You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Europe
Merkel opposes US plan to withdraw troops from Germany
2020-08-04
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by:Fred

#17  Sadly, there are so many who don't dare venture out and are quite content with driving 50-100 miles to the nearest "super" PX/BX to eat Popeye's chicken look at the whole lotta nothing in the exchange.
Posted by: Clem   2020-08-04 23:31  

#16  I suspect the Germans would be happy to see the US Military leave, they just want the US paychecks to stay behind in their local economies.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2020-08-04 21:56  

#15  "Thank you for your invaluable input, Angry Merkin. We shall be sure to take it under advisement. Please stay on the line, as your call is very important to us."
Posted by: charger   2020-08-04 14:00  

#14  
Posted by: Jiling Gravitch9209   2020-08-04 13:48  

#13  Whaaaa....

Germany will survive just fine without them.
Or it won't.
Posted by: DarthVader   2020-08-04 09:15  

#12  "That was just a talking point to get German politicians elected. You weren't supposed to take us seriously!"
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136   2020-08-04 08:07  

#11  It took a while, but sometimes you get what you ask for. Amis raus.
Posted by: Clem   2020-08-04 07:34  

#10  The little green guy said "do or do not, there is no try". You did not. So long, thanks for all the fish beer.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-08-04 07:15  

#9  Maggie has it right at #7. To many people, if it's the Orange Man's idea, it can't possibly be seen as a good thing.

German rents around US military bases are driven by the Army or US Military housing allowances, pretty much the same as everywhere else. I don't blame the Germans.

Many places overseas have two prices, one for the locals and one for the well fed Americans. If you know that going in, then there should be no surprises.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-08-04 05:31  

#8  "As a German, living in a city with a strong IMMIGRANT presence, I notice that they drive up rents. Not being a landlord, I see no reason why they should not leave."
Would get you called waycist
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2020-08-04 04:11  

#7  Yeah, Germans were all in favor of throwing unwanted US occupiers off their territory - right up until Trump agreed with them. Then to avoid being on the same side, in a scene right out of 1984 they did a 180 and began bleating the opposite opinion, with no acknowledgement that they ever changed. Recovered from the memory hole:

"These bases are there for American power projection across the world. Your military bases are a logistics hub for operations in the Middle East and elsewhere. Ramstein Air Base is used for coordinating drone strikes. Landstuhl has the biggest US military hospital abroad. Germany is paying for that infrastructure. If you reduce the amount of troops, the ONLY country that is losing something from it is the US. Germany gets zero benefit from them except for economic stimulus for the towns where the bases are located."

"The sooner that the USA withdraw back to their own country, the sooner we can expect peace to retake the driving seat forward into the future. The very last thing we need is to continue with variants of the "Marshall Plan", which is what propelled the USA into the economic position it has found itself in for the last 50 years. "Yanks go home" should resonate with everyone in Europe - if not the entire world - if we are not to end up enslaved and subjugated by the greed that the USA is built upon."

"As a German, living in a city with a strong US presence, I notice that they drive up rents. Not being a landlord, I see no reason why they should not leave."

"You would be surprised how little the USA contribute to any of the countries in which they have military bases. Yes, a few "GIs" venture off base and spend a few dollars, but everyone else pays with the increase in prices local to those bases, just as everyone would pay dearly in the event of a situation happening which the USA might deem to launch military actions against some "enemy" of the other - everyone is a possible target then, from every side involved. A lose-lose situation for Europe, but a very profitable one for the US military equipment industry."

I could go on, but you get the idea. It was a very common sentiment before a couple of days ago when it changed.
Posted by: Maggie Poodle6767   2020-08-04 03:43  

#6  She's probably getting blow back from those seeing the US taking their money to Poland, the realization that the majority of their energy now comes from Russia whom they realize really loves Germans , and basically that she's a watermelon (green on the outside red on the inside.)
Posted by: Thaith Elmeresing6163   2020-08-04 03:21  

#5  Several months after Trump took office, Merkel made waves when she said that the United States under Trump along with Britain, which voted to leave the EU, were no longer reliable partners and that Europe should "take its fate into its own hands.". Yahoo News
Posted by: Vespasian Ebbereng3110   2020-08-04 01:17  

#4  President Trump made clear his condition, she made clear it was not acceptable. They can both feel they won, if they want.
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-08-04 01:15  

#3  Wants to have her cake and bite the hand feeding her, too.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2020-08-04 00:56  

#2  That's just too gawddam bad, toots. By the way, your hair goes well with that mask.
Posted by: Clem   2020-08-04 00:19  

#1  Sorry honey.
Posted by: Skidmark   2020-08-04 00:05  

00:00