Posted on 03/04/2011 5:27:24 PM PST by Kaslin
According to Bismarck's best-known maxim on Europe's most troublesome region, the Balkans are not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. Americans could be forgiven for harboring similar sentiments after the murder of two U.S. airmen in Germany by a Kosovar Muslim.
Remember Kosovo? Me neither. But it was big at the time, launched by Bill Clinton in the wake of his Monica difficulties: Make war, not love, as the boomers advise. So Clinton did — and without any pesky U.N. resolutions, or even the pretense of seeking them.
Instead, he and Tony Blair and even Jacques Chirac just cried "Bombs away!" and got on with it. And the left didn't mind at all — because, for a modern western nation, war is only legitimate if you have no conceivable national interest in whatever war you're waging.
Unlike Iraq and all its supposed "blood for oil," in Kosovo no one remembers why we went in, what the hell the point of it was, or which side were the good guys. (Answer: Neither.) The principal rationale advanced by Clinton and Blair was that there was no rationale. This was what they called "liberal interventionism", which boils down to: The fact that we have no reason to get into it justifies our getting into it.
A decade on, Kosovo is a sorta sovereign state, and in Frankfurt a young airport employee is so grateful for what America did for his people that he guns down U.S. servicemen while yelling "Allahu akbar!"
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
..and Guam is going to capsize
--- "MLF Lullaby" by Tom Lehrer
Watch what I call Eugene Robinson
“Europe saves billions by having us provide their defense. That’s one of the reasons Europe’s been able to provide all the Socialist goodies to their citizens.
We have, in effect, been subsidizing their social programs. They’re big boys, let ‘em pay their own way.”
Our current trouble is FAR, FAR more difficult than our military presence in Europe (not just Germany).
We HAVE had the military in Europe since WWII.
We hae NOT ha economic problems even remotely approaching today.
We've been subsidizing their socialism and a more laid back life featuring vacations lasting the whole month of August. If we're going to have to pay for Obamacare, I'd rather do it for the benefit of Americans than paying for the health care of Germans and Belgians.
While Europe relaxes, we've been on a war footing since December 7, 1941.
Despite all our political back and forth, Germany has a larger context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases
If you have an international map, and you chart where the US military is, internationally, including the typical routes of the US fleets, some interesting associations become noticeable. You notice nodes of activity, where there are a whole bunch of US military, and you also notice smaller bases, that have connections with their region’s major node.
Each of these nodes corresponds to regional population centers around the world, where possible. We are in the midst of things—all sorts of things.
Now go back in time to the previous, world dominating Empire, the British. It can be said in truth that, at its height, “the sun never sets on the British Empire.” This is because almost every island in the world was claimed by, or had a British presence.
And this raises a very good question of why? Why, literally hundreds of islands, most of which were desolate and useless.
Because this was how “The British Navy ruled the waves.” They used all those islands then, like we use our bases, as nodes and satellites. But we have done the British one better.
In addition to our bases, our aircraft carrier fleets are effectively a chain of floating islands. And between the two, we have a commanding presence on both the land and the sea.
This is reflected in how we have set up our world “Unified Combatant Command” system. Each command is responsible for a huge region of land, *and* a huge area of sea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Combatant_Command
Please note that the headquarters of not one, but two of these UCCs are located in Germany.
Makes sense. The Germans have shown that when they are defeated, they come back bigger, badder, and meaner.
Most of our troops are out of Germany.
The hospital is world class and much too important an asset to turn over to Germany.
It’s usually the first stop for our grievously wounded troops who are stabilized and treated there first.
I am proud of having served to suppress European independence.
Nobody lays it all out like Steyn.
The real reason we stayed was to prevent Germany from rising up and starting another World War, after 2. .................................. Spare me, we neutered Germany after the war. We demolished their fighting spirit and it will be a long time before they ever get to that point again, especially with their current multiculturalism. Their goose stepping days are history.
Because the Germans can snap into being psychopathic mass murdering megalomaniacal lunatic wannabe world conquerors at the drop of a hat.
Oh, and hot chicks.
Steyn is right. By the early ‘50’s we should have had a very light presence in Europe, Germany in particular. I was there ‘67 through ‘69, somewhere west of the Fulda Gap, helping face down Brezhnev’s hordes.
Had we come home, Europe would have had to provide for its own defense, and we would have saved billions of dollars. Europe could not have afforded socialism and the 30 hour work week with two months vacation yearly had they been paying their own way through the latter half of the Twentieth Century.
I want to know when
Excellent point.
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