Life on earth really can’t afford another major military industrial complex (MIC). But that’s what’s coming. Or at least the financing is getting worked out as Europe deals reels from the damage already inflicted on the Transatlantic alliance in the open months of the second Trump administration. It’s urgent. A new era of security independence has begun for the European community and there’s no time to spare in getting started on building it. Plans are already taking shape. Plans to dramatically increase EU-wide defense spending by effectively forcing each EU member to achieve at least 3% of GDP on defense spending, well about the 2% NATO minimum. Roughly 650 billion euros in extra defense spending over the next four years. But what about the EU’s strict debt and austerity rules? There’s a plan for that too: extra defense spending will not count towards the EU’s debt and deficit rules. At least for the next four years. And perhaps longer. And yet, all signs indicate that this extra debt will have be repaid eventually. So are we looking at the beginning of a new MIC? Or the largest austerity trap in EU history? Time will tell.
Other plans include 150 billion euros in direct loans from the EU to member states for approved military hardware purchases. Loans that, again, will have to be repaid. But the loans will also be provided at lower-than-market interest rates from funds raised directly by the EU Commission. In other words, jointly-backed bonds, something previously anathema to Germany and the rest of the EU’s wealthier members. Remarkably, Germany isn’t just strongly behind the loan plan but wants it expanded to potentially include loans to non-EU members like Norway, Switzerland, or Turkey. These big spending plans keep getting bigger, with German backing. It’s an historic shift. Beyond that, Germany is already planning an 800 billion euro defense spending splurge of its own over the next decade and calling for the EU’s plan to be extended well beyond the four year proposal. Yes, Germany is backing much higher EU-wide debt levels for the indefinite future. As long as that debt is spent on the military, of course. That’s the incredible story current unfolding. The kind of story that points towards a big new EU MIC, much higher EU debt levels, and, perhaps, the biggest austerity trap in EU history. The devil in the details. Details yet t be hammered out, and possibly not ever hammered out until long after the EU has committed itself to this path and the trap has already been set.
Over the years, we’ve presented the profound, decades-long networking of both Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger with Third Reich alumni, many of them war criminals of the first order. Nixon helped to initiate and sustain the Nazi element of the GOP. Now we learn that Kissinger actively conspired with Third Reich veterans and German aristocrats to establish the groundwork for the overthrow of the German government of former chancellor Willy Brandt. Previously, Kissinger was recruited by Allen Dulles to help incorporate Nazis into the CIA’s fledgling paramilitary cadre to be used against the USSR. One of Kissinger’s co-conspirators was Hans Globke, author of the Nuremberg laws, which provided the basis for the Nazi extermination programs.
Obama’s political fate may well be determined in Europe by Germany. In German press, Romney campaign promoting Merkel’s economic doctrine in opposition to Obama. Will Romney be empowered to do the U.S. what “austerity” has done to much of Europe?
Deutsche WelleFollowing the recent death of the Mormon’s spiritual leader, a German pilot has joined the highest leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by becoming one of two counselors to the new Mormon head. Dieter Uchtdorf’s appearance doesn’t immediately hint at anything unusual. This 64-year old, who worked as chief pilot […]
OTTAWA (REUTERS) — An arms dealer wanted on fraud charges in Germany Thursday sought to draw the government into a political storm over cash payments to a former prime minister, saying a request to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to help him avoid extradition was “well received.” German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber told a parliamentary committee that […]
GermanForeignPolicy.com [See also Strategies of Attrition (I) and Strategies of Attrition (III).] BEIJING/LHASA/BERLIN(Own report) — German politicians have announced an escalation of the chancellor’s Tibet offensive. According to comments made by the Prime Minister of Hesse, Roland Koch (CDU), Angela Merkel’s meeting with the Dalai Lama is only the beginning of large scale interference into […]
GermanForeignPolicy.com[See also Strategies of Attrition (II) and Strategies of Attrition (III).] BEIJING/LHASA/BERLIN(Own report) — The German chancellor is reinforcing Berlin’s special relationships to Chinese separatists, in spite of Beijing’s massive protests. The Dalai Lama had talks in the German Chancellery, for the first time, Sunday, Sept. 23. He is the leader of a self-proclaimed Tibetan […]
GermanForeignPolicy.com BERLIN/MAGDEBURG(Own report) — The medieval, Europe-wide German Reich is a valid model for the union of European countries today. So says the Berlin State Minister for Culture, Bernd Neumann. According to him, the memory of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation reveals “an inner historical consistency” with the founding and steady expansion […]
by Georg Mascolo and Juergen DahlkampDer Spiegel Washington’s choice for future US ambassador to Germany has all the makings of a political bombshell. For years, a company owned by the multimillionaire and newly-appointed diplomat William Timken, Jr. has been profiting from anticompetitive tariffs — at the direct expense of German companies. As Washington’s new ambassador […]
The life, times, and offspring of former Representative John G. Schmitz.
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