Posted on 10/04/2004 3:28:41 PM PDT by 11th_VA
There's a little bit of a Donnybrook developing over a column written in the New York Post a couple of weeks ago. The opinion piece, which ran August 19 was written by an old and dear friend of mine, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters.
In the column in question Peters disparaged the motivations of the German and French governments who, he spelled out in no uncertain terms, had essentially left us in the lurch in our struggle for Iraq. He went on in his column to criticize German motivations regarding U.S. troops stationed in that country.
"The primary reason why German politicians want American troops to remain," wrote Peters, "is that they've been fleecing us for a half century. Some flunky from the German Embassy may respond with bogus claims about how our presence is subsidized, but the truth is that American tax dollars go to lazy, arrogant, corrupt German employees who work on our bases and over whom we have little control.
"The Germans aren't worried about global security. They're worried about their dismal unemployment numbers."
Quite frankly, he was exactly correct.
This, of course, is not what the German government wanted to hear. When you're caught with your hand in the ideological cookie jar, the last thing you want as a government is for someone to call attention to your feckless behavior and unguarded language. Peters called their bluff and Schroeder's government was not happy about it.
The result, for what it's worth, promises to provide the current German version of high dudgeon.
From September 28 through September 30 the city of Heidelberg will be the site of the annual Land Combat Expo sponsored by the US Army and ,at which Peters is scheduled to be a speaker.(LOL!)
According to European Stars and Stripes, the German Army was scheduled "to provide three tanks, two wheeled vehicles and about 30 soldiers as part of the German army's display at the expo."
But, in a rather pitiful protest of Ralph Peters' cutting remarks in the New York Post, and his scheduled appearance in Heidelberg, the commander of German land forces, Lt. Gen. Axel Bürgener, announced that Germany was withdrawing its participation in the expo.
Peters, in deference to the sensitivities of American commanders, offered to withdraw from the program to spare them any potential embarrassment. But, much to his credit, General B.B. Bell the American general hosting the event and commander of U.S. ground forces in Germany, declined Peters' gallant offer. He even offered to provide security for the former soldier who has received a storm of protest from enraged Germans.
Well, "three tanks, two wheeled vehicles and about 30 soldiers" is considerably more combat power than Germany ever offered to support our efforts in Iraq. And, if memory serves me right, Heidelberg is rather less of a high threat area than Mosul. This is not the German Army I remember.
This entire business is rather a shame as I count myself fortunate to have a great many old friends in Germany - many of them soldiers in the German Army. These are all bright, dedicated, people. They don't deserve the sort of lackluster political leadership with which they have had to contend of late and I do not hold them responsible for Schroeder's or Lieutenant General Buergener's little fit of pique. But these sentiments do not make Ralph Peters' comments any less valid.
For those who haven't had the pleasure of meeting or working with him, Ralph Peters is a rare bird - a first rate soldier, accomplished linguist, brilliant analyst and theorist, and one hell of a great writer - of commentary, political/military affairs, and fiction. I would be hard put to determine in which of those fields he is most accomplished for he's marvelously skilled in all.
Peters is also very fond of Germany - he lived there for years, speaks the language like a native, and reads German literature in the original language. Of course this may be why his remarks sting so badly. He's no dilettante. Few Americans know Germany and German culture as well as Ralph Peters.
I do not doubt that when Ralph arrives in Heidelberg there will be some sort of protest on the part of the host Nation. But it will amount to no more than a tempest in a teapot - full of sound and fury and signifying absolutely nothing.
ROFLOL !!! - Great line. !
Hooray for Bell! bttt.
bttttttttttttttttt
Couldn't find an update on what happened, anyone?
The Germans and the French are both cheese-eating surrender monkeys!!
(shrug of the shoulders) Yeah, so?
Sitzpinklers.
A freind of mine saw his speech and said it was outstanding. I don't think any of the weenies would have bothered him. They too busy smoking hash and whining about the welfare system being inadequate.
They spend less than 1% on their nations defense. Kerry is duping people with the idea that the Germans can bail us out in Iraq. They lack the men, the materiel, and the will. They will be as pig-headed in their pacifism as they once were in their militarism.
German Ping.
longjack
Oh, man, is that gonna leave a mark. ROTFLMAO!
Diplomats and politicians can afford smooth, candy-coated, disingenuous phraseology. Soldiers can afford bluntness. That's why the two camps are irreconcilable and ought to remain so.
A quick German lesson....this is called Klartext
as in.... Herr Peters redet Klartext.
longjack
Ich scheine, einen harten aufladenkapitän Bürgener, Rückseite zurückzurufen, als ich von der deutsche Armee-alpinen Schule graduierte. Zeit und Politik.
According to an op-ed in this month's AEI magazine, within 20 years Holland will be over 50% Muslim. Between 20 to 50 years, Germany and France will also be over 50% Muslim.
Perhaps by 2060 our grandkids will be fighting Islamic terrorists in Western Europe. Not an optimistic future.
Can't wait to see the whining when we start closing bases.
The German army has discovered that more and more of its rank-and-file soldiers are unable to keep up the pace because they are too fat, according to next Monday's issue of magazine Der Spiegel.
The army believes it risks being lumbered with a generation of under-performing heavyweights due to the dramatic overall rise in obesity in the country, the magazine says.
Armed Forces doctor Admiral Karsten Ocker has told Der Spiegal he feared Germany could be on course to becoming "an XXL nation".
However, for those who have read in columns, these sentiments will come as a complete surprise. During the Afghan and Iraq wars, Peters demonstrated complete incompetence in analyzing the key success factors, ranging from strategy to weapons to hi-tech equipment to psyops. Both campaigns were brilliant successes, and both were labeled “quagmires” by Peters right up until final victories were achieved, as he parroted the antiwar crowd.
Peters sole reason for prominence derives from his frequent anti-German, anti-Rumsfeld and, more recently, anti-Bush (and anti-French) tirades published and promoted by the German-hating neo-conservatives running the New York Post. Note The Post never fails to miss an opportunity to criticize the major weapons suppliers to Saddam's Iraq: Russia and China.
Bottom-line, you have the utter absurdity of a lieutenant colonel allied with Gen. McCaffrey against the Pentagon lecturing the military leaders of Europe who he despises on the policies of the Pentagon which he despises. Whoever selected this Class-A Minor Leaguer (“Big Time,” as Dick Cheney would say) to speak at any exhibition richly deserves condemnation for a lack of judgment and a lack of smarts.
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