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German Handelsblatt Releases Stunning Anti-West Op-Ed, Asks If "West Rabble-Rousers Are On The Payroll Of The KGB"
Up until this point Angela Merkel, and German media in general, had been staunchly on the side of the west when it comes to dealing with Russia, Putin and realpolitik in broader terms. That changed dramatically today when Gabor Steingart, the chief editor of Handelsblatt, Germany's leading economic newspaper, came out with a stunning op-ed, in German, English and Russian, titled simply that "The West on the wrong path" in which the editor comes out very vocally against the autopilot mode German media has been on for the past several months and calls for an end to a strategy of sanctions and Russian confrontation that ultimately "harms German interests" and is a dead end.
Some of the "must read" excerpts:
- The politics of escalation does not have a realistic goal – and harms German interests.
- Newspapers we thought to be all about thoughts and ideas now march in lock-step with politicians in their calls for sanctions against Russia's President Putin. Even the headlines betray an aggressive tension as is usually characteristic of hooligans when they 'support' their respective teams. The Tagesspiegel: “Enough talk!“ The FAZ: “Show strength“. The Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Now or never.“ The Spiegel calls for an “End to cowardice“: “Putin's web of lies, propaganda, and deception has been exposed. The wreckage of MH 17 is also the result of a crashed diplomacy.“
- Our purpose is to wipe off some of the foam that has formed on the debating mouths, to steal words from the mouths of both the rabble-rousers and the roused, and put new words there instead. One word that has become disused of late is this: realism.
- Germany has waged war against its eastern neighbor twice in the past 100 years. The German soul, which we generally claim to be on the romantic side, showed its cruel side.
- The politics of escalation show that Europe sorely misses a realistic goal. It's a different thing in the US. Threats and posturing are simply part of the election preparations. When Hillary Clinton compares Putin with Hitler, she does so only to appeal to the Republican vote, i.e. people who do not own a passport. For many of them, Hitler is the only foreigner they know, which is why Adolf Putin is a very welcome fictitious campaign effigy. In this respect, Clinton and Obama have a realistic goal: to appeal to the people, to win elections, to win another Democratic presidency.
- Even the idea that economic pressure and political isolation would bring Russia to its knees was not really thought all the way through. Even if we could succeed: what good would Russia be on its knees? How can you want to live together in the European house with a humiliated people whose elected leadership is treated like a pariah and whose citizens you might have to support in the coming winter.
- It is not too late for the duo Merkel/Steinmeier to use the concepts and ideas of this time. It does not make sense to just follow the strategically idea-less Obama. Everyone can see how he and Putin are driving like in a dream directly towards a sign which reads: Dead End.
- Demonizing Putin is not a policy. It is an alibi for the lack thereof. He advises condensing conflicts, i.e. to make them smaller, shrink them, and then distill them into a solution. At the moment (and for a long time before that) America is doing the opposite. All conflicts are escalated. The attack of a terror group named Al Qaida is turned into a global campaign against Islam. Iraq is bombed using dubious justifications. Then the US Air Force flies on to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The relationship to the Islamic world can safely be considered damaged.
- The American tendency to verbal and then also military escalation, the isolation, demonization, and attacking of enemies has not proven effective. The last successful major military action the US conducted was the Normandy landing. Everything else – Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – was a clear failure.
Punchline #1:
- Collective movements start in support of the sanctioned, as is the case today in Russia. The country was hardly ever more unified behind their president than now. This could almost lead you to think that the rabble-rousers of the West are on the payroll of the Russian secret service.
And Punchline #2:
- History does not have to repeat itself. Maybe we can find a shortcut.
Also maybe those looking for the moment in time when Germany finally rotated away from its pro-western mindset and took a long, hard look at the rising Eurasian/BRIC/counter US Dollar axis, should remember this article...
* * *
The West on the wrong path
In view of the events in Ukraine, the government and many media have switched from level-headed to agitated. The spectrum of opinions has been narrowed to the width of a sniper scope. The politics of escalation does not have a realistic goal – and harms German interests.
Every war is accompanied by a kind of mental mobilization: war fever. Even smart people are not immune to controlled bouts of this fever. “This war in all its atrociousness is still a great and wonderful thing. It is an experience worth having“ rejoiced Max Weber in 1914 when the lights went out in Europe. Thomas Mann felt a “cleansing, liberation, and a tremendous amount of hope“.
Even when thousands already lay dead on the Belgian battle fields, the war fever did not subside. Exactly 100 years ago, 93 painters, writers, and scientists composed the “Call to the world of culture.“ Max Liebermann, Gerhart Hauptmann, Max Planck, Wilhelm Röntgen, and others encouraged their countrymen to engage in cruelty towards their neighbor: “Without German militarism, German culture would have been swept from the face of the earth a long time ago. The German armed forces and the German people are one. This awareness makes 70 million Germans brothers without prejudice to education, status, or party.“
We interrupt our own train of thought: “History is not repeating itself!” But can we be so sure about that these days? In view of the war events in the Crimean and eastern Ukraine, the heads of states and governments of the West suddenly have no more questions and all the answers. The US Congress is openly discussing arming Ukraine. The former security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski recommends arming the citizens there for house-to-house and street combat. The German Chancellor, as it is her habit, is much less clear but no less ominous: “We are ready to take severe measures.“
German journalism has switched from level-headed to agitated in a matter of weeks. The spectrum of opinions has been narrowed to the field of vision of a sniper scope.
Newspapers we thought to be all about thoughts and ideas now march in lock-step with politicians in their calls for sanctions against Russia's President Putin. Even the headlines betray an aggressive tension as is usually characteristic of hooligans when they 'support' their respective teams.
The Tagesspiegel: “Enough talk!“ The FAZ: “Show strength“. The Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Now or never.“ The Spiegel calls for an “End to cowardice“: “Putin's web of lies, propaganda, and deception has been exposed. The wreckage of MH 17 is also the result of a crashed diplomacy.“
Western politics and German media agree.
Every reflexive string of accusations results in the same outcome: in no time allegations and counter-allegations become so entangled that the facts become almost completely obscured.
Who deceived who first?
Did it all start with the Russian invasion of the Crimean or did the West first promote the destabilization of the Ukraine? Does Russia want to expand into the West or NATO into the East? Or did maybe two world-powers meet at the same door in the middle of the night, driven by very similar intentions towards a defenseless third that now pays for the resulting quagmire with the first phases of a civil war?
If at this point you are still waiting for an answer as to whose fault it is, you might as well just stop reading. You will not miss anything. We are not trying to unearth this hidden truth. We don't know how it started. We don't know how it will end. And we are sitting right here, in the middle of it. At least Peter Sloterdijk has a few words of consolation for us: “To live in the world means to live in uncertainty.“
Our purpose is to wipe off some of the foam that has formed on the debating mouths, to steal words from the mouths of both the rabble-rousers and the roused, and put new words there instead. One word that has become disused of late is this: realism.
The politics of escalation show that Europe sorely misses a realistic goal. It's a different thing in the US. Threats and posturing are simply part of the election preparations. When Hillary Clinton compares Putin with Hitler, she does so only to appeal to the Republican vote, i.e. people who do not own a passport. For many of them, Hitler is the only foreigner they know, which is why Adolf Putin is a very welcome fictitious campaign effigy. In this respect, Clinton and Obama have a realistic goal: to appeal to the people, to win elections, to win another Democratic presidency.
Angela Merkel can hardly claim these mitigating circumstances for herself. Geography forces every German Chancellor to be a bit more serious. As neighbors of Russia, as part of the European community bound in destiny, as recipient of energy and supplier of this and that, we Germans have a clearly more vital interest in stability and communication. We cannot afford to look at Russia through the eyes of the American Tea Party.
Every mistake starts with a mistake in thinking. And we are making this mistake if we believe that only the other party profits from our economic relationship and thus will suffer when this relationship stops. If economic ties were maintained for mutual profit, then severing them will lead to mutual loss. Punishment and self-punishment are the same thing in this case.
Even the idea that economic pressure and political isolation would bring Russia to its knees was not really thought all the way through. Even if we could succeed: what good would Russia be on its knees? How can you want to live together in the European house with a humiliated people whose elected leadership is treated like a pariah and whose citizens you might have to support in the coming winter.
Of course, the current situation requires a strong stance, but more than anything a strong stance against ourselves. Germans have neither wanted nor caused these realities, but they are now our realities. Just consider what Willy Brandt had to listen to when his fate as mayor of Berlin placed him in the shadow of the wall. What sanctions and punishments were suggested to him. But he decided to forgo this festival of outrage. He never turned the screw of retribution.
When he was awarded the Noble Prize for Peace he shed light on what went on around him in the hectic days when the wall was built: “There is still another aspect – that of impotence disguised by verbalism: taking a stand on legal positions which cannot become a reality and planning counter-measures for contingencies that always differ from the one at hand. At critical times we were left to our own devices; the verbalists had nothing to offer.“
The verbalists are back and their headquarters are in Washington D.C. But nobody is forcing us to kowtow to their orders. Following this lead – even if calculatingly and somewhat reluctantly as in the case of Merkel – does not protect the German people, but may well endanger it. This fact remains a fact even if it was not the American but the Russians who were responsible for the original damage in the Crimean and in eastern Ukraine.
Willy Brandt decided clearly differently than Merkel in the present, and that in a clearly more intense situation. As he recalls, he had awoken on the morning of August 13, 1961 “wide awake and at the same time numb“. He had stopped over in Hanover on a trip when he received reports from Berlin about work being done on the large wall separating the city. It was a Sunday morning and the humiliation could hardly be greater for a sitting mayor.
The Soviets had presented him with a fait accompli. The Americans had not informed him even though they had probably received some information from Moscow. Brandt remembers that an “impotent rage“ had risen in him. But what did he do? He reined in his feelings of impotence and displayed his great talent as reality-based politician which would garner him a stint as Chancellor and finally also the Nobel Prize for Peace.
With the advice from Egon Bahr, he accepted the new situation, knowing that no amount of outrage from the rest of the world would bring this wall down again for a while. He even ordered the West-Berlin police to use batons and water cannons against demonstrators at the wall in order not to slip from the catastrophe of division into the much greater catastrophe of war. He strove for the paradox which Bahr put as follows later: “We acknowledged the Status Quo in order to change it.“
And they managed to accomplish this change. Brandt and Bahr made the specific interests of the West Berlin population for who they were now responsible (from June 1962 onwards this also included this author) into the measure of their politics.
In Bonn they negotiated the Berlin subvention, an eight-percent tax-free subvention on payroll and income tax. In the vernacular it was called the “fear premium“. They also negotiated a travel permit treaty with East Berlin which made the wall permeable again two years after it was put up. Between Christmas 1963 and New Year’s 1964, 700 000 inhabitants of Berlin visited their relatives in the east of the city. Every tear of joy turned into a vote for Brandt a short while later.
The voters realized that here was someone who wanted to affect the way they lived every day, not just generate a headline for the next morning. In an almost completely hopeless situation, this SPD man fought for western values – in this case the values of freedom of movement – without bullhorns, without sanctions, without the threat of violence. The elite in Washington started hearing words that had never been heard in politics before: Compassion. Change through rapprochement. Dialog. Reconciliation of interests. And this in the middle of the Cold War, when the world powers were supposed to attack each other with venom, when the script contained only threats and protestations; set ultimatums, enforce sea blockades, conduct representative wars, this is how the Cold War was supposed to be run.
A German foreign policy striving for reconciliation – in the beginning only the foreign policy of Berlin – not only appeared courageous but also very strange.
The Americans – Kennedy, Johnson, then Nixon – followed the German; it kicked off a process which is unparalleled in the history of enemy nations. Finally, there was a meeting in Helsinki in order to set down the rules. The Soviet Union was guaranteed “non-interference into their internal affairs“ which filled party boss Leonid Brezhnev with satisfaction and made Franz Josef Strauß's blood boil. In return, the Moscow Communist Party leadership had to guarantee the West (and thus their own civil societies) “respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including that of thought, conscience, religion or belief“.
In this way “non-interference“ was bought through “involvement“. Communism had received an eternal guarantee for its territory, but within its borders universal human rights suddenly began to brew. Joachim Gauck remembers: “The word that allowed my generation to go on was Helsinki.“
It is not too late for the duo Merkel/Steinmeier to use the concepts and ideas of this time. It does not make sense to just follow the strategically idea-less Obama. Everyone can see how he and Putin are driving like in a dream directly towards a sign which reads: Dead End.
“The test for politics is not how something starts but how it ends“, so Henry Kissinger, also a Peace Nobel Prize winner. After the occupation of the Crimean by Russia he stated: we should want reconciliation, not dominance. Demonizing Putin is not a policy. It is an alibi for the lack thereof. He advises condensing conflicts, i.e. to make them smaller, shrink them, and then distill them into a solution.
At the moment (and for a long time before that) America is doing the opposite. All conflicts are escalated. The attack of a terror group named Al Qaida is turned into a global campaign against Islam. Iraq is bombed using dubious justifications. Then the US Air Force flies on to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The relationship to the Islamic world can safely be considered damaged.
If the West had judged the then US government which marched into Iraq without a resolution by the UN and without proof of the existence of “WMDs“ by the same standards as today Putin, then George W. Bush would have immediately been banned from entering the EU. The foreign investments of Warren Buffett should have been frozen, the export of vehicles of the brands GM, Ford, and Chrysler banned.
The American tendency to verbal and then also military escalation, the isolation, demonization, and attacking of enemies has not proven effective. The last successful major military action the US conducted was the Normandy landing. Everything else – Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – was a clear failure. Moving NATO units towards the Polish border and thinking about arming Ukraine is a continuation of a lack of diplomacy by the military means.
This policy of running your head against the wall – and doing so exactly where the wall is the thickest – just gives you a head ache and not much else. And this considering that the wall has a huge door in the relationship of Europe to Russia. And the key to this door is labeled “reconciliation of interests“.
The first step is what Brandt called “compassion“, i.e. the ability to see the world through the eyes of the others. We should stop accusing the 143 million Russian that they look at the world differently than John McCain.
What is needed is help in modernizing the country, no sanctions which will further decrease the dearth of wealth and damage the bond of relationships. Economic relationships are also relationships. International cooperation is akin to tenderness between nations because everyone feels better afterwards.
It is well-known that Russia is an energy super-power and at the same time a developing industrial nation. The policy of reconciliation and mutual interests should attack here. Development aid in return for territorial guarantees; Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier even had the right words to describe this: modernization partnership. He just has to dust it off and use it as an aspirational word. Russia should be integrated, not isolated. Small steps in that direction are better than the great nonsense of exclusionary politics.
Brandt and Bahr have never reached for the tool of economic sanctions. They knew why: there are no recorded cases in which countries under sanctions apologized for their behavior and were obedient ever after. On the contrary: collective movements start in support of the sanctioned, as is the case today in Russia. The country was hardly ever more unified behind their president than now. This could almost lead you to think that the rabble-rousers of the West are on the payroll of the Russian secret service.
One more comment about the tone of the debate. The annexation of the Crimean was in violation of international law. The support of separatists in eastern Ukraine also does not mesh with our ideas of the state sovereignty. The boundaries of states are inviolable.
But every act requires context. And the German context is that we are a society on probation which may not act as if violations of international law started with the events in the Crimean.
Germany has waged war against its eastern neighbor twice in the past 100 years. The German soul, which we generally claim to be on the romantic side, showed its cruel side.
Of course, we who came later can continue to proclaim our outrage against the ruthless Putin and appeal to international law against him, but the way things are this outrage should come with a slight blush of embarrassment. Or to use the words of Willy Brandt: “Claims to absolutes threaten man.“
In the end, even the men who had succumbed to war fever in 1914 had to realize this. After the end of the war, the penitent issued a second call, this time to understanding between nations: “The civilized world became a war camp and battle field. It is time that a great tide of love replaces the devastating wave of hatred.“
We should try to avoid the detour via the battle fields in the 21st century. History does not have to repeat itself. Maybe we can find a shortcut.
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Well it does seem that all our politicians are anti-constitution, anti-freedom, anti-free market capitalism, etc.
this guy better be careful...
"sounds like you've had a little bit too much to think, citizen...."
Finally an outcry or whimper of sense ! Thanks Handelsblatt !
Breaking ranks or breaking bad? No matter, I can hear the drums beating now...
The image from the Handelsblatt homepage is priceless
http://www.handelsblatt.com/images/protesters-hold-petrol-bomb-during-cl...
I am very confused by the current protests in Kiev. Are they protesting that the government is simply making them "move along"? This would imply that the protesters are concerned they are not Nazi enough. If they are protesting the Nazis the crack down seems rather lightly handled.
That priest makes a good pic but I just have no idea what side he thinks he is on.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
You ever listened to the lyrics of "Won't get Fooled Again?" Crazy how things don't change much. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtHshBWFRyg
Russian Orthodox priest holding a Molotov and a rock. Happy endings guaranteed...
Breaking ranks or breaking bad? No matter, I can hear the drums beating now...
The NSA owns Merkel having spied on her since 2002. With US and British troops on German soil, Germany has no chance of an independent foreign policy.
Ask the foreign military presence to leave, if you have the balls. Then Germany has a chance at freedom.
If we left, they'd have to spend 1/2 a trillion a year for their own defense. Cheaper to keep her (as in America) than to divorce her (send her packing).
If we left, they'd have to spend 1/2 a trillion a year for their own defense
Where did you pull that number from? From your ass because it stinks. Germany may have to spend a few billion more and it will create German jobs. And the savings from not being spied upon and controlled will easily pay the extra costs.
Cite a reference for your number or forever hold your dick.
Russia spent $58.2 billion on its military in 2013.
The idea that Germany could not defend itself against one of the major powers flies in the face of WWI and WWII.
You'll need 3 or 4 on 1.
This time, the Germans would be in Paris before the French could find the launch button for their nukes.
I think he guestimated that number.
There would still be spying and all the covert stuff. A half trillion wouldn't be hard to imagine if other nations arm up as they probably would if Germany went solo or Brics. Europe remembers WWII as much as the Germans. Germany kicking out NATO would certainly inspire a buildup around Europe.
Stay in Zato to save money? Zato comes with lots of baggage. Zato's got the soul destroying baggage like the Maidan snipers that kill both sides and Baggage that destroys business, like the current and growing sanctions regieme.
The US spends about $1 Trillion a year on the military, and that's more than the rest of the world combined by a large margin. Or, to put it another way, we spend as much on the military as we spend in a year propping up the insolvent banks.
If Germany spent $50 Billion per year, or 1/10 of your estimate, they'd be nearly runner-up to the US.
The USA spends $1 trillion on defense and police state and the borders are wide open.
One wonders just how much of that trillion goes into "Defence" spending, and how much "disappears" into the pockets of the well-connected.
It might be very relevant indeed to remember the "Phantom Legions" from the end days of the Roman Empire - especially in regard to the "Missing Pentagon Billions" - and the oh so unfortunate collapse of WTC-7.
Does ANYONE really know whether the US Taxpayer is getting "value for money"? Without INDEPENDENT (joke, I know) oversight / audit, there is no control.
With no control, "they" can spend "it" on whatever they like. And you may rest certain in the knowledge that they WILL.
I think he's saying that if Germany went their own or the Brics way then there probably would be war or at least a panicked buildup to it. A solo Germany would probably want their own nukes when everyone else in the neighborhood has them (Britain, France, US, Russia).
We might be to the point where no matter which way this goes is goes badly.
as a conquered and dumbed down nation Germany not only pays for US military bases on its soil, it also is responsible (money wise) for their maintenance.
Yeah, the Germans will be shedding some tears. Tears of joy.
Even if that number was correct (which it surely isn't), it would be a small price to pay to see those suckers go.
@justobserving - as a matter of fact, not out of my ass, but out of the air - it was a point I was making, not the actual cost. Point is, it would cost Germany a whole lot more to develop weapons to get up to speed and then to arm and deploy a complete defense system of its own than it is for them to keep American troops and weaponry on their soil.
Germany alreay has an armaments industry and they produce some of the best stuff in the world.
Their diesel subs and tanks for example are world-class, if not the best.
Relax. Sorry, a bit of poetic license and a couple of cognacs. I understand. Normally I am kinder and gentler but hate to see Germans have limited freedoms so many years after World War II.
Wishing you the best.
Until the nukes land.
"The American way of life is not negotiable".
No offense, but I don't think that 1 brigade of combat troops is a credible 'occupation'.
Seriously, there were more US combat personnel in Russia last year for training than are currently stationed in Germany.
They should have left 20 years ago, except Germany asked them to stay to stabilize 'reunification'.
It was long-since finished. And the last brigade should have left long ago.
The soldiers don't want to go, because Germany is a great place to live and they like it there.
You still don't understand how plutocratic occupation works, do you?
It's about establishing the financial and economic regime, the media regime, the telecommunication control, the content of education and the knowledge transfer (industrial and economic espionage). Once the debt slavery of the plutocratic regime has been installed and local vassals are put into power, the vassals keep the show running on their own. Because they know, that they are only on top, as long as their masters' are on top, therefore vassals are often even more cruel to the own people, than foreign occupation powers.
The military presence is more for emergency purposes, in case a vassal would not follow his role and try to throw the occupants out with the help of a few courageous soldiers.
That's the tragedy, that people - especially in the West - simply do not understand how the matrix works. Every day they are brainwashed about dictators being a threat, while they are made to believe in the lie of "free press". People in the West do not even understand how money rules, how much power and influence the private owner of a TV-station, new agency or publisher has.
Especially the "free press" lie shows the trmendous amount of brainwashing in the plutcracies: although everyone in his daily life knows and understands the power of the boss, the sheeple simply do not see, that the same mechanism applies to the media and that a "free press" never ever anywhere has existed. It's nothing but a lie. A Jewish lie, btw.
Beautifully and aptly put.
You are also missing the point that you don't actually need the troops there, you just need their heavy equipment and runways. Very large amounts of US equipment are pre-positioned all over Germany and Europe just waiting for their operators.
This is a brilliant way for the US to mount an occupation at low cost and low visibility. The people of the occupied country have no idea that they are and the quick flying in of a few troop transports would hardly be noticed.
To give annother example. Last week the US announced that it was upgrading its pre-positioned equipment, stored in bunkers etc around Trondheim in the middle of Norway, with main battle tanks (only trucks and APC there ATM). Yet when you look at the geography where could they use MBT and against who? Against Russia - it would take weeks to get there. Against Sweden - its neutral and the other side of mountains. That only leaves one country, Norway. I wonder if the Government there has thought this through?
not gonna happen without a major catalyst. major enough for the us/usd to no longer matter. we may be headed there, but we arent there yet. its in germany's interest not to rock the boat, and not just because we have their gold. Douche bank has the highest derivitives exposure of all the banks. a move in interest rates happening to far/too fast, and they are wiped out, insolvent, and so are millions of their people and businesses. the german economy collapses. ours might too, but that won't protect the german politicians and bankers from the pitchforks or lamp posts
for that to happen Merkel has to go, elections this fall?
No Gold for you!
The gloves come off... About time.
The cat is out of the bag.
But there's another bag, and another, and another. But only one cat, eh?
But can we tell if the cat is dead or alive without taking it out of the final bag?
"There is no bag"
The Matrix
You guys are great! So, how many bags will it take before the cat no longer bounces?
das ist gut....
freegold bitchez
Mockingbird.
Operation MOCKINGBIRD.
"The American tendency to verbal and then also military escalation, the isolation, demonization, and attacking of enemies has not proven effective. The last successful major military action the US conducted was the Normandy landing. Everything else – Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – was a clear failure."
WOW.
The entire thing is spot on dead to rights scathingly accurate.
Oh, they've all been very effective...
... at promoting unending divide and conquer opportunities.
DC has done been bitch-slapped!
In other news, I'm having a hard time cleanly sorting the Axis from the Allies.
Ask journalism how much it got for its soul. "The Public Be Suckered"
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1223928
Well, history certainly does not have to repeat itself, but, let's all be honest about one thing; There is not, nor will there ever be a political or monetary solution to resource scarcity.
hedge accordingly.
What Merkel would say if she really had a pair...
mb she is he now,strange times, but sure anyway no balls
we torture some folks
we spy on some folks
we bomb some folks
we detain some folks without trial
so what?
whiny bitchez
In addition....
we drone some folks.
we sanction some folks
we send inflation to some folks and destroy their currencies too
and the rest we call allies
Q: How many are allies?
A: Well, just 7 out of 200 plus. oops!
you have a gay president with trance woman as his wife.....
and he likes bananas!
It's nice to have mainstream media publishing more than banalities .
Even if it is motivated by the narrow interests of Vater Land .
Operation Valkyrie.
US is Hitler.
Sadly the USA has not Count von Stauffenbergs, Rommel's or other patriots.
http://www.dw.de/germany-remembers-officers-who-tried-to-kill-hitler/a-1...
Hitler was another usurper from another country.
Looks like stupid Deutsche Welle is still pushing the bad Russian and bad Putin line.
Stauffenberg and the rest were ineffectual but a necessary grouping for Germany to have a resistance movement it could make into a new regime symbol
RUH ROH!
He obviously doesn't understand Merikan "exceptionalism."
/sarc
Nothing says MOAR circulation & ad revenue! like cock slapping the competition in public...
The Tagesspiegel: “Enough talk!“ The FAZ: “Show strength“. The Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Now or never.“ The Spiegel calls for an “End to cowardice“: “Putin's web of lies, propaganda, and deception has been exposed. The wreckage of MH 17 is also the result of a crashed diplomacy.“
Herr von Handelsblatt sounds like the guys from Krupps Werks et al who back then said Hitler is good for business so we like Hitler. Russia has always cast a large shadow across the continent, there is ample reason to be cautious of Russia.
and Gerhard Schröder, who as Chancellor gave away to Russia western secrets and subsequently took a big, big payday from Russia - he has expensive tastes and an expensive wife - is one reason Germany gets an extra does of spying to its politicians: enough German political types want to be in bed with Russian money - no so different from the SEC types who want to go to work for a bank after they lightly regulate the banks. Handelsblatt is whining for some in-bed-with-Russia money.
The US wouldn't dare pull this crap in Europe if Schröder was in office. Merkel is easy bait.
Fuck Russia, and its cabal of one-eyed thieves.
our thieves appear blind, as they can't see the havock that they have wrought.
Itch
your bedazzled argument yields blinding insight
Shut up and get behind the guy that won the Nobel Peace Prize! /s
boogie down! (and learn to love it)
Who knows what zee Germans are really thinking. On one hand they don't want to piss off the USA. On the other they really, probably, almost certainly will act in their own best interests. They'll eventually figure it out and I'm guessing a continued long term cozy relationship with the U$D is not in their future....how to break up without hurting the other persons feelings too much???
This was the Dear John letter, if you hadn't noticed.
What makes you so sure we give a shit about the US of A?
Come on, go ahead and nuke the entire bloody world already.
We all know you're fingers are on the triggers and just itching to do it!
US is the biggest aggressor and worst ally anyone could ever imagine.
U.S. over the last 60 years has accumulated a track record comparable to the British over 250 years, but whereas at least the British brought railways to India and Africa and modern sewage systems to industrial cities, U.S. brings us...FaceBook and fiat currency?
Let's just call it the age of the Rothschilds. Names of the empires they control with their debt bondage don't matter.
When the wall came down the route to the east opened ?
If this isn't a "shot up their nose, not across it", I don't know what is.
I guess Handelsblatt didn't get the Pentagon/CIA memo; Chaos is the new global business model.
German Industry titans won't allow the country to blindly follow the West. The people of Germany will demand/vote for a pivot East once Germany is in full blown recession and Merkel is voted (or resigns early) out of office. This article is how the German elite have chosen to begin the public debate/transition to save their country from the collapse the US and it's elite globalists are preparred to put on Germany. They stole Germany's gold (held to randsome to be more clear) and are now blackmailing Merkel. This wont stand. Germany will save Europe by cementing the Eurasian axis very soon. There will be economic pain though this process but Europe's future is with the BRICS axis.
To FOster...... + 1000. You understand !
Eurasia is connected by land. Pipelines and overland trade routes, short shipping routes from Vladivostok / Shanghai / Mumbai to Hamburg and Rotterdam.
BRICS plus EU rules the world except North and maybe Central America. Even Canada is better off being a close BRICS partner.
Who needs the US and the USD anylonger? The overhead is too expensive!
i am an american, and i can only hope. i don't see that we do anything world wide except to bring suffering and death to other people to keep our corporations buying things cheap. i'm ashamed. the us is a spoiled, sociopathic brat that needs and needs and needs and never has enough and never gives thanks. it is a shame.
Oddly, Dr. Jim Willie just last week said his network and info sources say that Merkel will resign sooner than later.
It would be very interesting to find out who owns this newspaper.
There seems to be a concerted effort by TPTB to keep reiterating that, yes, this is indeed the 21st Century and we've moved on from the barbarism of the past, but more and more we seem to be replaying the 20th century from the beginning. Panic of 1907, WWI, Spanish flu 1918, Crash of 1929 to present 2008 financial meltdown, WW3 in the makings, Ebola pandemic in the works and for fuck sake we all know the world monetary system is a house of cards. The only difference may be our technology allows these events to occur on a truncated time table.
Well done Gabor!
Now could you take another MUCH harder job? Taming that dyke anchor"woman" Marie Labory from French/German TV channel Arte?
Every time that dyke speaks about Putin I feel like throwing up... She reminds me of Hitlary.
Gab could you drive to Strasbourg, kick "her" bitch whining ass and shut "her" up?
Pictures of this "woman" :
https://encrypted.google.com/#q=marie+labory
My fellow US herdgers you don't know how lucky you are not to have this lot polluting your TV screen...
she's a MAN, baby......
Androgyny! The very definition of it.
We got Rachel Maddow though,...so we are even....
You can take a German out of the Stazi ...but you can't take the Stazi out of the German!
But, but what about Ze Geld! Geldmein Schlecht gotisch ze Deutschland geld!
Guess they finally realized they're never going to see it.
When Hillary Clinton compares Putin with Hitler, she does so only to appeal to the Republican vote, i.e. people who do not own a passport. For many of them, Hitler is the only foreigner they know, which is why Adolf Putin is a very welcome fictitious campaign effigy. In this respect, Clinton and Obama have a realistic goal: to appeal to the people, to win elections, to win another Democratic presidency
Did that goddamn Kraut call the citizens of this great and glorious country a bunch of ignorant White Trash simply because they vote Republican ? What is this goddamn country coming to when we let some goddamn Kraut insult the hard working taxpayers of this great-n-glorious nation like that and get away with it? He must be one of them goddamn hippy loving peaceniks who never worked a goddamn day in his goddamn life and spends his entire day bitching about the greatest goddamn country in the goddamn world.
In my day, we would of sent a goddamn armada of B-17's over there and kick his commy liberal ass from here to Elba river. Goddamn Kraut hippies. Green of the outside and pink on the inside.
In my day, we would sent a goddamn armada of B-17's over there
and can't do anything to Vietnam... only chemical weapons save your ass...
Why do you call the Germans "Krauts" when you describe them as Watermelons?
All those Euro panzies are commie greens. Hell, they've had Obama care for decades over there now, THAT should tell you all ya need to know!
Sorry for the American "smart'n savvy". Your pensions are surely guaranteed, haha. When the imaginary USD train stops, the whole enchilada comes crashing down and you're all broke! Right now, it's suspended in mid air wth the "full faith and credit" of the world but that's going to change, sucker!
You are aware that the actual and proper name of what you call 'the imaginary USD train' is actually the "United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference"?
You know that right? That this was not done by the US alone? That it was in fact REQUESTED of the US since everyone else had expended their Gold in war?
This is an important point. Because once you understand that, you can understand that we're not talking only about the dollar. We're talking about the currencies of all the industrial nations because of what was resoved at that UN conference.
European central banks knew exactly what they were doing. It is the people of their nations that did not know.
And that fact gives a more accurate picture of what is financially going on.
It is not ONLY the US and US dollar that are bankrupt. It is all the currencies of the industrialized world that are bankrupt.
China simply wants to rename that international currency 'yuan' and change the management team to a chinese one.
Russia is positioning itself to let its strength in energy establish the value of the Ruble.
But if you think this is happening because of the Dollar, then you are confusing the tail with the dog.
This is happening because of the owners of the Federal Reserve, who include Deutsch Bank, and Societe Generale, amongst others.
If this were purely an American phenomenon you would be observing it much as the world observes the collapse of the Venuzuelan Bolivvar or the Argentinian Peso.
You can't escape it, or escape a share of culpability for it, because your banks too number amongst the owners of that system.
Those, I am sorry to say, are facts.
Rests his case. And he's got a real point.
>>>everyone else had expended their Gold in war
The state-owned gold was not exactly "expended", but transferred into other, more private, hands.
Privatization of wealth, coupled with the socialization of destruction/death. I think we have a winner here!
NotaRealmerican........you forgot the Sarc.
I think he missed the point that it is the Republicans - well all except the NEOCONS - who want isolationism.
Insulting the intelligence of your policy ally is not a good way to get what you want.
Most Europeans think of the Republicans as some crazy right-wing nutjob party, and that the Democrat party is a bastion of centrist moderation and reasonableness. Not sure why.
I met an Indian living in Sweden when I was over in Europe on holiday a few weeks ago who, when talking about politics, brought up the Red Team as an example and expressed condolences ("...and for example you guys over there have those crazy Republican right-wingers..." were his exact words).
Then again he did refer to the ultra-leftist children of leftist Uruguayan immigrants to Sweden as "good people" and that "they've done really good things for the country."
That's the power of propaganda from mass media for you. Republicans (People whom are pro traditions, smaller scale of government programs/beaurocracies, pro liberty like gun & small business & other rights) are demonized.
Then again, Eurpoeans depending on where they live are all prideful of the country they're from, and constantly compare themselves to their neighbors. Swedes for example think they're secret geniuses whom think they've cracked their code for cultural tolerance, welfare state, and overall enhanced citizenry.. Even though those exact beliefs/structures will do them in (destruction of culture/national identity, the money always runs out someday, and their people aren't as smart as Germans/Dutch or creative or well-mannered like certain other Europeans or have industries like Italy/England/Germany).
that's the point you two are missing. by defining Republicans as "People whom are pro traditions, smaller scale of government programs/beaurocracies, pro liberty like gun & small business & other rights" you are describing people who have conservative issues very similar to the European conservatives. with the exception of gun rights, which isn't an issue, here
this is not the "crazy" in the "those crazy Republicans", from a typical European view. the "crazy" part is in the acceptance of warmongering neocons
the "crazy" part is in: "let's bomb them", "let's invade them"... even without having a damn clue what the whole thing is about
"Demonizing Putin is not a policy. It is an alibi for the lack thereof."
And the rest. ZH has provided some good stuff here. The significance of the Handelsblatt piece, as always, is not in what was said but who said it and when...
I bet they were overcome with hope/change fever in 2008, crying tears of joy when O was elected.
There is actually also a new article in the FAZ, the conservative respectable outlet
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/konflikt-in-der-ostukraine-urlaub-unter-waffe...
which clearly identifies the Ukrainian hordes as faschists.
for those who can read German look also at the first comment "Das schwarze Korps"
On my daily Tour through Dresden I passed at least 100 posts demanding "Kein Krieg mit Russland", No war with Russia
Maybe we start a race with the Russians, who is the first to Kieve with his tank divisions to fire one hundred rounds at the war ministry.
Good to see Germans speaking up. Germany and Germans have been dragged into banskter-elites-overlords wars for centuries by evil scum profiting from war and murder.
Das schwarze Korps? Sounds like Obama and the Russian laser projection with the banana.
There is actually also a new article in the FAZ, the conservative respectable outlet
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/konflikt-in-der-ostukraine-urlaub-unter-waffe...
which clearly identifies the Ukrainian hordes as faschists.
for those who can read German look also at the first comment "Das schwarze Korps"
On my daily Tour through Dresden I passed at least 100 posts demanding "Kein Krieg mit Russland", No war with Russia
Maybe we start a race with the Russians, who is the first to Kieve with his tank divisions to fire one hundred rounds at the war ministry.
Ultimately the USA will have to accept that it is a nation among nations. Once the almighty dollar has been rejected (no entity still buys treasuries and helps us keep all those 40 billion $ each month that the USG spends (and has to borrow to get)) is gone, we will have to get along somehow. If we try to remain the image of our former powerful selves we will be viewed as a dangerous neighbor. If we compete, as we certainly can, and provide the world with things they want and need, I believe the USA can be great...even without the 'exorbitant privilege' of the reserve currency.
I thought Belgium was a decent customer?
U.S.A won't survive the coming demographic changes. By 2040 the country will be ~30% Mexican/Hispanic, and all the border states will be majority Mexican. The school system here in Texas is already 52% Hispanic, 13% black and only 29% white. This is a snapshot of the future.
If this comes to pass, and there is no reason to believe it won't, then after 2040 or so it's just a ticking time bomb until the country balkanizes itself into Spanish/English pieces. Financial and economic troubles will accelerate the decline.
There is no such thing as an ethnic American, and that's America's greatest weakness.
Balkanization is not the end of the world.
Decentralization would do this land (North America in the general sense) some good.
Sure, maybe it will...
I just wanted to point out that in as short a time as 25 years from now the unimagineable may happen and the name "United State of America" might be seen only in history textbooks from then on. I don't think it's a given, but I think the chance of that happening is much much greater than most people realize.
An ethnic identity tied to ownership of a piece of land, e.g. Germans living in the country called Germany, Vietnamese in Vietnam, etc. lends stability to a society, I think.
America has no such ethnic identity. It had a chance to make its own identity which I think would have been the white majority of the country but instead chose to go the multiculturalism route in the 1960s. One can see this in the way Americans (usually white) talk about themselves...it's not "I'm an American and this is our land", it's "well this land used to belong to the Indians, then my ancestors came over and we're all just immigrants passing through so what does it matter if we lose majority status because of some other ethnic group, they're just immigrants looking for jobs too and have just as much right to be here".
I've looked at enough (historical) maps to get used to the idea of maps changing, borders being redrawn, countries coming and going (in their current form).
we have mcdonalds, coke and lebron james. and thanksgiving. dude - you don't understand. america has no ethic identity. it doesn't need one. it has CONSUMPTION!! CONSUME AND JOIN! until recently, it was working.
/sarc
the country will be broken up - there is no reason for "United" only need the word State(s) - fifty states will become 20 or more Nations
no one wants to support this place -- not corporations, not people - none identify with the - whole - only "some" of the parts - it's very very sick wild animal that requires one solution
They shoot Horses dont they?
...or its strength if it so chooses!
I know it's off-topic; but I just wanted to list some data as to USA's rate of changing Demographics
Much worse, Zerozen. I personally don't mind if the demographic changes were by Natrualization/Legal Immigration; but too much of it is based on Illegal Immigration and Drug/Human Trafficking. People who have been upholding the Immigration Regs have been waiting for years with no Visa. Something is definitely wrong with USA Policies.
Here are some stats. Last time I checked The Gipper helped a swarm of people rush in from the Southern Border from the late 70's to the 90's in SoCal. Birthrates have tipped to a Hispanic Majority in serveral States already:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_Hispanic_and_Latino_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large_Hispanic_pop...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._communities_with_Hispanic_majo...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_communities_with_Hispani...
http://www.hacu.net/images/hacu/OPAI/2012_Virtual_Binder/2010%20census%2...
(note pg 16 - love the 43% increase Nationwide from 2000 to 2010 Census)
It's changing very rapidly; and not via Legal means I've concluded. Regrettably, the Reconquistas are flauting about my location in LA.
However, the .01% (not redundant - it really is one percent of the one percenters) Demographics won't change for awhile. It would be interesting to see if the Southwestern Reconquistas (I've several in my city - decorate their cars discreetly) actually kick off the Aztlan Nation Project; and secede from the Union (the Hispanics DO have the votes now, actually - especially if they split up California).
Me? I missed asking out a Beautiful Brazillian Dame at the Gym due to the Dot Com bust (a bit of an Old Fashioned Prude here. Can't afford a Wife and Children? Wait 'til you can). Had I stayed East in NYC (where IT/Finance does live on a bit) and met someone like that - I MIGHT have settled down in the USA and/or considered Brazil for a Vacation Spot (I like the Brazillian-Latino Jazz/Bahia much better than the Caribbean Reggae/Mix (when I was stationed there) and the Mexican Band Pieces (I hear my neighbors play out loudly)).
Instead I'm headed elsewhere. Since several White Supremacists/Christian Identity (Cross Burner) Types keep talking up about upcoming Race Wars(whenever they call in a Talk Radio Program and are allowed to talk a bit freely) and breaking off a piece of the Union, I wouldn't be surprised if CONUS splits up eventually. Heck, Texas, Hawaii, and Alaska have several Ballot Initiatives raised continuously, right? Should CA split in to 6 States (per one proposal), the Southern Portions have all the means to split off permanently. There you go.
Gave article a "5"
though don't see how annexation of Crimea "violated international law"
or deserves supposed equivalent comparison to the war crime US invasion of Iraq.
It certainly did not violate the spirit of peaceful resolution of differences.
The elected government of Ukraine was overthrown
and replaced by a coup government regionalized around Kiev and hostile to
other regions which had supported the former elected government.
The Crimea region voted to reject the coup authorities and secede from Ukraine.
Crimea then voted to be annexed by Russia, and thereafter Russia agreed.
Contrast with the Kiev government treatment of non-annexed E. Ukraine.
I think the 'international Law' part had to do with the fact that there were Russian Army troops in the streets at the time of the referendum.
The problem with doing a referendum that way is that those opposed would be likely to stay home rather than face the Army. Normal people would be intimidated whether the Army were actively repressing dissent or not.
Guns in hand do that.
I am pretty sure that the Tartars, at least, would be pretty strongly against the annexation.
So where are we? We can look at the demographics and say that PROBABLY it was genuine... But with the Army in the street during the 'referendum' it looks a lot like a big show, and not a real election. So what do we do?
I, for one, think the West needs to simply concede the Crimean point, and then support some sort of mediation between Russia nd Ukraine with regard to the eastern oblasts.
But the word "Reasonable" hasn't thus far been applicable to any area of the Democratic Progressives currently in charge of the US Democratic party. And the Progressive Republicans a.k.a. 'NeoCons' in charge of the US Republican party are no better.
So, since most of us don't want to die in nuclear fire, it is probably best to pursue some other method to resolve the situation.
You are being a ridiculous stickler for pointless formality.
The election was fairly held under acceptable conditions.
Do you really think were the vote redone that the outcome would be
any different than overwhelming support to remain with Russia
rather than be turned over to the tender and forgiving authorities in Kiev,
the IMF, and NATO?
Is your only point that you think the vote should be repeated (with the same outcome certain)? Would there then be no objections?
If one is not concealing an objection to the outcome of the vote, Crimea choosing to be with Russia, then the objection of proper form not being followed does seem an overblown pretext for all the Russophobia, sanctions, threats, and NATO build-up.
If Crimea had successfully battled it out with Kiev, and then seceded, would that have been more "legally" acceptable? Is the "law" biased toward military resolution of secessionist conflict?
Texas followed a similar, though more violent path to independence and annexation. Is the US now under legal obligation to return Texas to Mexico? Or should the US be sanctioned until the vote is properly redone?
It is hard to respond to your 'response' when it has no resemblance to what I said.
I said that having an foreign Army in the streets when voting whether to submit to that Army automatically invalidates a vote, because it is a vote under duress. Other details of how the election was performed won't change that.
What I recommended was to concede that Crimea is part of Russia, and then mediate the situation for the rest of East Ukraine.
What you may not appreciate is that the world's idea of 'acceptable' behavior depends on precedents.
If East Ukraine ALSO goes to Russia through military conquest FIRST, then every country with a strong neighbor will live in fear. And I might add, that every country who believes itself strong, or wishes to be respected, will resort sooner or later to military annexation.
Alliances to counterbalance all the strong neighbors will follow. And that leads to a repeat of WWI - only with modern technology.
You can't look at the Ukraine in isolation.
Making Ukraine's internal confilcts into an international military confilct was the first grave geopolitical error. It is understandable why Putin did it given how eager the US is to get into bed with anyone who will play with them.
He was thinking about US humiliation, and about Russian prestige.
But being understandable is different than being a good idea.
You have to be able to look at this with eyes other than your own.
There is a degree of ethnic and cultural balkanization everywhere in Europe. Many stong neighbors just looked at many parts of Europe where the population is ethnically the same as their own, but due to history, is under a different government and said to themselves, "If Putin can, then why not us?"
And many tiny nations, who have been invaded by their stronger neighbors again and again just looked at each other and said, "Who do we need to ally with to weaken country (X)".
If you imagine that there exists a 'pure-hearted' people who 'only want peace' on planet earth, then you are too naive to be considered an adult.
Individuals are good and pure-hearted. Mobs (collectives) always seek the lowest common denominator. The collectives we call 'nations' are no exception.
That foreign army in Crimea has been there since the 1700s. Crimea has historically been Russian-populated, Russian-speaking and with a Russian military presence for quite a long time. And as I'm sure you know, the only reason Crimea was part of Ukraine was because of internal border-jiggling in the USSR in the 1950s. It's a piece of Russia that got stuck on the wrong side of the border after 1991.
What would you have them do? Vacate their military bases and posts and go to Russia proper for the duration of the vote, then return afterwards? Why should they? I don't think it have made a difference to the vote anyway - a majority was clearly in favor of leaving Ukraine.
I am well aware how long it was there.
It was sent by TZarina Catherine.
There is a difference between being on base and being in the street with loaded weapons.
Every nation world wide saw the difference.
Now everyone with a territorial dispute knows exactly how to solve it.
And that is not a good thing.
GC, Ukraine had just had it government overthrown, and the new gov't decided they wanted to keep Russia's downpayment, AND take Sevastopol back.
That was the circumstance under which Russia MAINTAINED control of Sevastopol/Crimea.
Crimea is the land you come to if you sail down the Don River. And Russians have been doing that as long as they have lived on the Don!
The US have certainly learnt the lesson, look at the size and equipment fielded by Homeland Security and how local law enforcment now resembles the Army, with its SWAT teams etc.
The US sheeple WILL stay in line.
I think we disagree as to facts about the voting conditions.
1) Neither Russian troops nor Kiev supporters intimidated voters at the booths, and voters were not intimidated as you claim.
2) The percentage voting was high, and overwhelmingly pro independence and annexation. (I expect it would be even higher and more pro today).
Even if true, having some familiar and not-so-foreign Russian troops near booths does not have the same descriptive meaning for annexation as does the suggestive phrasing of annexation by "military conquest" of a "foreign army".
(Emotionalist phrasing you obliquely and misleadingly claim describes the annexation of Crimea, "If East Ukraine ALSO goes to Russia through military conquest FIRST".
and "foreign army in the streets".)
"The election was fairly held under acceptable conditions"
but it wasn't an election, it was a referendum. and they tend to be - when misused - a question posed only once, and never again
remember that the referendum is the heaviest hammer in democracy's toolkit
annexation is, per definition, against the commonly agreed rules among sovereigns, aka "international law"
so, if Russia had just recognized Crimea as independent, and then given them "commonwealth status" like Puerto Rico -- would that have been legal enough?
still no?
How about if a violent coup in Crimea declared itself the legitimate government for all Ukraine,
Russia quickly recognized it, and then helped it conduct a military offensive to crush
the Kiev terrorist separatists ---
that seems to meet the "international law" standards you argue to defend
it is a bit more complicated than that, starting with the fact that "international law" is a misnomer that leads to many false conclusions
Crimea's status is now similar to that of Northern Cyprus. Recognized by only one country, in that case Turkey
"international law" is all about those recognitions. Russia's "naughtiness" is in the fact that it signed many treaties recognizing Ukraine's sovereignty, inviolability of borders, independence of politics, inviolability of borders and... grabbed a separatist piece of it while heavily helping other separatists
"international law" is not about laws above the sovereigns. it's about the laws (aka treaties) they make among themselves
Treaties and accords the US/NATO violate repeatedly and much more egregiously and violently,
including in this instance regarding Ukraine, something you seem to dismiss as irrelevant.
Your response of "treaty complications" and inviolable (except by US-NATO) international agreements is one-sided obsfucation.
Some cases require proportionality of fault and action, degree of injury, intent to harm, to be considered.
The German soul, which we generally claim to be on the romantic side, showed its cruel side.
when you read sentences like this...run.
Substitute RUSSIA whereever Handelsblatt writes German economic interests and you will have a better screed
So what the fuck took the Germans this long to get here?....
Wait a minute perhaps that was a bit hasty when you have two psychopath Nation(s) in your Country. One that eavesdrops on all of your voice and data communications and when the idle coercions and blackmail doesn't work?... has military bases with nuclear weapons on them and a partner-in-crime (that wears a beanie that extorts 700 million Euros from your taxpayers every year for 70 years) and threatens to use them against you if you "don't obey"!
With allies like that, who the fuck would consider Russia an enemy?!!!
+++1000
"The American tendency to verbal and then also military escalation, the isolation, demonization, and attacking of enemies has not proven effective."
Well. He is certainly right there.
Though, he may not be giving enough credence to the idea that the lust for larceny is a universal in the human soul, politicians no less than others.
Certainly the Obama administration uses a different ruler when measuring its own deeds, than when measuring others'. And while Putin has absolutely been provocative in Ukraine, he has absolutely not been as provocative as the Ukrainians themselves with the tacit and sometimes explicit permission of the Obama administration.
And given Steingart's background in financial reporting he is likely very aware of the socialist progressive disaster that is the Federal Reserve. However, he may or may not understand that that Federal Reserve is Socialist-Fascist in nature rather than Capitalist.
The main problem for Germany is that given its energy weakness and geographic proximity, it cannot really ally itself with Russia without becoming Russia's client and pawn to a degree that is absolutely not the case with the US.
If Russia were storing Germany's gold, no one would dare demand to repatriate it for fear of seeing tanks, like Czechoslavakia and Poland did.
Germany's energy 'eggs' already lie in the Russian basket. If they put their political eggs there too, then there will be no German sovereignty, as the sovereignty will now lie with the basket rather than the notional 'owner'.
...find it hard to imagine how Germany could become even more of a bitch than it currently is for the U.S....
Another couple of very good points, indeed.
Western media and politicians, and German media and politicians in particular, have been playing on the deep-seated German guilt over Hitler and how Germany could have let him happen.
You know - Putin is Hitler - we Germans must stop him this time. We must atone for our sins of the past.
But this is a cheap and sleazey substitute for intellect, one offered by the likes of the CIA, Obola, and German apologists.
I applaud the author and hope as well that it speeds German independence from the U.S. This is long overdue.
They have to hedge their bets with the communists to their east and in their midst
LET Germany get in Bed with Putin. Drop the Ukraine b.s. the U.S. started. We don't need them. Its only our Energy Corporations wanting control of the gas pipelines anyway that caused this...To hell with the E.U. they are a sunk boat anyway. Better to focus on getting Middle East and China under control. The best way to defeat Putin is hand him bankrupt Europe. Might miss the Beemers but nothing else.
LOL Neither the Middle East nor China want anything to do with the US.
And you've lost control in Africa despite a black President!
Tell you what. You go get 'em nostoma17. Enlist, strap on a helmet, pick up a gun, and go get 'em. And while you're at it, you can spend your money too. but do not fucking ask me to help you, or to die for your insanity. And don't aks me to spend my money either. Nice try.
The only thing holding this rattle-trap world together at all right now (other than God Himself) is the fact that groups of nations have come to realize their interdependence. It would be sweet if whoever it is that is stirring up all the (non-muslim) trouble would just cease and decist. We on the end of the spectrum who hold no power other than a single voice and a single vote are stuck with the screwed up politcal menacing going on all around us. No one wants revolution. The end result is not guaranteed - you could wind up worse off than before (pick a number) of people died. So we keep on bitching and stuff just keeps on happening. Answer?
Joe....+1000 to you !
What German Soul?
what a bunch of nonsense, this 'dissident' german bullshit didn't mention the financial crisis in europe, currency warfare, oil wars, natural gas.
this is a critique of 'diplomacy'. the german's are staunchly under the control of their own german corporatist masters. many of them the grandchildren of german industrialists that were happy to work with hitler.
these are hard-core power brokers and powerful people. they care not for their own peasants. it is the same virtually everywhere. this dissident critique will be taken seriously only by those already critical of the elite directed mainstream policy. --that is the majority of peasants and possibly the majority of people. but that makes NO difference. the world war never ruled by the 'majority' and democracy can never change that.
Since pre-history there have always been a couple of guys in the village who end up owing most of the goats.
it also didn't talk about beer and sausages, the price of a kino ticket, merkel's new hairdo. what's your point?
"these are hard-core power brokers and powerful people. they care not for their own peasants. "
Granted. But they also have to deal with a restless public, which could spell danger or opportunity for them. And like any sub-capo they dream of throwing off their boss and taking over their own neighborhood.
"this 'dissident' german bullshit didn't mention..."
did you note how much he did mention in this extremely long article?
"they care not for their own peasants"
are you still talking about Germany?
All the E.U. ever wanted was to become the United States of Europe and move into number one positon (a perhaps misguided goal)...cut em loose and let them keep trying.
and who told you all what we ever wanted to become? your interest is highly superficial, just admit it