Translated by Dagmar and subtitled by Leo.
Original German description in English: Trump had “threatened” for a long time and now actually wants to withdraw 10,000 US soldiers from Germany. German armaments spending is too low, the US president rumbles, the United States is no longer willing to “provide our security”. The German defense minister, Kramp-Karrenbauer, pleads guilty that it would be a lot of effort to upgrade. Unfortunately, that’s really true: it increased the military budget in 2019 by a whopping ten percent to just under 50 billion euros compared to the previous year. And despite Corona, not a single project was canceled, on the contrary: even in the current economic stimulus package, hardly noticed by the public, an additional 10 billion euros were hidden for armament. No other country in the top 15 in the world has seen such a sharp increase in arms spending. To be dictated by Trump, to waste more and more money on tanks and war equipment, what a fatal mistake! A sovereign German government would respond to Trump: Hey, Mr. President, great idea of this deduction, but please don’t just bring 10,000 soldiers home, but the whole contingent right away. And above all: take the US nuclear weapons with you, we don’t need them here at all! However, the deduction should really be a deduction, and not a move to Poland and thus even closer to the Russian border, as Trump apparently plans to do. So instead of letting the US and NATO drive expensive armaments projects such as the procurement of nuclear weapons-capable US fighters, the German federal government should have the backbone to defend our sovereignty and stand up to Trump. Why it is absurd to expect our security from a country that is the most aggressive military power in the world and demonstrates every day that it does not care about European and German interests? I will talk about this in the video.
Hear, hear! Well said, like so many of Sahra’s speeches before this one. We need more politicians like her.
When I saw the picture of Wagenknecht on the saker’s blogI was astonished.
Good that you post her thoughts but for non-German readers, please do not think that this voice of reason is anywhere close to majority.
Mr. Gunther, what would your average German say to her proposal?
My guess the average German would like to get American nukes and troops out of the country.
I do not really see a scenario where for Germany an expensive army is needded to defend borders.
By various means German politics and press is in the american pocket, those act on the US interests.
When Wagenknecht says “A souvereign German Government” she may imply that the current government does not act in the intetests of the people or that Germany is not fully sovereign.
That topic is like the elephant in the room that nobody wants to see.
I am disappointed to see you say that, Gunther – after all, what single thing that she said cannot be verified as fact?
When Wagenknecht is asking for a souvereign foreign Policy in Germany I agree to the Demand.
The real question is whether Germany is souvereign.
Germany is technicaly still at war with the allies of WW2, there is no peace treaty.
The 2 plus four treaty to unify West and East is considered an equivalent to a peace treaty.
Then in the early twothausands minister of finance Schaeuble stated that Since 1945 Germany has never been fully souvereign. Moreover, a retired spook revealed that every German chancellor had to sign the “Kanzlerakte” a file that states that the chancellor has to take orders from the US.
Wagenknecht should know that background.
The wording in German translates into ” make sovreign policy” and is ambigous in this sense.
Otherwise I am somewhat pessimistic when I look at the current discussion in Germany.
Politicians and official media talk party line and dissenters are labeled conspiracy theorists, nazis and whatnot. Arguments against the official view are not considered.
That is why I am pessimistic about the average Germans view of this topic.
Gunther – thanks for this comment – “Since 1945 Germany has never been fully souvereign. Moreover, a retired spook revealed that every German chancellor had to sign the “Kanzlerakte” a file that states that the chancellor has to take orders from the US.”
This is key to the whole issue of the US trying to split Germany from Russia – and Russia Today retaliating with some topics that are subtly designed to enlighten and split Germany from the USA
Sadly my own experiences with Germans is that the majority are so totally brainwashed by the ‘superb’ work of the CIA from their Berlin office, that Sahra Wagenknecht is even regarded as an extreme right winger, a supporter of the NeoNazis….as an extreme danger as she advocates a closer relationship to Russia. I guess the reasoning behind this is that many feel Mutti Merkel is giving Germans a comfort-zone that they are frightened of departing from…even German friends who regard themselves as extreme left-wingers, who participated in the riots of Rudi Dutschke and Daniel Cohn-Bendit have turned into Stepford Men who blindly follow Merkel – even though if one studies Geopolitics a little deeper, the pressure on the Chancellery from the US Deep State is obvious…but Guenters comment adds the proof…
The document that Adenauer and Erhardt signed was for 99 years so the USA is not moving out anytime soon…
Fearless and logical. A breath of fresh air. Sahra Wagenkneckt.
What are the chances that Germans will listen and act in their own self-interests?
The only thing more stupid than the Germans are the Poles who are begging to replace Germany and to become Земля Зеро (Ground Zero).
Well, let’s see if economics, energy, safety and common sense break the shackles of colonialism and the Germans free themselves from US domination. Nord Stream 2 is the perfect issue to begin the revolt.
I don’t think the Poles have ever forgiven Muscovy for becoming the epicenter of Slavic culture after the fall of Kievan Rus.
I recall she got demonized as ‘racist’ by her own party (Die Linke) because she alerted that Merkel’s unrestricted immigration of unskilled refugees was based on a strategy to reduce labour costs and destroy the unions. She was absolutely right.
Her husband is Oskar Lafontaine.
Extraordinary..!
Thanks for share..!
An informed and intelligent commentary from an informed and intelligent politician. From what I understand, she does not have the following she needs to affect any real change, unfortunately.
Wagenknecht is an important figure in the German party “Die Linke” (The Left). That party consistently scores about 10% of votes in the German national elections, and holds a corresponding amount of seats in parliament.
They never got a chance to govern though, because the other slightly left-leaning parties such as SPD and Grüne refuse to form a coalition with them.
This is the type of politician we need right here in the United States.
And we need people like her by the hundreds.
More like tens of thousands
Excellent! I hope this is the beginning of the Real Meaningful Woke on the current state of the world.
Our thanks to Dagmar for the translation and Leo for the subtitles.
Excellent.
The translation is generally OK but anyone listening to the German version will be amazed at the many more rational details she brings forth…she punches the US right there where it hurts…
Frau Wagenknecht are miles apart politically; however, she is absolutely right on this issue. An excellent video!
But why does Germany and EU need protection and who from ?
Russia is a different place – it is not the Cold War USSR period now.
Russia is not exporting communism and just wants to get on with quasi capitalist development as seem in many countries.
Are they expecting a surprise attack from China etc… ?
Those US troops were there to stop another Nazi Govt coming to power – now Furher Merkel wants to replicate the 1920s+.
Or is it aimed at EU countries ? I wonder.
The German health law was changed to give the health minister dictatorial powers. This change has big similarities to the law called “Ermaechtigungsgesetz” that gave dictatorial powers to Hitler.
There is quite a lot of protest going on against that since Mid-April.
The BLM protests happened but did not stop the protests against the virus related measures that take away civil liberties.
For Monday the list of cities with various protests is more then three screens on the phone long.
Yes agree. Lot more happening than meets the eye.
I wonder if an alien or naturally occurring toxic virus has got loose or has formed ?
Something is going on that we are not being told the truth about.
These sorts of powers always prelude either financial collapses or major wars.
In Germany’s case Deutsche Bank is insolvent. Others too possibly around EU & US.
Perhaps these protestors are the new Storm Troopers ?
Excellent commentary from Sahra Wagenknecht. See also:
It’s not about Trump: Berlin says relations with US are so bad even Democrats back in White House cannot fix them
https://www.rt.com/news/493189-germany-relations-us-bad-trump/
“Anyone, who believes that the transatlantic partnership will once again be what it once was with a Democratic president, underestimates the structural changes,” the minister told German news agency dpa, hinting that relations between the two allies will never be the same even without President Donald Trump at the helm in Washington.
Relations between the two NATO allies have indeed soured under Trump’s presidency to the point that the German media started referring to Berlin as the “favorite adversary” of the American leader.
A 25 percent steel tariff and a 10 percent aluminum tariff Trump imposed on the EU which severely affected Germany’s car industry did not make relations between the two any better either. Neither did Washington’s threats to slap imported cars with tariffs, which German Chancellor Angela Merkel called “a real threat to the prosperity of many in the world.” She also warned that Europe should be ready for a reality without the US as a world power.”
&
US sanctions move for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline spells end of Transatlantic bond – German ex-Chancellor Schroeder
https://www.rt.com/news/493438-schroeder-end-transatlantic-partnership/
” Aside from being an affront to EU sovereignty and an imminent threat to European jobs, the sweeping US sanctions targeting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline mark the end of the Transatlantic partnership, Gerhard Schroeder has said.
A sanctions bill currently being debated in the US Congress is “a widespread, unjustified attack on the European economy and unacceptable interference with EU sovereignty and energy security in Western Europe,” former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder argued in a position paper drafted ahead of parliamentary hearings on the matter.
The penalties – which affect “over 120 shipbuildng, engineering, environmental and security companies that work or have worked with Nord Stream 2” – mark the “definite termination of the Transatlantic partnership,” the retired chancellor’s statement said, as cited by the German business daily Handelsblatt.
At the hearing, there was no shortage of speakers bashing the US for meddling in German and European affairs. “The issue here isn’t about the German-American affairs, as it’s often seen, it is about European sovereignty,” stated Niels Annen, minister of state at the Foreign Office.
That aside, the sanctions move “affects our foreign policy capacities [as] the inconsistent sanctions damage the joint policy towards Russia,” the diplomat warned.”
As one can see, even the tame germans are being forced to “make arrangements” to counter hostile neocon trump/likud policies which continue to worsen relations between germany and the usa. So Sahra Wagenknecht and her views expressed really are not as isolated as some here would like people to think.
NATO is the armed wing of the dying, decomposing West. Like any reputable provider of ”Benign Protection” it becomes steadily more inclined towards deception and coercion when dealing with its clients as things start to turn nasty. For the more deluded among the Euro-trash, it was no problem whatsoever that NATO didn’t dissolve itself 30 years ago, neither that it started meddling in Yugoslavia and colluded with the Albanian mafia, not even the depleted uranium that NATO dropped over Serbia opened their eyes.
Now, 20 years after the destruction of Yugoslavia the Euro-trash has gotten cold feet. The ultimate betrayal came when, ”despite” NATO, the EU opened the borders to the refugee torrents deliberately created by imperialist wars (similar to the war on Yugoslavia). Remains to be seen how the honorary Euro-trash — Poles, Ukrainians, Balts — reacts when their Western patrons reward them with a boost of non-European immigrants and all the LGBTQ propaganda.
What a joy to wake up in the morning and see Sahra Wagenknecht on the Saker blog!!
I’d like to thank the Saker for sharing the speech by the formidable Dr Sarah. She has been a ray of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy and stodgy German political scene. She is proof that different politics is possible. Since she is Jewish, there is hope that she will not be “Corbynated”. I am not sure that such an increase in spending is Trump’s doing. Various Krupps and Thyssens have been rejoicing at German re-arming for almost two centuries and she might not be able to point this out in order not to appear “unpatriotic”.
I have never read that Sahra Wagenknecht is Jewish.
Her father was Iranian. Possibly he was an Iranian Jew, but—I haven’t read this about her.
I am pretty sure that if she were Jewish or half Jewish, this would be well known in Germany.
“Sahra Wagenknecht ist die Tochter eines iranischen Vaters und einer deutschen Mutter.
Whatever her ethnic background, she is “eine tolle Frau,” very courageous, and ueber-articulate.
I do not think for an instant that she would shy away from calling out German industrialists, if she thought it an important point to make. I don’t know whether any American armaments companies work directly with any German manufacturers, but somehow I doubt it.
Part of the NATO armaments game is to “integrate” all military systems, and that means all military systems must be coordinated, use the same ammo, have the same spare parts supply chain, use the same standards, computers etc must all be linked, etc. It must all be American and controlled by American military and intelligence, etc.
Let’s just call it military Gleichschaltung, because that is what it is. If Germany continually signs on to more and more military presence and materiel on its territory, it becomes more and more entangled in the USA’s eff-ed-up “geopolitics.” Meanwhile, any money it might actually want to spend on its own defense has been gobbled up by the American Military Cookie Monster. Not to mention much better things that could be done with all that money.
Allowing continued militarization of German via the Americans is a gigantic trap in more than one way.
It is, actually, Gleichschaltung—a word all Germans understand. Gleichschaltung of all military, intelligence, and increasingly, economic activity in the interests of the hegemon. Turning Germany more and more into a colony. NATO is like the East India Company: a criminal colonial enterprise backed by the state and its military power.
But “Gleichschaltung” might be too incendiary a word for Wagenknecht to say out loud . . .
You would hear neckbones cracking from whiplash in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich if she did!
But it might, actually, be just the thing to get her countrypeople’s attention and call the alarm.
Katherine
Lol.
You are of course right. She is not Jewish. IIRC she had said that she is an Atheist.
You are right. Thank you for straightening this and I hope your thinking reflects a broader sentiment in Germany.
How refreshing. At least one politician talks sense.
Sahra Wagenknecht never was a friend of the US anyway-better bear that in mind when evaluating her comment.
There is a question that no one seems to ever ask, what exactly does Germany do for America? This lady fails to mention the leases and rents paid for housing and bases. The impact the presence of American troops has on local economies. This is just more one sided opinion. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in. No one wants the whole truth. Only the truth that benefits their cause. All people will seek to do what is right in their own eyes. Trouble is we all have different eyes.
It is absurd to expect security from a country that is by far the most aggressive military power, which it has demonstrated to the world daily since 1945, just as it demonstrates daily that it doesn’t give a damn about European or German interests. A march of 30 states against the East, what a superfluous threatening gesture, what a devastating contribution to environmental disaster and waste of resources. NATO and the USA spend over a trillion dollars a year on armaments and this warlike nonsense. NATO has never had a raison d’être, it was created under false premises: Neither the Soviet Union nor Russia was ever a threat, as Ismay Hastings openly admitted, NATO exists, “to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, the Germans down”. The sooner US soldiers and their nuclear weapons leave foreign countries, the better for the whole world and future generations.
Perhaps you could tell us just how much the US actually pays to occupy parts of Germany. Also, are you seriously suggesting that Germany needs US monopoly money to make ends meet?
Well, instead of asking Trump to take all he troops home, why doesnt Germany demand it ? Oh wait, I know why. The German politicians would all be dead of ” suicide ” the next day. Germany needs to shut up and realize that they are a conquered people.
What Sahra points out, many Americans also express….the senselessness of being in Europe to “protect Europe” from its energy supplier.
Yet unlike Sahra….the Woman in Charge of Germany/EU (largely) ANGELA M wants preservation of the Operation Paperclip NAZI NATO….and opposes Trump as well!
Go figure! LOL.
All I can say is “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”……but when you find out that your ally….and your MIC still has a Pro-Hitler Anti Russian British Imperial Heart and Brain.(outside of the minority, but hopefully growing voice of Sahra and people like her)…….ya “gotta ditch the bitches.”…and the sooner the better.
Now: If Trump and Putin cannot get along 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 (as the last 4 years is all about making SURE they NEVER do….including PLENTY of German slavish cooperation with that agenda.…) and NATO is not terminated….but redeployed more to Poland…then The Empire swallowed up The Donald…and Orangeman Failed to Get Free of his Russia, Russia, Russia chains imposed on him.
However, IMHO there remains a very good prospect that the opposite will happen…..and a lot of this stress …and clear thinking outside of the old cold war box..expressed by Sahra and growing numbers of Americans…provoked by Hitlery’s 2016 defeat…..that was CAUSED by DJT…..despite the stress and upset stomachs……….is “All Good” sound and fury and finger pointing “signifying nothing”….in comparison to the infinitely more valuable end result of SEPARATION.
Meanwhile it is OK that Sahra harps upon the past and holds Trump responsible for it (?) because he’s so scary….LOL..and rude……and ignores his repeated declarations that we WON’T be “the Policeman of the World” any longer (for the Empire that wants him dead, mind you) ...just get on with the break up already!
These things are usually characterized by kerfuffles and blame and resentment ..and slamming doors…..more so than Sweet Kisses & Hugs Goodbye!
So what’s not to like about it…..as long as it (the divorce from our “Atlantic Partners”)…..goes through…and we turn our attentions to the much more attractive potentials of mutual development of the majority of humankind……..inhabiting the Pacific Basin…..westward…..while freeing Europe to finally do THE SAME…..eastward….by finally getting the F out of there??
And then disposing of a lot of old Paperclips…….cleaning out our “desks” .here.
She is exactly right. NATO is an organisation designed to guarantee the profits of the military industrial complex (mostly in the USA), it goes directly against the interests of the countries of Europe. It is a system of exploitation while at the same time reducing the security in Europe. As far as I can tell, no other politician in Europe tells the truth like this.
The problem Merkel want to rebuild their own MIC so the Fourth Reich can get rolling.
UK CZ Poland etc.. wont be too happy about that.
Nor Russia.
It was a treat again.
I’m not particularly fond of her party ‘Die Linke’, I don’t like particularly her husband Oskar Lafontaine who has some strange ideas.
But damn, she has made speeches like this many times in the boring Bundestag (German Parliament) that even Merkel didn’t know where or how to look. Only Alice Weidel (AfD) starts to rise slowly to her level.
And she is damn right. I even dare to say that behind closed doors many Germans (at least almost all that I know) would agree with her on this.
Furthermore: she is no longer active in the Bundestag, she retired some time ago.
I have an idea, might someone of the German government read here. *drumroll*.
Those 2% of the GDP, that’s just a target. Be so clever as the French, where the French police (le gendarme) organisatorily belongs to the Defence department and so counts for reaching the wanted 2%. Financially it doesn’t matter, it’s all tax money.
Cheers, Rob
You raise a good point there. Alice Weidel (far right) talks sense…Sahra Wagenknecht (far left) talks sense…they are basically on the same page as regards German sovereignty and national interests …both attack Merkel (Atlanticist centre)
in turn, Merkels many admirers in Germany, hate both Weidel and Wagenknecht and conflate the Nationalist (far right) agenda with the Socialist (far-left) agenda…both being regarded as a major threat to the Atlanticists….and what do you get? “National Socialism” rearing its head again (in the minds of German friends that is) … even otherwise-rational German friends have gotten their brains muddled over this simple logic…
The same happens in France, Italy and many other European countries…the far left and far right see a common middle ground, test it for a while, then realise that cooperation raises new problems and then this cooperation (unfortunately) wanes…and the far left and far right go it alone…I also note that if the words National-Socialism” creates an irrational backlash in the minds of modern Germans, the media in the US keeps using the word “Fascism” as a “bad” word…little understanding that the US IS itself a Fascist society…
How many German firms are doing business in Russia?! Someone and it was NOT a German had picked up that old NS slogan about “Lebensraum im Osten” inviting the Germans to please come, we are open for business!
Wagenknecht is sharp, direct and speaks truth…
excellent video…
Completely reasonable POV. what chance is of this finding its way into German policy?
Well the Greens have at last turned to a coalition with the left in France in their latest elections. Though it was the municipal ones they got important victories in nearly all major french cities.
That might eventually be a beginning to the stony nutty heads of ordinary germans.
Getting dazzled and wilfully led by toxic ideas and criminal bosses seems to historically be a fatal quasi biblelike curse among them. First the Prussians, then the swasticas, now the pentagonical criminals.
It seems a historical kinda biblelike curse for them.
One really good freind…. practically the best… who knows how to play Trump like a true marionette – LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QN86-WJDVQ
Robert Inlakesh Interview – The ‘Steal Of The Century’ & Normalizing An Openly Violent Ethno-State – Israel
Very good; A comment feature. The website I’m about to comment about doesn’t have a comment feature for its articles. Which tells me the obvious thing; They don’t want to hear anything from the public. They just want to dicate.
I got a message on Fakebook plugging an article from “Global Research” that bashed Winston Churchill. I won’t go into it but Churchill is one of my heroes. The guy who posted the message and this article try to make Churchill look like some kind of war mongering genocidal monster.
I went from there to Global Research “Centre for Research on Globalization”? Fakebook page and came across a link to an article and video bashing Trump for putting a fire under Germany/Merkel’s ass for money to NATO: USA – “Most Aggressive Military Power in the World. Those Who Have Friends Like That Don’t Need Enemies (Sahra Wagenknecht)”
I read Gatestone Institute (And FrontPage Magazine) articles on Germany. Angela Merkel, like another “progressive” that is Obama, is a disaster for Germany and for Europe. Her allowing millions of Muslim “migrants” and “immigrants” into Germany has proven to be catastrophic for that country and its neighbors.
Back to this “Most Aggressive Military Power….” Trump has been falling all over himself to get us out of foreign countries and foreign wars. While Germany has been complicit in facilitating the Islamists and Islamic terrorists who have declared war on the world.
I’m 60 years old. Grew up surrounded by the Greatest Generation and reading about the fascism and communism they saved us from. Everything has gone in total reverse under these “progressive” leaders in Europe, Canada and elsewhere in every way.
We’re seeing what “progressives” and “liberals” have accomplished since Obama and his liberal buddies started running their respective countries. Absolute chaos. Parties and bad actors not even apologizing about being Socialist. Which is simply putting a happy face on Communism.
Here in the United States we had the perpetual witch hunt, Star Chamber-Show Trials. Then we became a virtual police state overnight with this coronaviurs thanks to Democratic Party mayors and governors. Or rather, “Democratic” Socialist Party mayors and governors. The Democratic Party is a pale resemblance to what it used to be even twenty years ago. Hell; TEN years ago! I don’t have to explain the riots, looting, rampant murder and tearing down our history, statues and national monuments…
The Socialism/Communism exploded to the 10th Power under Obama and snowballed into the chaos we’re seeing today by his buddies Black Lives Matter and other domestic terrorists like Antifa.
I also grew up watching Walter Cronkite and Huntley & Brinkley. Say what you will about their politics and things like Vietnam they were literal saints compared to the propaganda hacks we see today on CNN and MSNBC and all our newspapers now just local leftist propaganda rags that are “progressive” New York Times clones.
Obviously I’m not as articulate as I’d like to be. But you don’t have to be some kind of academic or “professor” to see what’s as plain as the nose on your face. And that is that these “progressives” destroy everything they touch.
Thanks for the opportunity to rant and vent. Looking forward to finding out more things about you I can bring back to that idiot who plugged your buddies at Global Research and bashed my hero Winston Churchill.
PS; I’m continuing to listen to this video. She’s making out like Russia isn’t any kind of a threat. What a laugh; Russia, Iran and China became more aggressive and more dangerous under Obama and Merkel and their liberal buddies. Trump is trying to reverse the damage they’ve done. Real simple.
From what I remember, Gatestone Institute and FPM like to suck up to NATO, so I can see where they’re coming from. If I recall correctly, when the Cold War ended, Russia withdrew her troops from the Warsaw Pact nations. What reason does NATO have for continuing to exist, much less expanding?
Is it any more catastrophic than the USA and UK destabilizing the Middle East in wars like in Iraq and Afghanistan? Also, would there still be the same volume of “migrants” had the USA not invaded said countries in the first place?
The USA has military bases in 80+ countries in the world, English as the dominant language, and the (debt-ridden) US dollar as the global reserve currency. Russia, China and Iran are nowhere near as hegemonic as the USA. If this is not a metric for whether one side is more aggressive than the other, then we’d like to hear a better one. Hell, what evidence do you have of Russia being some sort of threat?
Hi, Larry,
You might not be an academic but I’m sure you are intelligent enough to see that this is a pro-Russian site. So, please articulate – whom is Russia threatening? One of the previous articles shows that the fascist NATO scum are some 300 miles away from Moscow. If not a joke played on the world by the FBI, BLM is the least that the USA deserves for its genocidal foreign policy.
Larry, I really don’t care about your ramblings about the world, past and present. Let me just point out that your hero Churchill was a full-fledged racist, imperialist, and genocidalist. India, Sudan, and Russia (Murmansk) are the most damning (or, from your perspective, glorious) proofs of his ”moral stature”.
However, Churchill did get one thing right when he correctly described Poland as Europe’s ”greedy hyena” (stealing territory in Czechoslovakia as part of the gang-rape in Munich 1938). But, really, neither Poland’s, nor Nazi Germany’s land-grabbing in the 1930s can compare to the British Empire ”where the sun never sets”.
“The guy who posted the message and this article try to make Churchill look like some kind of war mongering genocidal monster. ”
Hm, Churchill WAS a genocidal (and racist) monster.
Katherine
She’s pretty. I want her to be the Chancellor.
Yes, it is high time for an upgrade!
Pretty + smart.
Katherine
I forgot to mention this in my post, so I do it now.
Since I live in Germany, I’m pleased to say that this is an excellent translation. Thank you Dagmar, and thanks Leo for providing the subtitles.
Cheers, Rob
Magnificent! Sahra Wagenknecht for Chanceller…
Sadly Germany is still an occupied country and as such has limited room to manoeuvre. If one thinks back to the early 2000s Russia was at that time just another country to do business with and seemingly not deemed threatening, then the USA pushed Georgia into invading Abkhazia and the Russians (having seen what happened in Yugoslavia) stopped that dead in its tracks. From then on the Russians (for daring to resist) became once again the bogey man, which suits the MIC and is used to justify their insane military spending. The most worrying aspect is that during the original Cold War both sides seemed to appreciate the risks and were careful to try and minimise them, whereas nowadays there seems to be a section of the Neocons in the USA that think that such a war could be winnable. They seem to be believing there own press as it were, which is always a fatal error. The more weaponry the US installs in Europe the more likely that things could start small and escalate. Missiles supposedly for defence but which can carry attack warheads will get onto the Russians initial target list. The main observation that she got right was that with a ‘protector‘ like the USA you don’t need enemies.
“Sadly Germany is still an occupied country and as such has limited room to manoeuvre..”
Right. And sadly, many here do not grasp this fact and this distorts their picture of Germany and its politics.
Not sure what has to happen to end the occupation once and for all—politically and legally.
Katherine
All German people to agree that Americans are not welcome except as invited guests.
German government to pass appropriate laws.
All Germans to boycott and ignore Americans until they comply with German law.
Simples.
Yeah, I can think of two ways it manifests itself:
1. Any article on German MSM that paints Russia in a negative light gets blamed on the entire German population (e.g. comparisons with Nazis, that the people haven’t changed, etc.) as opposed to the small (Atlanticist) cabal who controls said MSM. Among the 80 million civilians who get blamed include those who grew up in the GDR.
2. The roles of the USA and the UK in bombing Yugoslavia, if not starting the war in the 1990s, are not mentioned at best, and it is blamed squarely on Germany. Germany’s role is bad enough in of itself, but that doesn’t leave the Anglosphere off the hook. I mean, if NATO were disbanded in 1991, would the bombing of Yugoslavia have happened as it did?
”if NATO were disbanded in 1991, would the bombing of Yugoslavia have happened as it did?”
It may sound as a rhetorical question at first, but it has a most profound, dark, and ominous significance that shouldn’t be lost on anyone:
While NATO never was anything but a US controlled instrument of reaction, oppression, and coercion — a character revealed when most of Nazi Germany’s erstwhile officer corps joined in in 1955 — by 1999, the organization still hadn’t sanctioned any bombings anywhere throughout its first 50 years of existence. It was ”only” its most reputable FUKUS member states spreading death and destruction as part of their ”individual” foreign policies throughout the 1950s.
Then NATO celebrated its 50th anniversary and the 110th anniversary of another specimen by the premeditated bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. Most certainly premeditated since at least 1991. Dissolving NATO was never a consideration. These criminal scum thrive on lawlessness, deception, and coercion.
Dear Joey,
Just look at history. Before 1999, Germany had participated in two wars of extermination against the Slavs – the US and the UK didn’t. Of course that the latter are as guilty as hell but in the light of its past behaviour, Germany should have excused itself and not worked 24/7 at breaking up Yugoslavia, stymieing Russia and taking part in the bombing. Avoiding Iraq was easy enough, no?
The US took over the role of the mailed fist of the “West” in 1945 and it is currently paying the price of its stupidity. We are all aware of the Anglo-Saxon villainy, it is just disingenuous to excuse the de facto ruler of Europe as a “victim”. It will not pass.
Fair enough, Anubis64. What I had in mind originally were certain Britons (e.g. a faction of readers of the Spectator) who act high and mighty towards Germany regarding the breakup of Yugoslavia. I’m just wondering if those same Britons are aware that their own country wasn’t innocent either, in which case they’d have little reason to complain.
Good to see Sahra here in The Saker’s blog. She is absolutely right about this. Sadly neither our chancellor Merkel nor the foreign minister Steinmeier are independent enough to stand up against the US politics nor to the NATO. I used to vote for her party DIE LINKE till Sahra was mobbed out by Katja Kipping and her followers. DIE LINKE and the Green Party have become corrupted. There is no alterrnative anymore, no oppostion, unless you vote for the right wing AfD which is out of the question.
I wish Germany would turn towards Russia again as it was the case when Willi Brandt and Egon Bar did shortly after the Cold War. Also we have much more in common with the Russian People and their culture than with the US. Unfortunately the UK -together with the US – have always been against peace between Gemany and Russia. Their are afraid of what would become a very strong union.
Thanks to The Saker and to Sahra!
The German Foreign Minister is Heiko Maas. I apologize.
Oh, and i do appreciate Oscar Lafontaine. He founded the party DIE LINKE after Chancellor Schröder of the Social Democrates stopped to be social and introduced Hartz 4, a system that put people that were only temporarely out of jobs on the same payroll as those who never had any – although they had been working for decades. Imho Oscar Lafontaine was the last true Social Democrat. Schröder betrayed the Social Democrates and became a Neoliberal.
Russia made a huge strategic mistake by allowing German reunification. Russia continues to make serious blunders that requires putting out fires spread by the US.
Needs to start stationing nukes on all friendly states, Venezuela, Iran, Syria,Belarus, etc If the US can do it with Mayo, why not Russia. Russia also needs to send an ultimatum to shut down all the biolabs surrounding it or else will start to bomb them out of existence, starting with the Lugar center in Georgia. The Russians and the Chinese need to get a lot more aggressive instead of complaining
It was the goodhearted but naive Michail Gorbachev who – after the fall of the Berlin Wall – agreed to the German reunification on the condition that the NATO would never spread further into the former East Germany. He wanted a peace zone in Europe without NATO with a united Germany as the center. For that purpose he withdraw the Russian troops. There was no written treaty about it. But the US did not keep the treaty as it was not in writing. So the U.S. troops of course moved further East and are now situated at the Russian Polish border. That is of course wrong and illegal. But for the Imperium there are no rules. There is a slogan here NATO raus aus Deutschland, NATO out of Germany which most Germans agree to but Merkel ist the puppet of the US Empire.
Wagenknecht is not afraid of Russia as she has never attacked Germany. Both wars have been started by the Germans. In the end it was Russia who liberated Berlin from the Nazis not the U.S. The U..S army arrived via Sicily with the help of their friends the Italian Mafia
only when the Russians had done all the fighting – and they stayed like they do everywhere they ever put their foot. Germany is still occupied by the U.S. Sahra Wagenknecht says we should free ourselves from NATO and the U.S. and I wholeheartedly agree as do the larger part of Germany. Wer solche Freunde hat, braucht keine Feinde mehr. The U.S. pretend to be our friends but they are not. They are just using us and would sacrifice us as soon as it would suit them. What Sahra is saying is that the U.S. are really our enemies.
”But the US did not keep the treaty as it was not in writing.”
How ”convenient”. Would never have happened otherwise.
Meines Erachtens war Gorbatschow ein Vollidiot.
Small nitpick: if what I gather in previous comments in this site is correct, it was Britain that started WWI to prevent a Russian-German alliance as proposed by Bismarck. What are your thoughts on this notion?
@joey_n
My take is that Bismarck’s influence upon Imperial Germany was declining, especially after the ascendancy of the imperialist-minded, reactionary Russophobe Wilhelm II in 1888, ten years before Bismarck passed away. Despite Germany’s spectacularly successful industrialization which was achieved without any colonial plunder, the Kaiser was obsessed with his own dreams of colonial marauding simply because that’s what a ”modern European power” was supposed to do. Hence the genocide in Namibia in 1904 and Germany’s wholesale participation in the bloody quelling of the boxer rebellion in China in 1900. Such acts were carried out purely on vocation; to wit, racism. Similarly and ominously, the Kaiser had become influenced by the German Army’s growing Russophobia, itself fuelled by the prospect of German expansionism at the expense of a much weaker as well as much bigger country. This was codified in the humiliating peace accord at Brest-Litovsk in early 1918.
So, my conclusion is this: No, the British had zero worries about any rapprochement between Russia and Germany as the idiot-in-chief in Berlin would have none of it. They did, however, worry about Germany’s extraordinary rise as an industrial power and, given the growing tide of Russophobia in the ruling circles and the military of Germany, the prospect of a German victory at Russia’s expense. Last but not least, ambitious aping by Germany of the Imperialist powers of Europe was by itself a source of tension.