Victor Davis Hanson: Merkel’s evident anti-Americanism is a familiar refrain.
The more things change, well, the more they . . . So it is with the perpetual German resentments of the U.S.
Recently German chancellor Angela Merkel reminded us of that German fixation, when she made some astounding statements to the German media that revealed what many Americans had long ago surmised.
Merkel all but announced that Germany, or for that matter Europe itself, is no longer really an ally of the United States: “There is no doubt that Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world. . . . The old certainties of the post-war order no longer apply.”
She insisted that Germany views the democratic United States as not much different from autocratic Russia and Communist China: Urging Europe to present a united front in the face of Russia, China, and the U.S., she said, “They are forcing us, time and again, to find common positions.” And Merkel concluded that therefore Germany must find “political power” commensurate with its economic clout to forge a new independent European path.
In other words, in the calculus of the supposedly sober and judicious Merkel, the democracy that saved Europe twice from a carnivorous Germany — and Germany once from itself and once from becoming a Soviet vassal — is now similar to the world’s two largest authoritarian dictatorships, nations that not so long ago murdered respectively 30 million and 70 million of their own citizens. And how odd a sentiment for someone who grew up in Communist East Germany, a nightmarish state whose collapse was largely attributable to the Reagan-era effort to bankrupt and roll back the Soviet empire.
Merkel’s view of a new German trajectory is not entirely predicated on her well-known antagonism to the boisterous Trump presidency, given that she still simmers over the Obama-approved surveillance of German leaders. In her interview with German media, she also couched her differences with America in terms of issues as diverse as Ukraine and the perceived dangers of Silicon Valley technology conglomerates — but apparently not the U.S.-led NATO commitment to protect Germany in the case of an attack and Berlin’s failure to live up to its promised contributions to the alliance. more here
Fuck Harvard for having her to berate my president at their damn ceremony. She and they, can all go to Swamp hell.
Nazee + Mufti = Imperialistic
NOT Nationalist.
Now I will read the great VDH.
Close down all U.S. bases in Germany yesterday. Move them to more willing allies closer to the Middle East like Poland.
Smack a 2000% tariff on BMW, WV and anything else that strikes our fancy. Maybe even start tweeting “now that the relationship is over do we hit you for the price tag of the Marshall plan adjusted for inflation or do we leave you the way we found you in 45?”
Oh, by the way, good luck shiping your goods anywhere because I’m telling our navy to ignore all pleas for help should your transport be attacked.
Beginning to wonder if this is about historical jealousy about the Greatness of Americas’ history compared to modern European (and other countries) failure?? WWI destroyed Europe and WWII obliterated it and east Asia.
We get through our own problems and try to solve theirs at the same time, we leave the dead behind and take no land.
May God Bless DJT at Normandy tomorrow and those fallen dead.
I have recommended in the past that the US pull the majority of our military and bases out of Germany. NATO, as is the UN, are not in the interests of the US. Withdraw any and all US monetary supplements, aid and grants.
Merkel, once a communist always a communist.
Her timing is perfect. Right before the 75th anniversary of D Day.
@Ghost – let us not forget we rebuilt the place as well, it’s called the Marshall Plan.
100 BILLION in current US dollars. We are still paying for it.
Never mind what was spent to get Japan going again.
Trump will not forget.
Look for US assets to be pulled out of germany and into Britain.
I love how Trump lives in their heads.
Merkels’s Germany: Americans go home. Muslims come on in.
I think Winston Churchill wrote, Germans are always either at your throat or at your feet. (paraphrased)
Next thing ya know Merkel will be comparing Germany’s being forced to contribute their fair share to paying for defense to the terrible burden of reparations following Versailles. Then we’re really off to the races again. You know Hitler and Islam were allies then, too.
(I’ve always wondered how, if Germany didn’t have the money to pay for WWI, where they got the money to launch WWII?)
Solid VDH piece. What is it that Germany has done good for the world in the last 70 years?
I see they’re good at helping themselves but I’m struggling to recall a moment where people were like “thank God, the Germans are here!”
Once a bunch of Nazis, always a bunch of Nazis. And if you call them “Nazis” then they really get Nazi about it.
She puts America in the same league as China and Russia?
Does one need any more proof she is a stupid Leftist?
No.
Germany needs a good leader.
From the West Germany half.
When yer in trouble, blame it on the United States….
We’ve seen that act before!
You have to love those East German girls; they are quite fetching… after their morning shave.
Germany has always carried a chip on it’s shoulder and combined with an arrogant and resentful leader who fuels that disposition you can count on them heading for trouble once again.
I suspect Merkel will forge a stronger bond with Russia and decouple itself from the western alliance as the EU stumbles further. Not because it would be more beneficial but because she wants to demonstrate her disdain for the U.S.
Have at it!
Merkel is a product of East Germany, so she has no problem with Germans speaking Russian – and a slavophilic sycophancy, in general.
She either forgets, or is willfully ignorant, of the depredations, deportations, and expropriations that ethnic Germans suffered under both Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union.
Well as Carlos Santana wrote: Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
izlamo delenda est …
Sound more and more like a Muslim.
IN DEEDS the EU has never been an American ally. their words were, and are, lies!
The taxpayer threw $billions away supporting EU ! Same for UN!
She loves Russia’s natural gas and oil more than the freedom of America. Go for it lady. See where it gets you. Annexed by the commies.
She was raised and indoctrinated to be a good little communist. As she demonstrates time after time,
you can’t expect much out of that.
I’ve perceived the same attitude in VW drivers – the dread disease Nazibacillus.