US to punish German 'treachery'

The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 02/16/03 | Peter Beaumont, David Rose and Paul Beaver

[Pokey78]

America is to punish Germany for leading international opposition to a war against Iraq. The US will withdraw all its troops and bases from there and end military and industrial co-operation between the two countries - moves that could cost the Germans billions of euros.

The plan - discussed by Pentagon officials and military chiefs last week on the orders of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - is designed 'to harm' the German economy to make an example of the country for what US hawks see as Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's 'treachery'.

The hawks believe that making an example of Germany will force other countries heavily dependent on US trade to think twice about standing up to America in future.

This follows weeks of increasingly angry exchanges between Rumsfeld and Germany, in which at one point he taunted Germany and France for being an irrelevant part of 'old Europe'.

Now Rumsfeld has decided to go further by unilaterally imposing the Pentagon's sanctions on a country already in the throes of economic problems.

'We are doing this for one reason only: to harm the German economy,' one source told The Observer last week.

'Our troops contribute many millions of dollars. Why should we continue to support a country which has treated Nato and the protection we provided for decades with such incredible contempt?'

Another Pentagon source said: 'The aim is to hit German trade and commerce. It is not just about taking out the troops and equipment; it is also about cancelling commercial contracts and defence-related arrangements.'

The Pentagon plan - and the language expressed by officials close to Rumsfeld - has horrified State Department officials, who believe that bullying other countries to follow the US line will further exacerbate anti-Americanism and alienate those European countries that might support a United Nations resolution authorising a war.

German industry earns billions of euros every year from supporting the US Army Europe which, although reduced from its Cold War heights, still totals 42,000 troops and 785 tanks - almost three times as many as the British Army owns. Many of these soldiers and their fighting equipment, including Apache helicopters, have already been sent to the Gulf.

German industry is heavily involved in supporting the US presence. Among the defence companies which stand to lose out are missile-maker Diehl, aerospace and defence giant EADS Deutschland, armaments maker Rheinmetall and vehicle maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.

There is also a US Air Force contingent of about 15,000 service people with bases at Bitburg, Frankfurt-am-Main and neighbouring Ramstein, where the commander doubles as part of the Nato command. This force includes nearly 60 F-16 fighter-bombers and a squadron of A-10 tank-buster aircraft.

Rumsfeld and his staff have made no attempt to hide their fury at Schröder's 'treachery and ineptitude' over Iraq. Last week Schröder leaked to reporters a Franco-German plan for avoiding war by increasing the number of UN weapons inspectors before informing his American counterparts.

'After this, Germany is finished as a serious power,' one of the sources added. 'This is simply not the way to conduct diplomacy at a moment of international crisis.' One diplomatic source said Rumsfeld was 'furious at Germany. He is a bruiser and it looks as though he means to do it'.

Under these plans, the US would move its troops in Europe eastwards to countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states, all of which have strongly supported America's line against Saddam Hussein. It is likely that the overall size of the deployment would be reduced, as the US military changes its priorities for a long-term and disparate engagement with international terrorism.

Although Rumsfeld had already been considering a redeployment of US troops around the world after a war in Iraq to save money and respond to new threats, the plans now under consideration go far beyond what had been discussed.

It is likely that future years will see a sharp increase in the proportion of special forces troops able to deploy rapidly across the globe.

Germany would suffer considerable financial loss if US forces were withdrawn from the country. The bases provide jobs for local people as everything from administrators to cleaners, and are huge customers for dairy products and bread.

[Lady In Blue]

Rummy is the greatest! BTW, what do Europeans(British)mean when they call a person a "Bruiser"? Anybody know? Thanks.

I remember seeing a thread last year from,I think,the Telegraph in which the writer said the Brits consider Rumsfeld - "strong meat! It kind of stuck in my mind.For a long while,ever time I wrote something about Rumsfeld, I said that "Donald,'strong meat' Rumsfeld..." hehehe!

[longjack]

Thanks BMCDA.

We were talking on this thread:

German Hypocracy (sic)

About a ping list for German readers. Would you like to be on that list?

longjack

[Lady In Blue]

Yeah, German Americans have had a tough time in the US. Hessians in the revolutionary war, WWI and WWII, now this.

Thanks for reminding us of the Germans fighting to keep us from gaining our independence from England!

[a_Turk]

Das ist doch wohl das Letzte!

[a_Turk]

Please add me to the German readers ping list.

Thanks.

[longjack]

OK. Your welcome:)

longjack

[nkycincinnatikid]

Exactly, well put!

[longjack]

Das ist doch wohl das Letzte!

Are you talking about the Kommentar?

I'm going to translate that in the morning. That is too good to be missed by other Freepers.

longjack

[wonders]

Thank you both.

The Pisa study indicates the early separation of students into homogeneous groups as a prime cause for the failures in the German educational system. I went to Swiss high school (started in Bezirchschule) way-back-when, and the Swiss had a similar system. It was decided by the time a student reached our equivalent of 5th grade whether that student would go on to Bezirchschule, then on to a prep school type high school and finally to college, or whether the student would have less academic preparation similar to high school, or even just go to trade school. In Switzerland, back then, it was basically divided into three tracks: (1)the college-bound who would end up as professionals, (2) those who would go on to a less academic sort of high school and become white-collar office workers and (3) those who would go to trade school and work mainly in the service sector.

I wondered whether reunification had had a negative impact on the German education system. You indicate the problems in higher education pre-dated reunification, Torie -- is this true of the low quality of their secondary education system, or do you think this could stem from incorporating old East Germany into their system?

One of my bosses was a wise and learned man from Hamburg, and his wife came from fine old German family which escaped East Germany. She did much charitable work in her family's old home town after reunification (founded medical clinics for the poor, etc.), but ran into some very difficult and communist attitudes there. I learned much from both of them about the economic aspects of re-unification, too.

Anyway, I wondered whether reunification caused them to "dumb down" their schools to accomodate students from the former East Germany, thereby dragging down standards in all secondary schools across the board.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Go for it take em all out as soon as possible- May they rot in H*ll! I was there (germany) during the cold war they took us for granted then. The french and germans deserve each other!!

[Righty1]

East where they will be much closer to the action and not hindered by gerdung, belchslime, frog, and has been ostrichreich cover-ups of WMD deals. I hope that the U.S. gov has this kind of a testosterone level. It will help keep the NKs and RedChicoms from making the same mistake that the islamofacists just made. Message to doltland,"we made you and now we are going to unmake you"!

[nkycincinnatikid]

Are they more friendly or just cheaper? And the best Czech beer is not Bohemias gift to the world, but Gods gift to mankind.

[a_Turk]

>> Are you talking about the Kommentar?

I'm talking about the contents of the Article. Unbelievable..

Seems Schroeder is doing everything right in order not to fall out of Saddam's and the terrorists' good graces..

In the meantime he must be thinking: Screw everyone else..

So damn typical, but never before this blatant.

[Righty1]

Precisely why he feels the knife in the back so accutely. These characters not only don't appreciate being liberated, rebuilt, and given access to our markets but, actively despise us for winning the cold war which brought them reunification. We remember the Berlin Airlift do the huns? We defended and subsidized West Berlin for decades what have the huns ever done for us? They were the mexicans 150 years ago i.e. they dumped their idle uneducated masses on the U.S. and Russia. I hope we bring them done so low that they are looking up to snake bellies in a wagon rut!

[Torie]

I don't know what caused it. Someone here at FR from Germany said it was because the German schools abandoned standards and went into PC self esteem feel goodie stuff under pressure from well, you know what, the educational unions. I suspect the malaise is deeper than that. I suspect the German culture no longer puts excellence as a primary value. But I don't know. What is really odd is that the Germans themselves are not in a state of panic over this. They should be. If their youth are not productive, and highly productive, given German demographics, the elders will be eating dog food in the not so distant future. For some reason the German culture is not very apt at introspection. I don't know why. It is foreign to the very fiber of my being.

[longjack]

Which translation do you think would be the most effective, the article, or the commentary?

Also, I sent you a ping list from the other thread. In that thread there's a link to an N-TV article that's a hammer, also.

Sooner or later some people in Germany will have to wake up and smell the coffee.

longjack

[Righty1]

They wash more, have less body hair, smell better, and don't wear those awful ugly glasses that seem to be a particular hun weakness.

[AnalogReigns]

I have a few German friends....and Schroeder is not popular with them. He won by a smaller percentage than Clinton ever won--and the conservatives in Germany have already put it on record that they would have supported us, had they been in power.

I can't see that we would "make an example" of a country with a long (by diplomatic standards) history of loyalty, just due to one stupid politician's treachery.

This story is bogus...but may have been planted to get the Schroeder administration to THINK.....

[Man of the Right]

They never get it straight across the big water.

If the Krauts were as friendly as Miss Congeniality, the troops would still go. We don't need to destroy the German economy. Schroeder's got that base covered.

[carl in alaska]

This thread explains the source of this treachery: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/844388/posts

The German foreign minister is an anti-American communist sympathizer.