COMMENT: It strikes us as less than remarkable that the German policy elite are now openly debating the use of military force to “prevent” the reversion of that country to dictatorship!
The vitally important german-foreign-policy.com informs us that the military intervention scenario is being debated by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s most prestigious daily newspaper, and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a “leftist” veteran of the European New Left of the 1960’s.
We are now in a position to view what the elder George Bush might refer to as “a kinder, gentler” Reich–one imposed in order to “prevent” dictatorship and chaos, following the economic imposition of measures insuring that chaos will inevitably occur.
The calls for military intervention will come from mainstream, even liberal, institutions and so-called “progressives.”
Grotesquely ironic, this debate follows on:
- Germany/EU’s forced inclusion of the fascist LAOS party as part of a provisional government in Greece in the late fall of 2011.
- The LAOS party openly extolling the virtues of the Greek dictatorship following the 1967 coup, the very state of affairs that the proposed military intervention is supposed to prevent!
- Greece’s economic troubles stemming from the Euro itself, which, in combination with lax fiscal management, beggared that country.
- The EMU itself being the realization of the Third Reich’s plans for world domination.
- Germany rejecting the worldwide calls for stimulus to jump start the Greek economy.
- German institutions, such as the Deutcshe Bank, maneuvering to purchase important Greek assets at fire sale prices in the wake of collapse.
“On the Relevance of Democracy”; german-foreign-policy.com; 5/21/2012.
EXCERPT: . . . The sectors of the German elite, which refuse to consider this change of course proposed by Krugman and numerous other experts outside Germany,[7] are now publicly debating scenarios involving the use of force. In a newspaper interview early this month, the director of the prominent Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Thomas Straubhaar, called for establishing a protectorate in Greece — “regardless of the outcome of the elections.” The country is a “failed state,” he says, which is unable to raise itself “to a new start” under “its own steam.”[8] Athens needs “help in establishing viable state structures.” It, therefore, must be transformed into “a European protectorate.” “The EU must do it,” affirms Straubhaar. The EU “would have to help Greece modernize its institutions at every level, particularly with administrative staff, tax experts, and tax inspectors.” However, refounding Greece would demand “intuition” to “overcome national pride, conceit, and the resistance of interest groups.” This is referring to a sovereign democracy, a German ally in the EU and NATO.
Putsch
In the meantime, there is even discussion of a putsch in Athens. Greece threatens to sink into complete chaos, warned a long time companion of Germany’s former Foreign Minister, Joseph Fischer, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a European parliamentarian for the French Green Party. Cohn-Bendit explained that it is impossible to avoid extensive foreign interference. “If you leave the Greeks to muddle through alone, you are risking a military putsch.”[9] German commentators are drawing comparisons to the situation in the later stages of Germany’s Weimar Republic. “In the Greek situation, the worst case would be a reversion to a dictatorship,” warned an influential commentator. “This scenario becomes more probable as instability grows.” In reference to the links between a possible dictatorship and Berlin’s austerity dictate, the commentator writes, “already today, it seems as though Merkel’s austerity policy can, at best, be imposed on the streets of Athens by force of arms.”[10]
Protection Forces
Last week, a leading German daily discussed the issue of dispatching troops to Greece. Should the country go bankrupt, it would then, as a “ ‘failing state,’ (...) be less in a position” to shore up its borders against migrants, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Just recently, the EU Commission announced that it finds itself forced to prolong the mission of its EU border troops at the Greek/Turkish borders. If Athens “should no longer be able to pay its officials, or can pay only in Drachmas,” the situation risks “chaotic.”[11] The country could possibly “be rocked by rebellions.” “Help for Greece would then no longer be on credit, but be transformed into a sort of humanitarian emergency aid,” prophesied the journal in its front-page lead editorial. “Hopefully, an international protection force, such as is stationed in the teetering countries further to the north, will not become an option.”[12]
Germany will undoubtedly ‘invade’ and or take control of various european states. But I suspect not openly as the Bundeswehr; they will do it as a blue-uniformed ‘Euro Task Force’.
Uber Alles.
I am reminded of the song “Living In The Past” …
Once I used to join in
every boy and girl was my friend.
Now there’s revolution,
but they don’t know what they’re fighting.
Let us close out eyes;
outside their lives go on much faster.
Oh, we won’t give in,
we’ll keep living in the past.
–
It’s not Germany, it’s the right wing, and it’s not even the right wing … the only way it can survive is by being invisible.
Great...so now it sounds like the Greek bailout, itself, is being managed by the ‘troika’ in such a way that it almost doesn’t matter how bad Greece’s economy gets it can’t default. And why is that? Because the troika is only lending Greece enough money to pay interest on it’s debts. THAT’S the bailout and even funds intended to keep the government running are being withheld. Why? Because helping more would remove the necessary pressure for tax-collection reforms.on the nation. So the econonmy is being intentionally
guttedpressured in order to achieve the goal of raising more taxes. In other words, the troika is using a technique that destroys Greece’s economy (to raise taxes!?) because that technique prevents a technical Greek dafault. In other other words, the EU had better start preparing those ‘peace keeping’ forces because it sounds like no matter how bad it gets this roller coaster ride is going to go on for a long time:So the optimists think this ride might be done in a year? Well, at least this all sounds like its highly profitable for the troika. They might need the cash.
Since the world is offering Greece advice, here’s some more:
Ignore the first guy:
Yes Greece, you really want to avoid going down that path. It ain’t pretty:
Yep, if Greece goes down that path it’ll get downright ugly.
Given all the fun changes we’ve seen in the eurozone and EU just in the last couple of years, you have to wonder what an EU that’s “a real actor on the global scene” is going to look like:
Had a little trouble finding the right category for this, but it’s important.
From NPR
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/25/172858159/germany-called-on-to-evolve-its-gobal-military-role
Germany Evaluates Its Global Military Role
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
February 25, 2013
(Excerpts, full text at link)
“For decades after the devastation of World War Two, Germany recoiled from any prospect of military engagement. Now the country is under pressure to get involved in foreign military conflicts as the U.S. cuts back its role as the world’s policeman. Germany’s growing military role is now being debated in government and academic circles.
(snip)
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere wants his countrymen to talk about the evolving role of the German military. The minister tells NPR that in Europe, Germany is second only to Britain in troop deployments, but that few here like to think about that.
THOMAS DE MAIZIERE: (Through translator) In Germany, the military’s operational concept was not to go on missions. Things have changed since reunification, but many Germans like to live in the past and haven’t internalized their country’s importance.
(snip)
NELSON: He and other German analysts say that the government is under growing international pressure to get involved militarily in foreign conflicts, especially as America cuts back on its role as the world’s policeman. They say being a political powerhouse in the European Union and serving as paymaster in the euro-crisis is no longer enough.
(snip)
Some here accuse Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government of selling arms rather than sending in German troops to address security concerns. A December cover story in Der Spiegel magazine outlined a Merkel doctrine, in which key countries in unstable areas were being sold high-tech German weapons so they could maintain security on their own.
That worries Edelgard Bulmahn, an opposition lawmaker with the Social Democrats, who serves on the Bundestag foreign affairs committee.
EDELGARD BULMAHN: We always realized that military approach doesn’t really solve the conflict. But nevertheless, arms exports can’t be a substitute for a role of our country.
(snip)
NELSON: Bulmahn and other lawmakers took part in a contentious Bundestag debate in late January about the lack of transparency in arms exports. Germany is the third biggest exporter of arms worldwide, although it trails far behind the U.S. and Russia.
Olaf Simonsen, a retired vice president of the German Office of Economics and Exports, says secret deals are only part of the problem. He charges that changes to European trade laws are giving the German government greater freedom to sell arms to more Third World countries, even if it doesn’t have a license for those countries.
OLAF SIMONSEN: For example, if France has no problems to deliver items to a former colony in Africa, it’s now allowed for the German exporter to transfer an item from Germany to France. And then France can export transfer the final product to this country.”
More at Link
@SWAMP–Quite predictable, unfortunately.
The fallacious presumption is that Germany has changed.
Wrong!
Aside from the fact that the German army was re-staffed with Nazis after WWII, there is every reason to suppose that the institutional inertia in the Bundeswehr has continued.
In FTR #595, we noted that contemporary Bundeswehr recruits are being trained with live-fire practice on simulated African-Americans!!
In FTR #50, we noted that the head of the Bundeswehr–Klaus Naumann–told his officers that the task facing Germany was to roll back “the values of 1945” i.e. denazification.
He also said that it was also their duty to roll back the values of “liberte, equalite et fraternite”–the values of the French revolution and the enlightenment!
In FTR #86, we noted that convicted neo-Nazi terror bomber Manfred Roeder was selected to lecture at the German military academy! The Bundeswehr also donated surplus vehicles to Roeder’s organization!
Stay tuned!
Dave Emory
Agreed.
Submitted “For the record”, so to speak...
From the above report:
” ..but many Germans like to live in the past and haven’t internalized their country’s importance.”
–
And the aggression begins here:
“NELSON: He and other German analysts say that the government is under growing international pressure to get involved militarily in foreign conflicts, especially as America cuts back on its role as the world’s policeman. They say being a political powerhouse in the European Union and serving as paymaster in the euro-crisis is no longer enough.”
@SWAMP–BTW, German defense minister Thomas de Maiziere is the son of Ulrich de Maiziere, a former Inspector General of the Bundeswehr (equivalent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and WWII general under Hitler.
The elder de Maiziere was an aide to General Adolf Heusinger, who planned every Nazi military campaign after 1940, including Operation Barbarossa, the genocidal invasion of the Soviet Union.
Heusinger was the first Inspector General of the “new” Bundeswehr.
Best,
Dave Emory