IS GERMANY NOW THE KEY TO THE NATO ALLIANCE?
There's some rumbling in NATO, and it's coming, predictably, from Germany, or to be much more accurate, from everyone else in NATO looking at Germany:
Is NATO Back? That Depends on Germany
There's two key themes here; theme one:
But there’s one more crucial change for NATO: For the first time, Germany, more than the U.S., may hold the key to NATO’s effectiveness.
With the largest population and economy in Europe, Germany has the heft to drive the alliance’s security agenda. NATO’s European members stretch from Iceland to Romania, and the U.S. has shouldered the bulk of security responsibilities since NATO’s 1949 founding. But amid budget cuts at home and an increasingly isolationist public, the U.S. is winding down its European footprint. The only other NATO country with the military size, industrial might and economic wherewithal to fill the gap is Germany.
Indeed, when reports surfaced Aug. 22 of Russians firing artillery at Ukrainian forces, the foreign leader President Barack Obama called first was German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It comes amid growing pressure from the U.S. for its European allies to increase defense spending. NATO has set a threshold for country defense budgets at 2 percent of GDP, but few achieve it. Spending on Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, has gone from 1.4 percent down to 1.3 percent of its GDP in recent years, according to World Bank data...."Speaking in Riga, the Latvian capital, on Aug. 18, Merkel acknowledged that Europe needs to recalibrate its security strategy given Russia’s unexpected aggression. She sought to reassure the Baltics that Germany would come to the defense of its NATO allies. She also acknowledged that preparations for such a scenario “must be stronger than we thought necessary a few years ago.”
"Among other things, the Germans are now contributing to stepped-up air policing flights over the Baltics. Benitez says Merkel’s remarks in Riga also indicate Germany is likely to support plans for a new “alliance assurance force,” one of the top initiatives expected from next week’s summit. According to Defense News, the “force would be maintained at a high state of readiness” across the continent “and intended for rapid deployment before a conflict erupts.”
"But Merkel did not say what Latvian leaders wanted to hear most — that she supported NATO stationing troops permanently on its turf."
(Thanks to Mr. K.L. for sharing this article)
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German “whistleblower” Ulfkotte speaks (Video in English)
http://youtu.be/mU1JwSpIpzA
It seems like if the Germans wanted to get the ball rolling, they could secretly facilitate making transparent the real perpetrators of the second malaysian airlines disaster. This would create quite an uproar in Europe. I imagine the Ukranian oligarchs would have to make a quick escape to Israel when this mob gets fired up in the Ukraine and elsewhere.
my choice for theme music for escaping Ukranian oligarchs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9nr27rOrL0
But Frankie there are plenty of Ukrainian oligarchs on the Russian side, and many with no particular ties to Israel despite the cliched insistence by you.
The real great friend of Israel here is Germany.
Lost,
I’m sure all the Russian loving oligarchs in the Ukraine have fled or have been executed. I’m talking about the nazi loving oligarchs who currently run the show in the Ukraine and have ties to Israel.
F:
Ah, well, do all these Nazi loving oligarchs in Ukraine have ties to Israel? Do you have examples?
Israel Shamir, a Russian-Israeli Jewish writer said recently:
“The oligarchs who financed the Maidan operation divided the spoils: the most generous supporter, multi-billionaire Igor “Benya” Kolomoysky, received the great Russian-speaking city of Dnepropetrovsk in fief. He was not required to give up his Israeli passport.
His brethren oligarchs took other Russian-speaking industrial cities, including Kharkov and Donetsk, the Ukrainian Chicago or Liverpool. Kolomoysky is not just an ‘oligarch of Jewish origin’: he is an active member of the Jewish community, a supporter of Israel and a donor of many synagogues, one of them the biggest in Europe. He had no problem supporting the neo-Nazis, even those whose entry to the US had been banned because of their declared antisemitism.”
Lost,
I detect a certain amount of anxiety in you when it comes to this topic of disintegrating NATO. Is it your fear that the bankster empire will crumble if Germany and France leave their reservation and join an alliance that stretches from western Europe to Japan? Don’t you have any confidence that the United States with its advanced weaponry, its Black Friday/Ferguson mobs, its capable politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton, its poisoned food secret weapon, its money printing power and financial clearing supremacy can keep these renegade nations in check? What about the other nations that can be called upon to enforce banksterism like England, Poland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel? Surely these military powers can be relied on in a pinch (or can they?) And lets not forget the banskter’s ISIS army. You must have confidence in their buga buga fighting capabilities?
Quite frankly I don’t know what you are all nervous about. Has the declining abortion rate in the United States suddenly made you all fearful that your grip on power may be declining as well?
Not a winning argument.
Given what Russia remembers a grand alliance with Germany would be out.
Well said Frankie, they do encourage the children of there enemy to kill the parents. It is the way the system works. Look at America…..or have a gander at Cambodia.
Reap reap reap the false prophets…profits.
What Frau Merkel says in public should be taken with a grain of salt. She knows fully well who is the aggressor here, and all the MSM yawn stuff should be ignored. Russia has shown it’s political objective of trade and good will to as many who will listen, those who don’t listen are the politicians who frankly, LIKE WAR. It’s not a second cold war as such, probably best described as a brick going through a plate glass window, by the US political wombats. After January, the republithugs get control of the Senate, and that’s a worry. It will be interesting to watch Frau Merkel’ reaction when John McNumbskul shoots the first salvo against Russia, she will have a tuff job skirting around the BS, I just hope she’s up to it.
Given this website anti-Russian bias one wonders if anything said by this article should be believed. Given that is it overdue that NATO like the Warsaw Pack be terminated. As I wrote yesterday should the EU also be dropped and a more viable version of the Holy Roman Empire along the line of the Federation of Star Trek be considered instead. And burying the hatchet of strife with Russia be part of this reboot.