Posted on 01/05/2003 12:02:17 AM PST by SAMWolf
We tried that in both World Wars.
We came in late to WWI to break the stalemate (and reap some benefits, a fact that most people seem to politely forget), but we had no interest in jumping in at the beginning. Ultimately, we knew a prolonged war has hurting us, too, so we took action. And it was costly.
Same thing in WWII. Even when the threat to us was obvious, we were so bitter from WWI that the American people wanted no part of the war in Europe. If Roosevelt wouldn't have deliberately let the Japanese kill our men at Pearl Harbor (minus the carriers, of course), we probably wouldn't have gotten involved until well after Britain fell and nearly the entire world's industrial might was turned against us.
The fact is this: Germany is too dangerous and too treacherous to turn our backs on. U.S. troops are stationed there not to protect Germany from Russia, but to protect the rest of the world from Germany. Think about that.
Nowadays, although Nazism is enjoying a resurgence there, the real danger is Marxism. A Germany under a new Stalin is no less a threat to the world than a Germany under a new Hitler.
Personally, I hold the German people in very high regard. They are an amazing and capable people who literally have the power to take over the world. And that's why I would never turn my back on them.
Not only should we maintain garrisons in Germany, we must have a (extremely secret) policy of moving quickly (and anonymously) to remove or assassinate any new German leader that demonstrates the charisma and ambition that may move Germany toward another bloody campaign of conquest.
As much as I despise Gerhard Schroeder, he's a better leader for Germany than someone who is competent and potentially dangerous.
At the start of the blockade, her brother made a little money smuggling Soviet cigarettes to West Berliners. By the fall, he was dreaming of unimaginable riches he would make from the black market, supplying food stuffs to starving West Berliners.
However, by spring, he had to resort to smuggling American provisions out of West Berlin into the East German countryside to keep his wares moving. Once, he brought home fresh produce in the early spring, before the crops were ready, and was busted by the local police. He traded his supplies for his freedom, and the locals kept it off from his record.
In regards to the currency devaluation, after the airlift ended, her brother worked at a railroad yard in West Berlin, but was paid in East German marks. He was killed in an accident at the yard. The East German church that my mother's family used for the funeral would only accept West German marks in payment. Ten to one was the ratio that I remember. This cost the family a tremendous amount of money, and finally drove them from the church for good.
In the early 50's my mothers' entire family left East Germany for good. She met my father, a truck driver/electical engineer stationed at Templehof who supported the airlift. They were married in '54.
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