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| El Paso becomes hostile territory for German troops |
| 2003-04-04 |
| For 35 years, there has been a single permanent force of foreign troops on US soil, here on the western tip of Texas, home of the largest air defence training centre in the world and the permanent home of Germany's Air Force Command. On joint training exercises, over pilseners at the Soldatenstube pub, the two forces have coalesced as partners, a proud emblem of post-World War II alliances. But the war against Iraq is beginning to weaken that cherished solidarity. As Germany's opposition to the war has grown increasingly strident, as the mood here plunges with word that Iraqis have killed or captured at least 15 Fort Bliss soldiers, the troops are suddenly viewing each other with a wary, distant eye. After all these years, they are - once again - strangers more than allies. The changes are subtle. There are no brawls, and publicly military officials on both sides downplay the tension or deny that it exists. But privately some military personnel at Fort Bliss grumble about the irony of welcoming German troops only to watch them lay their arms down when America went to war. "It's shocking," Eric Hildreth, a Department of Defence official who oversees sports programs at Fort Bliss, said of Germany's war opposition. Some German and American families who have been neighbours for years are suddenly not speaking to one another. "I don't understand this stand-off," said Skip Stoltenberg, an El Paso resident who was born in Germany and emigrated to the US in 1948 after marrying a US Army officer. Ilse Irwin, 73, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, near Frankfurt, and emigrated to the US as a Fulbright scholar in 1954. A practising Catholic, the retired university professor devotes much of her time to fighting hatred and genocide, largely by working with the area's Jewish community. Irwin volunteers at the local Holocaust museum, and lately has steeled herself every time she has to guide German airmen through an exhibit or take them on a tour of a local temple. Repeatedly, she said, they have been hostile about her work. Some have raised questions about the US's agenda and suggested that the motivation for the war is oil and the close relationship between the US and Israel - a common charge in Western Europe. "I've had a terrible time," she said. "They say that Israelis are just modern-day Nazis. I defend Israel, but I get very nervous because I don't want to blow my cool. I don't hear it too often. But I hear it often enough." Fort Bliss, built before the days of Pancho Villa as a cavalry outpost to protect the border, became the US Army's air defence centre during World War II. With increased attention focused on the Middle East, its desert conditions and surrounding military bases have increased the post's importance to both the US military and its allies. Thirty-one allied nations train here, said Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt. Only Germany, however, has used US facilities to house permanent military installations. German officials say they reap a number of benefits from being in Texas, from the ease of purchasing US weapons systems to the arid weather. German troops have their own school, church and social club, and have long forged close friendships with US residents and military officials. Postings to Fort Bliss, which often last three years, are seen as plum assignments, leading some Germans to break their ties with the military and move to El Paso permanently. Many German families become taken with the area's culture and several German airmen are so enamoured with Texas that they've become proficient rodeo riders. "Many of them return over and over again," Offutt said. "It's a lifestyle that is very different for them. And they love it." Even among European leaders who have denounced the war as reckless and unnecessary, however, Germany's opposition has been vociferous. One sign carried by a protester last week at Berlin's Brandenberg Gate read: "Stupid war; Mindless violence." The tension has escalated in America, too. In Tennessee, one high school cancelled a scheduled student-exchange program with a German school, citing Germany's opposition to the war. Sad times, I did two tours in Germany and worked with the German Air Force stationed at Holloman. Had a great time. There were a few protestors in Germany, but nothing like what I see now. I wonder if the influx of East Germans has poisoned the well. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 Having lived and worked in Hungary for three years with the U.S. Department of State just after the end of Communism, I found a few differences in general attitude and outlook between the West and East Europeans. The East, including many East Germans, know first hand what oppression is. Those from the West are more concerned with keeping their socialist benefits, and don't seem to be concerned about the gathering clouds over the last decade. |
| Posted by: D Hyatt 2003-04-04 16:20:10 |
| #5 mCrane -- the Ossis got the long and short end of the stick as it were: they got to become part of the largest and (at the time) most dynamic economy in Western Europe, but also paid a price in the process. While the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, etc. gained their independence and found their own paths to democracy and economic liberalization, the East Germans -- very happily initially -- essentially handed their fates to Helmut Kohl and the bureaucrats in Bonn and cultivated the notion among themselves that they could just kick back and prosperity and good times would roll overthem like a warm, gentle wave out of the West. So while the east Germans were of course grateful not to live under a communist police state any longer, they were given unrealistically high expectations of the implications of reunification. Thus many in the east feel like they were sold out to uncaring and unresponsive government and corporate interests. Of course it was all a lot more complicated than that. Overnight, West Germany essentially absorbed a bankrupt third-world country into a first-world economy at enormous cost to its taxpayers and businesses, but has found it increasingly difficult to recreate the conditions for a second "German miracle" in the east, such as the west experienced in the 50's and 60's. |
| Posted by: JTE 2003-04-04 16:03:13 |
| #4 I find this deeply disturbing in a somewhat historical context. Prior to the rise of Nazism Germans also were experiencing a deep sense of loss of national pride and were grasping at seemingly anything that might help restore their nationalistic "sense". We all know where that led last century and to hear that the same sort of thing might be stirring there again is, well, disturbing to say the least (not that I really believe that Germans would embrace anything close to Nazism or fascism again, but you have to look at the historical precedence I think). |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2003-04-04 15:23:28 |
| #3 Like a mirror of the Middle East, old Europe has problems - and rather than realizing that the majority of the blame resides in the choices they have made themselves, they point to âThe Superpowerâ who surely must be prospering at their expense. It is total leftist nonsense â Germany, France, et al have 1) chosen socialism over the past decades, despite it proven track record of failures and 2) opened their borders, seriously diluting their internal native ability to self-correct from their poor choices. The result? Intellectual bigotries of all types; political war waged against the US, hatred for the US, and alignment with countries whose racism against Israel and Jews worldwide cannot be denied. At one time I thought that the Middle Eastern despots and the kingdoms of the area were merely keeping their people distracted from the evil plight being inflicted upon them by whipping up the straw man of racism (i.e. by pointing the finger at the Jews in their back yard and at the US who supports them). I thought this merely the rhetoric of evil by regionally isolated benign totalitarians - and that it should be relatively easy to manage politically (or with the dropping of a couple of well placed bombs, as President Reagan did in Libya). But as I look back over the recent decades of Middle East history, witnessing the willingness of the not so ignorant leadership within those countries to turn their governments over to radical Islam, witnessing the eagerness of the not so ignorant leadership within those countries to develop weapons of mass destruction, witnessing the enthusiasm with which they are willing to train terrorists (even to the point raping childhood from their offspring by selling their children as slaves to the likes of Sadam - by training them as child terrorists/murderers), and having witnessed the crazed passion with which they embrace all western technology to achieve their goals â I no longer view Europe (or any other part of the world) as easily or correctly politically managed. In the 60s it took Kennedyâs will to tell the USSR that it would indeed pull the plug on our nuclear missiles to defend the US way of life. And now I thank God Bush has the will to tell the despots of the world that we will come after terrorists and all nations who harbor them. |
| Posted by: R Bennett 2003-04-04 15:20:12 |
| #2 Re: Influx of East Germans. Observing the reaction and support for the US of the old eastern block countries, I would think the East Germans would be more supportive. Do you have info that is different? |
| Posted by: mCrane 2003-04-04 14:28:12 |
| #1 Disenchanted Ossis may having something to do with it, but it seems to be running deeper than that. Having lived and studied in Germany and Austria for some time, one thing I picked up on, particularly in young Germans, was a very dark sense of their own guilt in history. Germany was guilty of starting two world wars and nearly exterminating a whole race. It's drilled into them as young kids, giving them the sense that there's really nothing -- aside from producing nice cars -- for their country to be proud of. Now that Germany's economy is in the dumps and both Schroeder and Merkel (head of the conservative CDP) are deeply distrusted and disliked, this "Erbitterung" is growing. It's left a deep vaccum in the national soul that's easily filled with all sorts of lunacies as they attempt to grasp for something that will restore a sense of political pride and direction in the society. Until recently, neo-Nazism or radical leftism were two attractive possibilities, but both tinged with violence and generally looked down upon by the middle classes. Anti-americanism, on the other hand, is something everyone can safely rally around because there's a facade of superior morality to hide behind. Lashing out at imperious America, and viewing it as a loose consortium of all the world's dark conspiratorial economic, political and social forces -- is a way for German gen-Xers to unload a lot of their collective psychological baggage. |
| Posted by: JTE 2003-04-04 14:13:56 |