Saturday, 11 May 2013

GERMANY MOVING CENTER STAGE IN THE GEOPOLITICAL THEATER






GERMANY’S BOLD NEW COUNTERINSURGENCY IDEAS

Source: TheTrumpet

Comment by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring

"The Trumpet" and its somewhat bias reporting on German matters
It should be noted that TheTrumpet.com seems to portray GERMANY in maybe not to impartial way, as one can see when reading previous articles regarding GERMANY on their Webpage. In view of these facts, Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring has added the original Article, which is written in GERMAN, from German-Foreign-Policy.com. 
See:
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/05/deutschlands-neue-geopolitische.html

 Despite this somewhat bias view of GERMANY one cannot neglect that GERMANY indeed, over the last couple of years has not only strengthened its economic position in the world theater, but changed its doctrine on how to command its current and future military. Not too long ago GERMANS still felt guilty of their past, which reflected on how their military and command structure was run, always repressing their true potential because of the “guilt factor”. This has changed in recent past and thus GERMANY, rightly so, has become more confident and thus ventured out gradually into terrains, which previously seemed impossible for the military, due to political relics of the past. 







Executive Summary:
  •       Germany’s bold new counterinsurgency ideas
  • ·         U.S. military drawdown in the northern hemisphere forces GERMANY to take center  stage in defense priorities
  • ·         Social unrest and political uncertainty will continue to define the EUROZONE for the foreseeable future
  • ·         More assertive Bundeswehr to be deployed in areas designated by the GERMAN government as “potential future scenarios” for conflict.
  • ·         Changing the culture of the Bundeswehr
  • ·         GERMAN government committed to extend GERMANY’S involvement in AFGHANISTAN
  • ·         UK and USA oblivious to the dangers of a “more assertive” GERMAN military
  • ·         Confident new GERMANY is emerging from behind its EUROPEAN UNION cloak
U.S. MILITARY DRAW-DOWN IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE FORCES GERMANY TO TAKE CENTER STAGE IN DEFENSE PRIORITIES 

GERMANY’S Federal Ministry of Defense has received the results of a study it commissioned seeking advice on counterinsurgency efforts in the wake of U.S. military drawdown in the Northern Hemisphere.
Prepared by researchers at the University of Kiel, “the counterinsurgency study calls inter alia for the stricter centralization of command authority and a drastic enhancement of the espionage apparatus”.
The report reveals a startlingly Teutonic aggression in the language used.
The reason given for recommending the raising of GERMANY’S counterinsurgency effort is easy to guess. It is in line with the raising of Germany’s military profile that we have predicted ever since the U.S. administration announced a refocusing of its defense priorities to embrace the ASIAN sphere to a loss of focus on the NORTHERN Hemisphere, in particular EUROPE and the MIDDLE EAST.
German-Foreign-Policy.com, quoting wordage from the Kiel study, states that it was conducted “against the background of the ‘geostrategic realignment’ of the U.S. toward SOUTHEAST ASIA.” In the light of this realignment of U.S. defense priorities, the report claims that the GERMAN government has “in the future more responsibility to take over the maintenance of stability and security of EUROPEAN borders in troubled regions.”
The report claims that “it is in the interest of GERMAN ‘foreign policy’ to assist in ending the rebellion and restoring order and safety for the governments of ‘fragile’ respectively ‘weak’ states whose ‘stability’ is being threatened by ‘insurgents.’” 

SOCIAL UNREST AND POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY WILL CONTINUE TO DEFINE THE EUROZONE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE

In the author’s view it is obviously a responsibility of the GERMAN government to decide which are those “fragile,” “weak” states whose “stability” is being threatened. The recent expression of GERMAN attitudes toward GREECE and CYPRUS comes to mind. With a situation extant in EUROPE that leads analysts to claim “social unrest and political uncertainty will continue to define the EUROZONE for the foreseeable future,” any number of EU states could be read to fit that definition.
Not so long back in history, a certain GERMAN leader apparently decided that POLAND, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, BELGIUM and the NETHERLANDS were “fragile,” “weak” states whose “stability” was being threatened, and overran them in Blitzkrieg warfare! 

In words not used to describe GERMAN foreign policy for 70 years, author of the report, Robin Schroeder of the Institute for Security Studies at the University of Kiel, declares that, “Strategically, one must focus on ‘all means available to the state’ to smash action directed against WESTERN [GERMAN] interests by resistance movements, but also of ‘over-ambitious state building project(s)’ such as adopted in AFGHANISTAN” (op. cit.; emphasis added throughout). 

Schroeder then observes that the role of the Bundeswehr is critical to the success of GERMANY’S counterinsurgency initiatives, calling for a wider deployment of the GERMAN military to “be placed so that they can be used immediately in potential future scenarios which require the management of a rebellion and the fight against irregular forces.”
Again, the assessment of “potential future scenarios” is left up to the GERMAN government to decide. This is highly dangerous reasoning as, if enacted, it could give the GERMAN military high command carte blanche in assessing just what comprises such “potential future scenarios.” 

MORE ASSERTIVE BUNDESWEHR TO BE DEPLOYED IN AREAS DESIGNATED BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT AS “POTENTIAL FUTURE SCENARIOS” FOR CONFLICT. 

For some time now GERMAN elites have duped both their own press and mass media and the news media at large into publicizing stories of a reduction in GERMAN military capability. This is to hide the reality of a heightened aggression in the strategic planning of the GERMAN High Command and the glaring fact of a GERMAN industry yet once again highly tooled for the production of military weapons. 

Now, using the excuse of the threat of stability in EUROPE posed ostensibly by “fragile,” “weak” states, GERMANY’S Ministry of Defense is about to adopt plans that will produce what Spiegel Online once termed a “more assertive Bundeswehr,” deployed not only in current theaters of combat, but even in areas designated by the GERMAN government as “potential future scenarios” for conflict. 

One vital key to the preparation of the GERMAN military for its “more assertive” role has been the Bundeswehr’s involvement in AFGHANISTAN. This has provided GERMAN troops and their officer cadre with vital battle hardening not experienced since World War 2. For Bundeswehr officers, it has involved not only the command of the 4,000 German troops in AFGHANISTAN, but also, on occasion, a command extended to the over 11,000 NATO contingent deployed in that country. 

CHANGING THE CULTURE OF THE BUNDESWEHR

Maj. Gen. Hans-Werner Fritz was the first GERMAN officer to order an artillery salvo in combat in a foreign theater since World War 2. Since that experience in Kunduz, AFGHANISTAN, in July 2011, GERMAN troops have been engaged in many more such battles in that country.
As Spiegel observed, “The counterinsurgency operation in AFGHANISTAN is also slowly changing the culture of the Bundeswehr, whose operational thinking had until then been largely shaped by its experience of peacekeeping in the BALKANS”. The extent to which “counterinsurgency” strategy may be used to justify GERMAN military expansion is made very clear in the Kiel report to the GERMAN Defense Ministry.
The propaganda effect of soldiers returning home who have been hardened in combat in AFGHANISTAN is not lost on such as Major General Fritz. He “speaks of a ‘different generation’ of young GERMAN officers who, unlike their predecessors, have seen extensive combat. ‘Obviously these young people are affected by what they experience,’ he says. ‘They have a clear idea of the sharp end of our profession. They take their experiences back home to GERMANY with them, and I think that’s a good thing’” (ibid). 

GERMAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO VOTE FOR AN EXTENSION OF GERMANY’S INVOLVEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN 

Meanwhile, the fact that AFGHANISTAN offered the GERMAN military its most ideal combat training ground since World War 2 has not been lost on GERMAN defense elites.
“… GERMAN armed forces have sent their best generals, officers, corporals, elite units and new equipment to the front at the Hindukush, which shows the priority of this years-long engagement for the government in Berlin and its commitment for success” (World Security Network, March 8, 2011).
The full extent of the command experience that GERMAN forces are experiencing in AFGHANISTAN—which partway explains why the GERMAN government continues to vote for an extension of GERMANY’S involvement in that theater—is summed up in the following (ibid):
After the transfer of command from Maj. Gen. Hans-Werner Fritz on Feb. 24, 2011, RC North is under the command of Bundeswehr Maj. Gen. Markus Kneip with U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Sean P. Mulholland as his deputy. They are responsible for nine provinces stretching 900 kilometers east to west and 400 kilometers north to south. Included are 14 cities (like Mazar-e-Sharif or Kunduz) and 9,000 small villages. It borders five neighboring countries: TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN, TASCHKISTAN, CHINA and PAKISTAN. 

UK AND USA OBLIVIOUS TO THE DANGERS OF A “MORE ASSERTIVE” GERMAN MILITARY

The administrations in London and Washington remain largely oblivious to the dangers of a “more assertive” GERMAN military. While they are increasingly diverted by significant financial and economic challenges plus the prospect of increasing social disruption at home—and with the U.S strategic focus transferred largely to SOUTHEAST ASIA—GERMANY quietly reasserts itself in its traditional militaristic, imperialist role.
There’s more than a sense of déjà vu about all this. There are certain uncanny parallels with the 1930s. Yet there is a voice that is increasingly answering the prophetic call to warn of the impending storm that is even now building in EUROPE’S heartland. A voice that is but an extension of that which once declared, even as GERMANY lay prostrate before the victorious Allies’ feet, that GERMANY would arise to repeat, just one more time, its effort to gain global imperialist rule. 

A CONFIDENT NEW GERMANY IS EMERGING FROM BEHIND ITS EUROPEAN UNION CLOAK

That original voice was Herbert W. Armstrong.
Over 40 years ago he pointed out that “Back in 1934, I predicted the future but somewhat imminent union of the nations of EUROPE, resurrecting the ancient Roman Empire .… No one believed it, then. People laughed and scoffed and ridiculed. Most thought GERMANY could not rise again in 50 years .… Look at the result today. BRITAIN, victorious in the war, has lost her empire, and been reduced to a second-rate power in the world. GERMANY, defeated in the war, has risen to become one of the major powers” (Plain Truth, February 1970). Now the new GERMANY, which some are already calling the Fourth Reich, is emerging from behind its EUROPEAN UNION cloak. 

AND WHAT DO WE SEE REVEALED? 

Of all things, a newly reassertive, militarizing GERMANY. The very thing that Churchill and Roosevelt declared they would never, ever permit to reoccur!
In February 1945 at the Yalta Conference of the heads of the Allied powers, in calling for GERMANY’S unconditional surrender, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin declared, “It is our inflexible purpose to destroy GERMAN militarism and Nazism and to ensure that GERMANY will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world. We are determined to disarm and disband all GERMAN armed forces, break up for all time the GERMAN General Staff that has repeatedly contrived the resurgence of GERMAN militarism .…” 

Comment by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring: Though one can argue that some views expressed in above of above paragraph: “That original voice was Herbert W. Armstrong” are indeed worrisome, they seem somewhat farfetched. Clearly the author of the article has no insight and profound knowledge of the GERMAN mentality in postwar GERMANY. And although GERMANY has become aware of its increasing influence of power on the world stage, above article reflects unjustified fears from an Anglo-Saxon point of view. Last but not least one can also detect a bit of envy. 

For further background information see related articles: 


NORTH AGAINST SOUTH: IS THE EUROZONE IRREVOCABLY DIVIDED? At: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/04/european-shadow-state-faces-growing.html




EUROPE HAS BECOME GERMANY. At: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/the-us-turns-its-back-on-europe.html

AUSTERITY POLICIES ADVOCATED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION - PROMOTED PRIMARILY BY GERMANY’S ANGELA MERKEL. At:
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/france-chooses-path-of-austerity.html


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