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| Europe | |
| Trump picks antiwar favorite Douglas Macgregor to be German ambassador | |
| 2020-07-28 | |
| McGregor led the Battle of 73 Easting in Iraq in The Gulf War in February 1991. He has often been referred to as a "renegade." IHMO, renegade reads like a war fighter. He would replace Ambassador Richard Grenell, another lightning rod--a good pick [NYPost] President Trump announced Monday that he will nominate retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor to be the next US ambassador to Germany. Macgregor is a favorite among Trump supporters who want to pull US troops from the Mideast and Afghanistan. As ambassador, he would oversee Trump’s plan to slash the substantial US troop presence in Germany. Trump said this year he wants to halve the 52,000 US troops in Germany. The Pentagon in June developed plans to withdraw 9,500. Macgregor speaks fluent German, a source told The Post, and is reputed to be an expert on Germany’s history. Opponents of former White House national security adviser John Bolton lobbied Trump last year to fire Bolton and replace him with Macgregor. That post ultimately went to US hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien. Macgregor gained a following pushing a non-interventionist message on Fox News. He told Tucker Carlson in January that Trump should pull US troops out of Afghanistan because he "that’s why we voted for him." The former colonel, who served in the Gulf War, also urged Trump to withdraw troops from Syria. A White House release says Macgregor "is widely recognized as an expert on force design and grand strategy. He is a frequent radio and television commentator on national security affairs and his writings on military affairs have been influential in the transformation of United States ground forces, NATO, and the Israeli Defense Force." Former US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell stepped down last month after serving as acting US intelligence director. Grenell, who is gay, led a Trump administration campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Grenell was reputed to bring a "Trumpian" approach to relations with German officials. He was a key figure in Trump strategic initiatives, including a campaign to stop a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany and to pressure allies to isolate Iran. Fixed 5:36 AM
Related: Douglas Macgregor: 2012-12-30 2013: Time For US Strategy To Get Real Douglas Macgregor: 2009-06-08 IDF tells officers: Lose the PowerPoint presentations Douglas Macgregor: 2006-04-17 The Generals War - What's Behind The Attacks On Rumsfeld Related: Robert O’Brien: 2020-05-26 Dow futures jump 500 points as investors bet on the economy reopening and a vaccine breakthrough Robert O’Brien: 2020-05-12 Trump orders federal retirement money invested in Chinese equities to be pulled Robert O’Brien: 2019-11-11 Alexander Vindman Gets The Boot | |
| Posted by:JohnQC |
| #17 Prost! |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-28 23:57 |
| #16 Clem - me? I screwed the pooch on my description; my bad. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 23:42 |
| #15 HUH? |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-28 23:29 |
| #14 Wait - I fucked up my description of the exchange rate; it was definitely 1 DM = $2 USD. Guess I'll retire now like Grosjean or Verstappen cracking up their cars again... |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 23:14 |
| #13 EC - yeah, I fucked that one up; my apologies. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 23:11 |
| #12 Well you made it sound like the mark was worth 2 dollars... |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2020-07-28 22:42 |
| #11 FWIW, I wrote that paper on May 20, 1986; the DM / $ exchange rate was approaching 2 / 1, and the major factors were relative inflation rates, inflation rates & their money supplies. Granted I'm half in the bag right now but it's a pretty decent paper. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 22:06 |
| #10 EC - yes, it was - check this out. I did a stats paper back in college (mainframe BMDP 2R stats package) on the dollar / DM exchange rate and right around 1986-1987 that's what it was. I still have that paper and it's amazing / sad that I'm reading this thing and I have trouble understanding some parts of it. Can't remember what Prof. Karson gave me for a grade on it - I'll go w/ a B+. I then used that paper to advise my German professor (UNH, Durham NH) to buy DM's now because the change in US interest rates was gonna make it more expensive for him to exchange for DM's later (he was going over there for a few weeks at that point). That was an oral final and I fucked it up six ways to Sunday because I couldn't remember a lot of the 100 German words relating to statistics in explaining what I came up with. That one was A for effort and something else for execution. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 21:48 |
| #9 When I popped in in 1986, I think the USD hit an all-time low of, like, $1 = DM 1,79. All the stories of "four to one" seemed like ancient history. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-28 21:28 |
| #8 The Mark was strong but not THAT strong ;-) |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2020-07-28 21:14 |
| #7 I thought it was interesting that most of the $2 US bills wound up largely on Army bases back in the mid-1980's in Germany because they'd exchange roughly for one Deutsche Mark. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 21:12 |
| #6 /\ We can only hope...should have been working to ZERO since 9 November 1989 +/-. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-28 21:03 |
| #5 Not for long, EC. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-28 19:55 |
| #4 Hard to believe sometimes that there were over 200,000 US troops in Germany (and not counting family members) barely 30 years ago. In someways that seems like a long time ago, in other ways, it doesn't. |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-28 19:55 |
| #3 There are only between 34,000 and 35,000 US soldiers permanently stationed in Germany, not 52,000. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2020-07-28 19:53 |
| #2 As ambassador, he would oversee Trump’s plan to |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-07-28 12:15 |
| #1 Oh I recognize him! He was a Major during that fight. Good choice from what I know of him. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2020-07-28 09:41 |