Posted on 02/11/2003 7:04:13 AM PST by tictoc
Berlin - "I feel they have to go, no matter what the price, as long as it's done democratically," said Michael Glos, who heads the CSU (Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democratic Union - tictoc) delegation in Germany's Bundestag (national parliament - tictoc). The cleanest way to do this, said Glos, was an early election. Volker Kauder, the parliamentary deputy whip for the CDU, said that no federal government had ever been in such a catastrophic foreign-policy position.
Volker Rühe, a CDU politician with foreign-policy expertise, warned that NATO might break apart. This was a real risk, Rühe told tabloid newspaper Bildzeitung. "When an alliance partner such as Turkey feels threatened but planning for protective measures is prevented within NATO, the very core of a military alliance is called into question," said Rühe, who heads the external relations committee of the Bundestag; Rühe served as Germany's defense minister in the previous CDU administration under chancellor Helmut Kohl.
FDP chairman (FDP = Free Democratic Party: economic liberals - tictoc) Guido Westerwelle warned that Germany faced isolation. "We need a German verbal disarmament within the alliance, or we will be completely shunted aside internationally," said Westerwelle on NDR TV. Pointing to the foreign policy of the Red/Green government, he said: "It will be years before the destruction wrought by the government can be repaired even partway."
General Klaus Naumann, a former chairman of NATO's military committee, accused the federal government of having betrayed Turkey. "Germany, Belgium and France are taking an axe to the roots of NATO. For no good reason, they are blocking plans to protect Turkey, an alliance partner," Naumann told Bildzeitung. The move was even more inexplicable, said Naumann, because the issue was not whether to send troops, but only to prepare plans. An agreement to planning did not constitute a commitment, said the general. "For 40 years, Germany's security depended on NATO planning for the defense of Germany against a Soviet attack. How would we Germans have responded if Iceland had exercised a veto?"
Four-star general Gerhard Schmückle (ret.) likewise rejected the stance taken by the three countries. "Together with France and Belgium, chancellor Schröder has severely damaged NATO. They still think that they can prevent war on Iraq, a war which in my opinion is already a certainty", said Schmückle.
Her fame rests largely on the fact that following the election loss in 1998 and revelations of shady dealings in the CDU's election financing, she was the first of the CDU bigwigs to make it brutally clear that Helmut Kohl's time had passed, which took some courage at the time.
She is from East Germany, where the CDU is weak. An important concept in German politics is Hausmacht, the notion that a politician needs to have a powerful base in her home state in order to be influential on the national stage.
Her home state is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the SPD (Social Democratic Party; "Red") has held power since reunification.
She does occasionally talk rational economic sense, but in the UK - to use a European comparison - she would not be considered a conservative.
Certainly she isn't a union buster like Margaret Thatcher, and she seems to lack the fire in the belly to put Gerhard Schroeder's putrid head in a vise and turn up the pressure until it explodes.
Nor is there anyone else in German politics of the caliber of Thatcher.
If you haven't already done so elsewhere, would you care to opine as to whether or not the Ger gov't survives, and what you think will be the outcome of this mess between the US and Germany..and oh yeah, is there a web site where I can place a bid on a former, yet in excellent condition, US base?
There are two ways to remove them from power. The quickest way is a vote of no confidence in parliament, where Red/Green holds a slim majority. Only seven Red/Green parliament members would have to defect, how hard can that be? I say do whatever it takes. Sometimes politics is dirty business. Unfortunately the CDU is too pusillanimous to resort to blackmail and bribery.
and what you think will be the outcome of this mess between the US and Germany
It just keeps going from bad to worse, doesn't it?
..and oh yeah, is there a web site where I can place a bid on a former, yet in excellent condition, US base?
Send $500,000 to Fliegbeinacht Redevelopment Corp., c/o tictoc. Everything will be taken care of.
Well, to be fair, there are precious few of Lady Thatcher's caliber anywhere. Sadly.
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