So, this triumphalist video. It's more than a little disgusting. Why exactly do we need to do this?
Note the map: These two bases are very close to the border...of the freakin' CZECH REPUBLIC! Those vicious Czech hordes may pour over the border in the soft underbelly of Bavaria any moment.
Close the bases. Now. Bring all the troops, and their mighty Strker vehicles, home. From Germany, Japan, and a dozen other places.
When I was in Bavaria in 2009, I asked quite a few people if they thought it was time the American occupying army left. They said no. Because the "benefits" of these military bases were so large.
Let the Germans have their own army to defend against the Czechs. They can afford to write all those "checks" to EU countries. WTF is the US doing in Germany?
Thanks to Mr. Fox.
Note the map: These two bases are very close to the border...of the freakin' CZECH REPUBLIC! Those vicious Czech hordes may pour over the border in the soft underbelly of Bavaria any moment.
Close the bases. Now. Bring all the troops, and their mighty Strker vehicles, home. From Germany, Japan, and a dozen other places.
When I was in Bavaria in 2009, I asked quite a few people if they thought it was time the American occupying army left. They said no. Because the "benefits" of these military bases were so large.
Let the Germans have their own army to defend against the Czechs. They can afford to write all those "checks" to EU countries. WTF is the US doing in Germany?
Thanks to Mr. Fox.
4 comments:
"Many interact with actual local nationals going about their daily lives."
Who doesn't want to interact with Stryker armored vehicles as they're going about their daily lives? The only big vehicles I see in my daily lives are buses, dump trucks, and an occasional fire truck. How boring is that?
"Prevent future conflicts in the region"
I just read that the Communist Party is making inroads in local elections in the Czech Republic... Cold War II is imminent.
As far as I know, those troops aren't really expected to defend Germany any more. They use their bases here as a training ground, and as a hub from which they are deployed to actual battle zones. If you want to be able to react quickly to developments around the world, I guess it makes sense to have bases around the world.
In any case, nobody here in Germany (except maybe very few extremist nutcases) views American troops as occupiers. The benefits are huge: There's much better fast food available in areas with American troops, and believe it or not, AFN is more entertaining than most German radio stations. Please keep providing these positive externalities.
WTF is the US doing in Germany?
"Some believe this, [progress from war, despotism, and poverty to peace, democracy, and prosperity], is the inevitable result of human progress, a combination of advancing science and technology, an increasingly global economy, strengthening international institutions, evolving “norms” of international behavior, and the gradual but inevitable triumph of liberal democracy over other forms of government— forces of change that transcend the actions of men and nations. But there is also another possibility. Perhaps the progress we enjoy was not an inevitable evolution of the human species but rather the product of a unique and perhaps fleeting set of circumstances: a particular arrangement of power in the international system that favors a certain worldview over others. Maybe if those conditions were to change, if power were to shift, then the characteristics of the world order would change, too. Perhaps democracy has spread to over a hundred nations since 1950 not simply because people yearn for democracy but because the most powerful nation in the world since 1950 has been a democracy....."
[It] is worth recalling the limits of soft power, too. It is a most difficult kind of power to wield. No American president ever enjoyed more international popularity than Woodrow Wilson when he traveled to Paris to negotiate the treaty ending World WarI. He was a hero to the world, but he found his ability to shape the peace, and to establish the new League of Nations, severely limited, in no small part by the refusal of his countrymen to commit American military power to the defense of the peace.
Then, globally, democracy and liberty declined rather quickly in the 1930's, with some declaring democracy a failure. In other words, democracy and liberty rises and falls based on martial power as much as economic power. Democracy rises and falls based on the powerful willing to defend it militarily as well as intellectually.
Empire, man. Empire! This sh*t's not going away.
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