I don’t blame myself,” Mrs. Merkel told an audience Tuesday at the Berliner Ensemble theater in the German capital. “I have tried to work in the direction of preventing mischief. And if diplomacy doesn’t succeed, this doesn’t mean that it was therefore wrong. Thus I don’t see why I should say: ‘That was wrong.’ And therefore I won’t apologize.”

Mrs. Merkel condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said she was “at no time given in to illusions” that her policy of engaging with Russia through trade would change Mr. Putin’s behavior. “I was not naive,” she said.

But if that’s true, why did she insist so hard on finishing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, even in 2021 as Mr. Putin amassed troops on the Ukraine border? She used some of her last political capital in office to persuade President Biden to withdraw U.S. opposition to the pipeline. Her successor as Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, cashiered the pipeline after the invasion.

[read the rest at the free permalink]

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 4threich; germany; russia; ukraine
Merkle was no different that 100% of the western leaders over the past decades that believed in the myth that liberalization of trade with the CCP in China would lead to political liberalization there.
1 posted on 06/09/2022 10:43:47 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

Queen of the (new) Stone Age


2 posted on 06/09/2022 10:45:59 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Wuli

https://archive.ph/fi0LY


3 posted on 06/09/2022 10:46:16 AM PDT by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: Wuli

Neville Chamberlain could have delivered that speech.


4 posted on 06/09/2022 10:49:06 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (I don't want to be part of a union of 50 states. We tried that. It doesn't work.)
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To: Wuli

Women never take responsibility for anything they do, and are never wrong. Even when they’re wrong, they’re not wrong. Case in point:

“Even though it didn’t work, it wasn’t the wrong thing to do.”

There’s a lesson in the whole transsexual thing. The lesson is this: the best women are men.

May be factual, may be cruel.


5 posted on 06/09/2022 10:49:17 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Wuli

She’s not the first, nor will she be the last. Arrogant, elitist leftists defy truth and wisdom thru the ages, because humankind can reach perfection thru socialism and or communism, either way the end result of their choice is totalitarianism. All lies of course, but a lot of people are comfortable with lies, 24/7 throughout their lives. These know-it-all’s are often wrong but seldom in doubt, so the process of error continues. God help us and hear our prayers.


6 posted on 06/09/2022 10:50:32 AM PDT by john drake (Lucius Accius-Roman,170 BC - "oderint dum metuant" translated "Let them hate so long as they fear")
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To: Wuli

Nice touch closing Germany’s nuclear facilities too....du dreckige hexe!


7 posted on 06/09/2022 11:21:47 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Wuli

Every single last thing she did was a disaster. She shut down Germany’s nuclear power plants and killed off their coal mining. That left them utterly dependent on Russia.

She refused to keep their promise to spend a paltry 2% of GDP on defense which means they have no real national defense. Their military is a bad joke.

The TV did a set up where they had some little arab girl whine about possibly being deported from what was not her country...ie Germany...and Merkel immediately caved and invited millions of military age muslim men - rapefugees - to come to Germany. They took her up on her offer and now Germany is saddled with paying for a bunch of 3rd world savages who hold them in utter contempt (when they’re not groping/raping German girls).

She refused to throw a bone to Britain despite David Cameron pleading with her that the voters may well vote against the EU - as a result Brexit won (thanks for that screw up Angela).

She was a disaster on every level.


8 posted on 06/09/2022 11:32:20 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Wuli

Queen of the (new) Stone Age


9 posted on 06/09/2022 11:36:45 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Wuli

Does her dancing count?
https://makeagif.com/gif/angela-merkel-pool-dance-tOIsrY


10 posted on 06/09/2022 11:37:00 AM PDT by CarolinaReaganFan
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To: FLT-bird

With all you said, it is almost like she and Putin were friends from his days in East Germany working for Soviet intelligence, and she was had-picked by the Russians to lead Germany astray, in more ways than one. I wonder what the CIA actually knows about the $$$ backing her entry into German politics.


11 posted on 06/09/2022 11:38:45 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Wuli

The hallmark of every liberal/totalitarian is that they are incapable of introspection. Always some excuse for why they and their policies utterly failed. Wrong message. Bad messaging, etc.


12 posted on 06/09/2022 11:40:02 AM PDT by Obadiah ("America is facing a winter of severe illness and death." Biden's own summary of his America.)
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To: FLT-bird

She was an East German Communist. It was planned to make the West weak.


13 posted on 06/09/2022 2:42:17 PM PDT by packrat35 (Pelosi is only on loan to the world from Satan. Hopefully he will soon want his baby killer back)
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To: Wuli

unfickbarer Fettarsch


14 posted on 06/09/2022 3:52:53 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Wuli

Imagine if she had not closed down the German nuclear power stations.


15 posted on 06/09/2022 8:58:37 PM PDT by Cronos
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To: Wuli

Was she a KGB agent?


16 posted on 06/12/2022 10:38:00 AM PDT by DownInFlames (P)
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