Agree. Many people don’t realize that our presence in Europe (i.e., Germany) was two fold:
1) The first, obvious, one being to stop Soviet expansionism.
2) The second, not so obvious, was to prevent Germans from becoming...well, Germans, again.
In fact, due to #2, they’ve been forced to use other means to subjugate Europe (i.e., economic). Not only is this much slower than sending tanks into France, it also isn’t as assured, particularly when considering Brexit and now Italy.
It is easy to get out from under economic domination, traumatic, devastating perhaps, but easy- bankruptcy. It is not so easy to get out from under a tank.
What would be Stasi alumna Merkel be like with a real German-built military?
I respectfully disagree with you and arthurus. Your arguments, though excellent discussion points, fail to take into account 73 years of breeding that has taken place since the end of WWII.
At least arguably, the DNA of the German man (potential warrior) has changed dramatically. You might even say it has gone backwards. German men today are effeminate in infinitely larger numbers than they were in the early 1940’s. German men are pacifistic in much larger numbers today than in in 1940. German men are Liberal in much higher numbers. Contrarily, German men in the 1940’s were, in large numbers, strong, aggressive and effectively vicious/ruthless ergo feared, in general.
In short, the German Man of 2018 compared to the German Man of 1940 is simply not the SAME and that has to be taken into account when considering US NATO policy.
Many people, knowledgeable of the German man in 2018, agree that the % of German “Warrior Men” today, compared to 1940, is way less ergo worrying that Germany will ever have another Wehrmacht is considerably doubtful.
We failed to contain Germany. All we did was slow it, but it’s back to it’s natural tyrannical state. Think the world just needs to realise we have to bomb Germany every 25 years.