I cannot believe that the Europeans did not see what was coming. He hasn't changed at all. The only thing different this time is that he has learned that the bureaucracy is made up of only liars, cheaters and thieves so he took action to sideline them right out of the gate. Other than that, you could safely say that nothing at all changed in 4 years.
6 comments:
The Donald was being Mr. Diplomatic Nice Guy before;
he found that just doesn't work when you have people who are obsessed with trying to cut the legs from under you
I served in the USAF and was stationed Germany for 4-years back in the 80's when the number of US service personnel was massive compared to what we have there now.
Since the 1990's a large number of USAF bases and support facilities in Germany like Wiesbaden Regional Medical Center, Lindsey AS, Hahn AFB, Bitburg AFB have been closed. This is just a few of over 225 US bases that no longer exist in Germany.
What people don't understand is most of these old US facilities can never be used for military purposes again because they have been completely repurposed and/or are being developed for civilian use.
Germany can ramp up it's 2-5% NATO commitment, but without people to service and maintain it all there's no point. Mertz is now talking about reinstating compulsory service which Germany ended in 2011. The problem there is no one will stay past the compulsory 6-month period. And with military wages so low, they will never get enough highly trained personnel to service and maintain their equipment, especially when those people can leave the service and find work paying twice those wages in the civilian sector. This is exactly why most of German's military is currently non-serviceable. And of course all this equipment needs spare parts which is another part of the problem.
The reasonable Donald is still there but he now knows how the bureaucracy works and how to control it. Ditto making things happen in Congress.
It's not just the facilities in Europe it is also all the bases and facilities closed here by the BRAC. NONE OF THAT IS RECOVERABLE. It is all gone and perhaps that is just as well. The upshot is massive land armies are a thing of the past because precision homing all the way weapons that kill men are now rolling out so economically that it makes no sense to field a giant army of men because they'll be dead in a week. We won't need those training bases or old industrial facilities.
You nailed it. There is no will to fight and the ONLY WAY TO BUILD THAT is NATIONALISM and Europe really cannot go that route anymore. They killed the nations that underlay the very notion of national pride and with it the chance to have any meaningful role in combat on the world stage. The scary thing is that they'll turn to the other side of WMD and start fucking around with bugs and germs and other things the Greens love. So, the world ends not with a bang but with a sniffle.
Post a Comment