Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Europe can no longer rely on the United States to impose order worldwide, and that European nations need to be ready to take matters into their own hands.
Merkel did not elaborate on exactly what this “order” meant, but it comes in the context of recent polls showing German voters resistant to her desire to increase military spending. This suggests Merkel is trying to sell increased armament as a way to intervene regionally.
Merkel also said she intends to continue to work on improving Germany’s relationship with the United States. This appears to be an uphill battle, with the two nations at odds over a number of issues, but she insisted ties are “crucial.”
Just last week, President Trump said he has “a big problem” with Germany, and the US was threatening to sanction German companies for investing in a Russian energy pipeline. Trump expressed particular anger at the pipeline, saying it means Germany is effective “captive” to Russia.
In practice, the pipeline issue is more about the US wanting to increase LNG exports to Europe than being worried about Russia increasing trade ties there. Where US and European interests don’t align, however, it seems to fuel tensions, and that’s liable to mean Merkel faces an uphill battle in improving relations.
I think Trump’s right. Why do we have troops in Germany?
The world has not changed much since 1940 only NATO troops have taken the place of NAZI troops Now NATO troops issue the New world orders where the NAZI troops failed to complete issuing NAZI orders
The NATO Troops have reached about the same stopping point the NAZI troops stopped at . It is now time for NATO to shit or get off the pot .
“…to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” ~ General Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay, first Secretary General of NATO
A truth that was more polite to the French and British than they deserved, but became obvious when Eisenhower called off their attack on Eygpt.
Ramstein airbase at the airport of Frankfort is more than a US air force base. It is the location of one of the largest military hospitals in the world where wounded US soldiers from the Middle East are often treated before they are flown home. If Ramstein is abandoned it becomes necessary to withdraw troops from all Middle East countries.
good.
We do not really have “troops” in Germany anymore. Not one tank. Very few combat aircraft. The US has bases that are useful for its other world projects. It could of course go back, but it isn’t really there now except for the infrastructure to support forces.
In Yugoslavia , Croatia , Ukraine The 3 Baltic States is NATO establishing world order . You better believe both Russia and China can see no difference in what NATO is doing now with their NWOs than what the NAZI tried to do to them 75 years ago with their NAZI orders . They fought as hard as the could 75 years ago And I kinda think they will do it again
As a European, I would be glad to know in what way the US presence helps us at all.
Officially we know it’s to protect you from a Russian invasion that shows no sign of ever happening. Unofficially, the US finds Germany’s location in particular useful to support the actions where the US loves to meddle violently: the Middle East and Africa. Bases in Germany also support de-facto territorial expansion through NATO, adding to the countries buying US arms and cooperative on trade and foreign policies.
The benefits to Europeans of complying with US foreign policy dictates may be similar to the benefits Americans get from our foreign policy: very cheap goods and services secured through abusive tricks that are a close approximation of slavery. Arming dictators. Junk commodity trading. High-interest loans to autocrats. Free trade zones. Covert action or massive bombing to eliminate any obstacles. It’s not sustainable long-term in any way at all, but for now this system of extraction is mostly functioning as designed. Neo-colonialism is probably the right name for it.
I lived in the Netherlands at the time when NATO was born. For us Dutch people NATO was not so much an organization which would prevent the Soviets to attack our nation which we did not believe would happen anyway but to prevent what the Germans did to us from 1940 until 1945. We did not believe that the UN would come to our help. We were fairly certain that our NATO allies would help defend our independence. We even believed that the NATO membership of the Bundesrepublik Germany meant that at least the “West Germans” had become our allies who would not try to invade us.
I think that it is likely that NATO meant more for the small countries occupied by NAZI Germany than a shield against the Soviet Union.
Yes, NATO is the major organization that provides a US presence in Europe. It is an extreme presence, dominating European military forces. The US provides the command, and provides the logistic and other support like communications, so they *could* not fight with each other as they did constantly for 400+ years. For this the US gets safety from European conflicts that it prevents, and useful bases, and sometimes useful proxy forces to deploy, and often a ready market for the MIC.
It leaves the US in control of the design of the international system, as with financial arrangements, not just military. It is a sharp limit on the EU, as seen by the strong US opposition to the EU developing combined forces that might challenge NATO’s monopoly on control of European forces.
NATO was a great bulwark against Europe’s fratricidal tendencies.
Unfortunately, NATO lost its way, became a bureaucracy of Globalist entitlements insensitive to any individual member democratic inputs. Even the U.S., which mostly is NATO, can’t avoid being hijacked by the Globalist desire for Imperial expression.
NATO needs some sort of serious internal reform to bring it in sync with the postmodern world. Realistically its likely going to continue rumbling forward on an obsolete bureaucratic inertia that demands dissolution.
If you read my comment above where NATO destroyed non aligned Yugoslavia . Well they did this against the wishes of both Russia and China and pulled some very dirty tricks on both of them . Now Russia and China joined forces on that very day partnering and preparing for another confrontation with NATO . NATO is now up on the Russian border pulling the same kind of clever tricks But Russia is many times more powerful than the Soviet Union ever was . So nothing could be better for you than to hope this wild Trump can really make peace with Russia
Europe needs NATO like Europe needs a hole in the head .Armies air craft carriers and planes won’t be much good. The war will be over the first day if it is fought with nuclear weapons and missiles . Russia has the most nuclear bombs and the best and fastest missiles
Ironically those faster missiles like hypersonics are devastating enough that they might serve as an alternative to going nuclear the first day, assuming they weren’t used first to try and disarm the other side’s nukes.
However, even if hypersonics did give a chance for sober second thought, breaking the ice on superpowers shooting directly at one-another’s official militaries is the next worse of all possible outcomes.
However, France, Germany, and Britain haven’t gone at it in a while.
The Balkans were always (unfairly) fair game.
The prospects for peace with Russia aren’t bad.
Trump really seems to want peace as more than a political feather in his cap, he really does seem to understand that if things go nuclear with Russia, its all over.
No-one wants war, however, the Democratic humanitarian neoconned warriors tossed the precautionary principle on escalation and provocation. They’d only know they went too far when the nukes started landing on North American soil. The meltdown over Trump proves, they no longer have sane judgement.
The smarter elements of the Deep State seem to understand that splitting Eurasia even a little will soften and delay the Eurasian (Russia + China) century and open opportunities to end it.
They just can’t seem to decide whom to ally with; sinophobes hate China (fronted by people like Bannon and Co., quietly sent to Europe to stir up trouble there…), and Russophobes hate Russia (people like Hilary et al., not-so-quietly seeking electoral vindication). Although, Hilary seems to hate on command…
The present result is, the Eurasians are almost certain to stick together, their hardliners (who no more could corner the market on reason than ours) are united in super-hating our guts, and, its either peace or war. So yes, Trump, or rather his would-be handlers, had better not screw this up.
So how do you account for the fact NATO attacked Yugoslavia when they claimed Milosevic was committing genocide against his people . This did not turn out to be true . As when the war was over it was the Serbs the largest ethnic group that had been expelled from over half their country
I only told you what we felt and thought about NATO in the Netherlands at the time when NATO was founded hence no answer to your question is required.
Waves, and when it all falls apart the U.S. citizen is in for a most rude awakening! I think this is why the Gov. wants to take away 2nd Amendment rights, doing so a little at a time,,,,,they tremble facing an armed populace when calamity strikes.
It would just make you a battleground.
The Clauszwitz “world island” theory goes like this…..Europe, Asia, Africa, make up the world island, if the resources of Asia ally with the industrialist of Europe, world conquest ensues. Prior to petroleum, England played the role of spoiler, coming to the aid of the losing side in the world island wars, ensuring “balance of power”, or deunification. With petroleum ascendacy, the US took over this spoiler role. That the GOP/trump war party would complain about German/Russian trade, then assert that Nato double it’s military spending (aimed at Russia) all fit into this old theory. So does the intervention in the Ukraine, to foment war on the Euro/Asian border.
Not Clauswitz. McKinder.
Thanks for correction
Geopolitically, the EU-based informal Globalist Empire based on financial gamesmanship wouldn’t be possible except as part of the American Empire.
Economically, the U.S. military presence is a vital source of income to those cities and towns that benefit from bases and soldiers with considerable disposable income.
Diplomatically, its window dressing assurance that wherever in the world a NATO country is, the U.S. has their back covered up to and including military assistance. This is more useful to European nations that still rely on imperialism than countries like Germany who lost their empires.
For example, France is the biggest user of U.S. assistance right now, starting from when they called upon the U.S. to topple Gadaffi’s Libya, which threatened the French CFA Franc (not the American Dollar). The CFA Franc allows France to shortchange Africa on trade.
https://globeafrique. com/the-cfa-franc-french-monetary-imperialism-in-africa/
The present-day imperializing of the African Sahel (that band of arable land running across Africa beneath the Sahara desert) is also in partnership with the French.
Without U.S. power, European nations would have to strong-arm emerging markets alone, if that’s how they wanted to play.
They would also face Russia and China at a disadvantage in any foreign policy dependent on intimidation of Russia and China. On the other hand, there would probably be little conflict with Russia and China if not for the U.S..
Thanks Brockland. I live in France and was deeply ashamed of the French push into Libya and the destruction of that country which provided help to many Africans and was not a threat to the PTB.
Rose, I agree, let Europe take care of themselves, they will all be Islamic states in 75 years, thanks to the suicidal E.U.
As an American, I agree. We have wasted precious resources rescuing Europe from 2 world wars of European creation, and defended Europe against the Soviet Union with NATO and the Marshall Plan. We need to keep these resources at home to benefit our own citizens. Europe today is caught in a vise between Russian domination and radical Islamic invasion. All of which Europe richly deserves because of its colonial heritage and the Holocaust. When it comes to a contest between Russia and radical Islam on the streets of western Europe, I wish both sides complete victory. I will buy lots of popcorn to watch, and support strict immigration controls to avoid importing European dreck
So that’s what it was all about = Imposing, aka strong-arming, bribing, threatening.
Why is ANY nation tasked with ‘imposing world order’? Let nations settle their beefs between themselves and get it over with- forcing people to play nice only ensures the problem(s) will continue. If you get rolled by a more powerful nation, maybe you should have thought about being able to defend yourself a little better. Depending on someone else to save your skin is pretty lame. Get along with your neighbors or pay the price; it really is that simple.
‘World Order’ means Western Elite Imperialism, which only works through efficient force of arms, not by ‘getting along’.
Eventually the U.S. became the only power capable of breaking heads and twisting arms on a global scale for the ‘right’ people, so naturally they are tasked with imposing world order.
The problem with Merkel is that she is a product of American globalist world order and is trying to maintain it. She is counting on Trump opposition to squash him, do him in any which way possible. Thus — signaling to them her allegiance, her readiness to prop up the globalists in the era of Trump departure from imperial no-borders bankers’ paradise, and his attempt to reorder the globalist delusional sinking ship into a more sustainable nation state model being the foundation of international relations. Sort of good fences mske good neighbors on global scale. Trump is crazy as a fox. He is whipping Markel for her fouble faced “Europeanism” — simultaneously acting goodie two shoes on international stage, giving false signals to Russia by getting the gas it wants, while being hostile all around. Goid for Trump. Mske up your mind Angela. If Russia is the problem, go defend yourself and your Baltic nations plus Poland — the noisiest of the bunch. Either fhis is serious — or it is not. Of course Trump knows very well that Russia has no designs on any of them. Quite to the contrary, it is thise countries that are abusing Russian minorities every which way they can — so they can go into hysterics the moment Russia complains. We all know Russian threat is a lie, a lie milked to the max by globalist visionaries and profiteers. Germany, caught in this duplicity has no answers. Pay up for defence, cut ties with Russia, give up Russian gas — if you are serious. If not — shut up. Merkel has chosen the absolutely predictable way out — message to anti-Trump worriors. I am here standing on the ramparts for you, and will continue supporting your order. You better get this menace of my back. Is there anything else she can do? She danced and danced — making herself palatable to reasonable Germans, while selling Germany down the river to the globalist scorpion in Brussels. Job is nearly done, but not quite. I do not think Trump is trying to force US gas on Germany. He is trying to force Germany to get off the globalist false gravy train, and face the music. Migrant crisis is the consequence of globalist tools — wars, regime changes, corrupt client governments alligned with the West, IMF, World Bank. One cannot undo it unless IMF is destroyed root and branch and all onerous debts cancelled. Investors who keep on investing through IMF know that these loans are not going to be repaid, just constantly refinanced. And that some form of bailouts would be forthcoming from Western institutions. Until the music stops playing. Trump is just trying to oull the plug little bit earlier in hope of restructuring the global military spending and ease the indebtedness of Western world. Cutting spending in Korea and eventually Russia-related spending is a way to reduce war tensions and reduce spending. For those that think defence spending can be cut BEFORE making clear that danger is not out there — us a childish dream. Let us hope the threat of peace prevails.
Russia , N Korea and Israel have what is about the closest thing to a suicide defense as possible It is extremely cheap for the amount of destruction they can cause .Very dangerous people to mess with .
Merkel is a product of East Germany; any globalist indoctrination would be a late addition to her outlook. She’s just used to the ideal of statism, and globalism is statism on steroids.
Natural gas only accounts for something like 20% of Germany’s energy supply, so 50% of that is like 10% coming from Russia.
Trump exaggerates a little on German dependence on Russia; he just wants that 10% spent on American LNG shipments.
Germany’s crashed armed forces are another business opportunity for Trump. It costs money to re-arm, and Trump wants a slice of that.
Trump and Merkel would never see eye-to-eye even without anti-Trumpism. She’s government jobs class, Trump is a private sector billionaire, and the government jobs class and independent business class are natural social cold war enemies.
I hope she’s serious. Hopefully, other countries will follow suit.
Most nations don’t have the resources to make a difference. For them, it would be a total waste, spending for no likely purpose, on forces that just could not be enough to make a difference. Germany’s situation is different because it could raise forces enough to be independent of the US, if they designed them to be so.
The first force they would need is financial.
They have industrial power, but banking independence, no so much.
Weird… I thought for sure Trump’s aggressive position would prompt social democrats like Merkel to tell him off, not do exactly as he says. Germany is a progressive democracy though, I doubt the people will put up with this once they get what she is talking about: much more military spending.
Merkel is not a social democrat. She is the leader of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) which ever since its foundation gave strong support to social networks such as Christ himself probably would have wanted (tongue in cheek!).
I believe that Merkel’s move is very clever. She cannot by herself increase Germany’s military spending. Only the Bundestag can. Given the popular pressure the Bundestag is not very likely to change the existing schedule of increased military expenses. Merkel wants to get Trump off her back on military spending. Now she can tell him “I tried. My Bundestag refused.”
Actually Trump’s pressure on Merkel and Germany strengthens the ultra-right fascistoid opposition.
“This suggests Merkel is trying to sell increased armament as a way to intervene regionally.”
That is what the US would like, to be able to use German forces as US proxy forces, especially in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, convenient to German deployments.
However, Germany does not face military risks to Germany in its region. Germany has no incentive to provide proxy forces deployable by Americans, for Americans to use in their own designs.
If Germany has need for its own forces, it would be to weigh in on matters distant from Germany, in which Germany is now disregarded. This is more akin to the ideas of Bismarck for an oceanic Germany navy of cruisers and gunboats, suited to exert influence in lower level conflicts.
Germany is heavily dependent on trade, but its local and regional trade are not subject to any challenger to the things Germany sells. The danger for Germany is its long distance trade, which tends to be high value items like machine tools to China, or industrial development of Iran, or competing with the US in South America.
If the US forces Germany’s hand, it may not get anything like what it wants from Germany, but quite the opposite.
The whole problem is that we HAVE been trying to impose world order for so long!
Translation: If America won’t be Prime Globalist Toady, Germany must be Prime Globalist Toady.
Not too sure if the Germans will go for that… fixing elections with mass migrants won’t be enough.
This was a message to the globalist families that they need to pull the plug on U.S. and find another country to play the role of the empire.
Merkel is a US puppet like all the EU political elite.
It’s a stretch to say Merkel wants to increase defense spending in order to intervene regionally. It makes more sense to say nato cannot be relied on and that Germany needs to make its own decisions about defense, a position that fits very well with a libertarian view.
It would be far more economical for Germany to withdraw from NATO, and put its 2% GDP donation to better use.
Absolutely. It would only have to defend itself, not the myriad countries that belong to nato.
Prez. Trump needs to MYOB when it comes to gas pipelines in Europe. Either Russia is our mortal enemy or they are not Mr. Prez., can’t have it both ways. Russia is a White Christian Democratic nation, stop hassling Russia as they are no threat to USA unless we ask for it.
Germany wants to spend peanuts on NATO but BILLIONS for Russian gas.
With the US has to pick up their slack and
defending them against Russia???
BULL SHIITE!
The time is right to turn NATO completely over to the Euros!
Adios!
“Germany wants to spend peanuts on something beyond useless and actively damaging but BILLIONS for the necessities of life.”
Fixed, no charge.
I do not disagree,
but Germany expects the US to provide for their defense
in the event their profit making scheme with Russia, goes south.
Don’t miss understand, I don’t care what Germany does, I just don’t want the US providing their insurance policy. I want the Euro’s to provide for themselves. We should exit NATO.
Merkel will establish the 4th Reich to restore world order