Speaking Of Munich

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After reducing the size of the German military by 85% in the face of a resurgent Russia, decommissioning all of Germanys nuclear power plants and actively making the German economy in effect entirely dependent on Russian natural gas (as the German “green energy program” – could could have seen this coming? – ignominiously flopped), and essentially setting Germany up to be a commercial patsy of the oligarchs, could we stop referring to Angela Merkel as a political genius?

And by “we”, I mean the Western “intelligentsia” and pseudo-intelligentsia?

27 thoughts on “Speaking Of Munich”

  1. could we stop referring to Angela Merkel as a political genius?

    I dunno. What if it was all intentional? Seems pretty successful to me.

  3. Today the Germans are opening direct talks with Putin.
    There goes NATO.
    And although Biden is dismissing the damning after-action report on the collapse of Afghanistan, our enemies and allies are surely studying it:
    At the embassy, U.S. troops went room to room on Aug. 15, pressing people to meet deadlines and get ready to go, an Army officer from the 10th Mountain Division told investigators. Some State Department personnel were “intoxicated and cowering in rooms,” and others were “operating like it was day-to-day operations with absolutely no sense of urgency or recognition of the situation,” the officer said..
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/08/afghanistan-evacuation-investigation/

    As far back as the Obama administration, I have expressed frustration, in SITD comments, that the media portrayed Biden as some sort of foreign policy wonk when his actual record on foreign policy showed him making poor fp decisions as a senator and as veep, as well as giving appallingly bad fp advice to those who asked for it (break up Iraq, for example).
    The man is an idiot, we can be assured that whatever Biden does about Russia-Ukraine, it will be the wrong thing.

  4. On the other hand, if Merkel can establish peaceful relations with Russia, then she doesn’t need us anymore, does she? With the threat gone, we could pull all US troops out of Germany, same as we did Afghanistan.

    And if we’re not defending Germany, what’s the point in having troops in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium? With the Russian threat gone, who are we defending them from? Why not pull all US troops out of Europe?

    I know, it’s great duty wrenching on tanks 9-5 and spending evenings in the Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit. Not mentioned in the Constitution as a power of the federal government. Not necessary to the defense of the United States.

    Merkel could be the best thing that happened to us in nearly 100 years.

  5. I half agree with you, Joe Doakes, as I half agree with the people who want to legalize all drugs.
    The current situation is so awful it is easy to imagine that nothing could be worse.
    I am not worried so much about Europe, Asia, and Africa being politically dominated by Russia and China & what that would mean for our economy, I am worried about war in Europe and Asia and Africa and what that would mean to the US.
    France has a nuclear arsenal. Germany and Japan could build a nuclear arsenal in a year or two, if they felt that they had to.

  7. What Merkle did with Russia is but half what Clinton, Bush and Obama did to the US with China. They own our debt, our technology and pick up any object near you and tell me where it was made.

    Oh, but we still have our military.

    Uh-huh….

    But war is a contest to see who can destroy sh*t faster than their enemy can manufacture it. Ask yourself who can make the tools of war faster?

    And uh, you don’t really have to destroy sh*t in battle faster than they can make it, you just have to convince your opponent that you can.

    And that has already happened.

  9. Scary thing is that a military that is 85% smaller for Germany might be a more effective military. When I was there in 1989, the great mass of soldiers was conscripts out of high school, and a friend of mine whose job after USMA was as a “Fulda Gap Speed Bump” (at least until they got M1s to replace their M60s) commented that his acquaintances in the service never really trusted the Bundeswehr to fight. There was a reason my friend, and not Germans, were stationed near Fulda.

    I disagree with a great portion of what Merkel has done, but reducing conscription from 18 months/2 years to 6 months more or less puts defense into the hands of men who want to be there, and that’s a plus. The down side is that 6 months basically gets one through basic training and a bit of infantry training, and that’s it.

    But windmill mandates, nuclear shutdowns….well, let’s just say that there is a reason that VW is putting more and more production overseas, even in pretty dangerous areas like Mexico.

  10. considering the fact that many DC insiders know that Joe has been wrong on foreign policy during his whole time in congress

    Personally, the last 50 years have not shown me that those “DC insiders” are all that impressive either. Seems to me that comment/article is just pots calling a kettle black.

  11. bike;
    I observed the same sentiments as far back as 1975, when I spent three weeks at Ramstein AFB. The Luftwaffe arm, seemed to have a different take though. They seemed to be true patriots, but then, that was over a decade before you were there. Perhaps the conscription rate in that branch was lower, but they had some very helpful, top notch technicians assisting us, including one smoking hot female Sergeant named Gudrun. She was a whiz on tracking down hydraulic problems.

  12. one smoking hot female Sergeant named Gudrun. She was a whiz on tracking down hydraulic problems

    Must. Resist. Making. Dirty. Joke…

  14. I’m curious, I’d like to take an informal poll:

    All those who believe the North Koreans crossing the DMZ and killing American soldiers stationed in South Korea will cause a flood of young Americans to drop out of high school, run to the recruiting office and lie about their age to be accepted so they can fight the dirty Nork commies . . . raise your hands.

    Same question for Russian tanks invading Germany. Same question for Iraq nuking Israel. Same question for Chinese amphibious forces taking Taiwan.

    Maybe we don’t need new recruits. Maybe some of us believe existing US forces are sufficient to win a war in Europe, win a war in Asia, and a war in the Middle East, all at the same time. Hands?

  15. NATO died when bastard Europeans stopped paying for protection. Should have pulled out right there and then. What and who are we protecting and from what? European countries signed a suicide pact when they created EU. They are now overrun by migrants who want to destroy countries as we knew them, invoke caliphate and institute sharia. They signed off all their energy sourcing to Russia and manufacturing to China. What can we, the USA, do? This is not about leading a horse to water, the fucking horse drowned and we are guarding the carcass.

    Unlike the case of Germany in the teens and 30’s, even if Russia takes over West Europe, what are they going to do? Round up Germans and French and Spaniards and Portuguese and send them to Gulag? No, it is all about securing the market – the more consumers, the richer the Russians of all stripes, not just oligarchs. And, they will tackle energy and migration problem head on. So tell me again, why would we want to spill a gram of US blood? What is the moral (as opposed to political) incentive?

    Putin and Xi putting out joint statement against the USA the other day was a recreation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement. They are dividing Europe/Asia while USA is being led by “adults in the WH”™. In the meantime, they are bitter enemies and if there will be a war, it will be between these two countries. I wonder whose side US will fight on?

    China ambitions are a lot harder to counter, because CCP does not value human life unlike Russians (some may find that debatable, but Putin is more humane than Lenin/Trotsky/Stalin). But we cannot win a conventional war against China. And as long as CCP can continue to buy everyone in DC and industry, they will be best us in unconventional war as well. Taiwan, alas, will be gone by the end of this year. Then CCP will assert control over Africa and SE Asia – even if there are US bases on the ground. And there is nothing USA will do to stop them.

    So why keep troops there if you will not use them? So why indeed do we still have NATO and troops stationed all around the world? What can these troops do that a few tactical nukes can’t? All we need is more satellite and carrier groups. The time when we need troops on the ground is gone. So yes, pull all the troops home.

  17. So yes, pull all the troops home

    Give the Euros who are serious about defense – the Poles, Estonians and Baltics, Ukraine and the like – whatever they need to keep Russia at bay, and let them do what they do.

  18. Give the Euros who are serious about defense […] whatever they need

    Define whatever.

    And while I trust the eastern Euro countries on that list, I don’t trust the Scandis nor the Ukrainians.

  19. I’m told an army travels on its stomach; and that while amateurs talk about strategy and tactics, professionals talk about logistics and sustainability.

    Somebody help me out here: where’s the best route for the supply line for American troops and tanks supporting Ukraine? Or Estonia?

    https://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/000/093/220/original/eastern-europe-map-vector.jpg

    I’m not saying US winning a war in Eastern Europe is impossible, I’m saying it makes D-Day look like a cakewalk. There, we had a staging area in England to invade France. Here? Not so much.

    So are we really, truly, going to war there? If not, does that mean our sabre rattling is just noise? And if so, does Putin fear it?

    Then why do it?

  20. Re-reading Mitch’s comment, I fear I misunderstood.

    Give the Estonians as many AK-74’s as they want (we must have thousands of them captured in the Middle East). Give them a hundred tons of 7.62 ammo to get started, they can resupply by stripping Russian dead. Give them all the MREs they can stand. Let the locals decide who to shoot, when and where. Leave American troops out of it.

    I like it.

  22. Regarding “NATO died when Europeans stopped paying”, it’s worth noting that back into the 1980s, the small military budgets of most NATO members have been an irritant to the U.S. I can understand these nations remembering the world wars and saying “don’t want to do that again”, but I would hope they would also remember the genocides of the Soviet Union and China and say “don’t want that, either.” NATO’s been an awfully hard sell to Europe for a long, long time.

  23. yes promise(and deliver) the Ukraine 20 million AK 74s with 50,000 rounds of ammunition for each weapon and Russia will think twice about invading.

  24. The country that does not WANT to stand up for itself, does not deserve to have US blood spilled for it.

    Zelensky keeps saying Russia will not invade (and they won’t) and that he wants Jughead to shut the fuck up. Why would be beat the war drum?

    Situation in Ukraine is all FUBAR because half of the population is Russian. If Russia wanted, it could walk in and take over without a shot fired. But they are waiting for Zelensky to give them the key and hand over the control strings – looks better that way and is a win/win for both countries.

    When US promised arms to Ukraine, Germany offered helmets. Yes, helmets. Do you REALLY think Germany will lift a finger or spill a gram of German blood for Ukraine? And risk getting their energy cut off? Whoever thinks that will happen is just as mentally retarded as Jughead. NATO is no more. It is a dead parrot.

  25. NATO died when Europeans stopped paying

    Europe didn’t just stop paying. It was years long process in which the defense of their own damn countries was progressively prioritized lower than spending on social goodies. Reducing the priority of spending on national defense went hand in hand with changing their national cultures to be less protective of their own countries and cultures.

    That’s what’s behind Euro social movements like the Generation Identity and the presidential candidacy of Eric Zemmour.

  26. How many Estonians are there? There are probably less people living in Estonia than Russia has conscripts. You know why Tallinn is the oldest medieval city still standing? It was not destroyed because they opened the doors to anyone who knocked. Did you know Norway got their flag in Tallinn, or so the legend goes?

    Do you REALLY think Estonia will put up a fight? Besides, what the fuck do Russians want with Baltics or Scandehuvians, who are a fucking joke now. Current generation is NOT the one that Mitch keep writing about. Far, far from it. But again, what the fuck does Russia want with Scandinavia? What do they need them for, they already have access to Baltic Sea.

    Same for Poland and most other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Times have changed. Reality on the ground is very different.

    Ukraine, on the other hand is strategic with access to Black Sea via Odessa (yes, they have Crimea but it is not well connected), and full of russians. Russians who do live in fear of getting their throats cut in the middle of the night by ultranationalist ukranians.

    If the Jughead WH keeps the current trajectory, he will force a Russian invasion and will have blood of a lot of people on his hands. For what? Congress will never authorize military action – there are 0 (zero) US interest in Ukraine, not even oil. And Jughead will look even more impotent than he is right now, completely and utterly destroying whatever is left of US image and goodwill around the world and shuttering NATO (for all the wrong reasons) and loosing all allies. For WHAT?

    BTW, why Jughead you ask? Bidon in russian is a milk jug.

  27. If Putin is afraid of Biden, than Putin is the only person the earth who is afraid of Biden. Democrats, Republicans, Merkel, Boris Johnson, not a single congressman, senator, or world leader acts as though they were afraid of Biden. Not even the f’n teachers unions are afraid of Biden.

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