Every comment coming out of the German Foreign and Defense Ministries in recent days has played up the idea of increased military engagement abroad as a matter of course. Asking the public apparently never entered into the equation.
If they had asked, however, they’d have found out the same thing a YouGov/DPA poll released today did, that the German public is overwhelmingly opposed to increasing the nation’s military involvement abroad.
The poll showed the country split roughly down the middle on whether the current level of intervention is “too much,” opposition for increases above the current level of 5,000 troops abroad, and a strong majority believing Germany is better off settling conflicts diplomatically instead of with military force.
German officials have bashed the current system as a “policy of restraint” that must come to an end, pushing in particular for major military interventions into Central Africa to help neighboring France, who has already hurled itself into that particular quagmire.
The Obama Administration has repeatedly pushed German into being more aggressive abroad, since they are one of the only NATO member nations that can really afford escalated interventionism during the current budget crises, and US officials see any increases in NATO military spending as necessarily a good thing, no matter how the wars play out.
Germany is a major lynchpin of the US imperial system, and because of that the Germans have incredible potential to be able to put an end to DC's excesses. The Germans have actual recent experience in throwing off the Soviet imperial yoke, and they should not forget that the Soviet presence was but one quarter of the problem they faced in 1989. Furthermore, the role of Helmut Kohl in defeating the Anglo-American machinations to keep Germany divided should always be remembered. They should remind their government that if it continues to serve foreign interests, the existence of pervasive and powerful controls established during the occupation era notwithstanding, the German people will be compelled to look to their own interests and reform their government to achieve a system that serves them, and not the US.
Oh, there we go, push Germany to be more aggressive abroad. To help out France. Oh yes, a more aggressive Germany has always been most "helpful" to France.
Apparently these policy geniuses are forgetting the third reason for the existence of NATO: "To keep the US in, the Russians out, and the Germans down."
I'd have thought it was consistent with that third reason.
After so many disasters, the Germans have finally found the "place in the sun" they have sought for over 100 years. The successful defence of the euro has made them the hub of the European Union and that has given rise to an understandable excess of pride. That so many people realise that their place in the sun was obtained through peace and not war is very encouraging for the future of the EU. It should not be forgotten, by the way,that the intervention in the CAR has nothing to do with NATO. That too is a sign of the times in Europe.
Now I seem to remember recent stories that Germany was becoming popular for Israeli immigrants. …coincidentally, there's rhetoric like this from politicians strongly conflicting with the general public…
The Germans have learned their lesson. Too bad America hasn't.
On another note the last British troops will finally leave Germany in 2019, thus dissolving the BAOR (British Army On the Rhine) which at its peak numbered close to 100,000. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the U.K. is finally confident enough, or broke enough, to bring the boys home. What is the excuse for vastly further away America keeping tens of thousands of troops there? Protecting Germany from Denmark?