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.

And theme two:
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."

The context required here for these ambiguous messages lies, I believe, with statements made over the last year by German Interior Minister, Herr de Maziere, and more recently by the German Defense Minsiter, Ursula von der Leyen. In de Maziere's case, you'll recall that he, a firm "Atlanticist" and pro-West/NATO backer, gave stern warnings to the USA about its spying within Germany. More recently, von der Leyen stated - doubtless with her tongue firmly implanted in her cheek - that the German Luftwaffe had only a few operational aircraft, the Marine only a ridiculously small amount of u-boats, and the army would not be capable of meeting any NATO emergencies, like (and these were her words) a war in the Baltic states.
All of this suggested to me then, and Frau Merkel's refusal to sanction NATO bases in Eastern Europe, even under pressure from the Ukrainian situation suggest to me even more strongly now, that Germany is in the catbird seat right now in NATO, and knows it. But Frau Merkel and her government also know something else, and they know this in spite of what they may be saying publicly: the USA is ultimately responsible for the mess in the Ukraine,  as it, and not Mr. Putin's Russia. was the driving force backing the Fascist coup in Kiev. She also well knows that German bases, even under the cover of NATO, in Eastern Europe would open up old wounds.
So what's the speculation of the day? I suspect Germany will mouth obedience to Washington's dictats, and even offer up tokens of "going along", but these will not amount to much. Germany will be content to let the USA continue to mangle its reputation and standing in the world, and within the NATO alliance, and in the long term, that will only enhance Germany's position within the alliance. When that day comes, expect that talk of a permanent seat with veto on the UN Security Council to be revived (with some help and similar insistence from Japan).
See you on the flip side...

(Thanks to Mr. K.L. for sharing this article)

 

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Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

12 Comments

  1. DanaThomas on December 1, 2014 at 7:42 am

    German “whistleblower” Ulfkotte speaks (Video in English)
    http://youtu.be/mU1JwSpIpzA



  2. Frankie Calcutta on November 30, 2014 at 12:36 pm

    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.



    • Frankie Calcutta on November 30, 2014 at 12:38 pm

      my choice for theme music for escaping Ukranian oligarchs:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9nr27rOrL0



      • Lost on November 30, 2014 at 1:19 pm

        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.



        • Frankie Calcutta on November 30, 2014 at 3:12 pm

          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.



          • Lost on November 30, 2014 at 4:08 pm

            F:

            Ah, well, do all these Nazi loving oligarchs in Ukraine have ties to Israel? Do you have examples?



      • Frankie Calcutta on November 30, 2014 at 6:28 pm

        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.”



        • Frankie Calcutta on November 30, 2014 at 6:51 pm

          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?



          • Lost on November 30, 2014 at 7:36 pm

            Not a winning argument.

            Given what Russia remembers a grand alliance with Germany would be out.



        • jedi on December 1, 2014 at 6:15 am

          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.



  3. DownunderET on November 28, 2014 at 1:00 pm

    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.



  4. marcos toledo on November 28, 2014 at 11:15 am

    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.



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