Posted on 02/10/2016 8:46:10 PM PST by TroutStalker
Marco Rubio is talking about the decline of the American military. Matthias Kolb can hardly believe what he's hearing.
*
A few minutes later, driving across the frost-laden Iowa prairie, Kolb sounds dubious. "The American military, it's the most advanced!" he exclaims. "NATO depends on the U.S. military. There's no need to believe the American military is getting weaker. This whole thing, it's so overblown."
Things look and sound a little different when you're a German newspaper reporter covering the American political circus.
Kolb, 35, is a digital correspondent for Süddeutsche Zeitung (literally, "Southern German Newspaper") assigned to his second presidential campaign. If the political process occasionally strikes native-born Americans as odd, it can look positively, well, foreign to a journalist from Munich who's just dropped into the American heartland.
For eight days leading up the Iowa caucuses, Kolb crisscrossed Iowa in a rented Jeep, steeping himself in the quadrennial spectacle. Among other things, he covered a raucous rally for Donald Trump in Des Moines, a Bernie Sanders speech near the Mississippi River in Davenport and a get-out-to-caucus event for Hillary Clinton at the Family Fun Center bowling alley in tiny Adel.
Along the way, Kolb forms one strong impression: Unlike the formal, coalition-building, consensus-driven politics of his native land, the American campaign is a bare-knuckle brawl. Other parliamentary democracies tend to see it the same way. Western Europeans typically can't begin to comprehend, for example, the boorish insults spewed by the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump. Or even Hillary Clinton's fervent bashing of Republican economic policies.
"The hostility is just something we don't do in German politics," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
German reporters aren’t allowed to report on the Rapefugee invasion. A million per year and another 3-5 million on the way. He needs to mind his own ‘circus.’
Responding to idiotic claims from the US left of voting irregularities in our elections, a contingent of UN observers monitored the 2012 elections. When they saw that there was no voter ID required at the polls, they said, “You people are nuts,” packed up, and went back to Europe.
No, you German journalists “don’t do hostility” in your media. You don’t even report on the “hostility” of the rapefugees. As bad as our media is, at least the police aren’t knocking on our doors over political tweets (yet).
He visited only the crazies: Trump Hillary & Sanders.
You don’t do hostility in German politics?
It was too long ago you were shoving people into ovens!!!
That seems a mite hostile.
“NATO depends on the U.S. military. There’s no need to believe the American military is getting weaker. This whole thing, it’s so overblown.”
I’m guessing this belief follows years and years of less spending on the German military?
I watched the Netflix show “Occupied” about a Russian oocupation of Norway to keep Norwegian oil flowing. The EU was in with the Russians, and the U.S. had left NATO.
“Mr. Prime Minister - we have two C-130’s that are available - what do you want us to do!?”
Our German friend had better tighten his seatbelt. The fun’s only starting. Hope he has a great time.
I’ll be boorish and say, Go home you dumb Euroweenie.
A German actually said “We don’t do hostility”
Ba ha ha ha....
That’s priceless.
A German civilian thinks he is qualified to evaluate the adequacy, technology and condition of the military. I have spent thirty years working in the military industrial complex. I talked to soldiers, sailors and airmen regularly. I would guess that only a handful of fully informed officials in each country could offer a legitimate opinion on the subject. But my takeaway is there are fundamental flaws and inadequacies some of which negate size. To be sure, some are with rules, regulations and agendas larded onto the military and they have little to do with size or readiness. They are poisons in the system that weaken the overall structure. Right now, I see a strong appearing force with serious problems out of sight under the skin.
A few simple fixes would cost nothing and help a lot. Get rid of greenness, sexual equality and transgender madness. Promote based on skills and not color or race. Fill up the spares queues.
That is my take. I am sure there are others equally valid.
Mr. niteowl77
I just did some searching on that story. Unsurprisingly, it is very under reported. Breitbart and a couple of paywalled sites were all that came up readily.
He spent one day with the Cruz campaign w a Texan with a big hat he invited to Germany.
It is there, you are just not honest enough to report it.
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