Germany Pays the Bills
By Steven J. Grisafi, PhD.
In America we were taught as children that Germany, the German Empire, was to blame for World War I. But who really was responsible for starting World War I? Was it the Serbs? Did the Austro-Hungarians not have a legitimate claim to demand justice for the murder of the heir to their throne? How would the British (and the Americans) react if Prince Charles were to be assassinated even though the British monarch is only a figurehead while the Austro-Hungarian Emperor was a supreme ruler? Was Gavrilo Princip and his organization, the Black Hand, which is known to have been funded clandestinely by the French, responsible for the war? Why do we, those who dwell within the Anglo-American sphere of thought, blame Germany?
Who fired the first shot? Do the bullets fired from the revolver of Gavrilo Princip count as the first shots of the war? Do wars only begin with the firing of bullets? Or do they begin with planning and intentions? What designs did Kaiser Wilhelm II have upon Europe that we in the Anglo-American sphere of thought blame him? Or was it simply a matter that he was determined to support the other German speaking peoples of Europe?
Our fifth president, James Monroe, declared what has come to be called the Monroe Doctrine. It was the statement of America’s determination to support all peoples of the Western Hemisphere from any hegemony by the peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, his resolve was not carried forward to the administration of our 40th president when conflict pitted cultures of the English speaking world with that of the Spanish speaking world. Although President Reagan hesitated, we all understood, each and every American, that this was mere posturing and that America would support the British against the Argentinians in the Falkland War. Yet, from the depths of our continued hypocrisy, we blame the Kaiser for his like-minded intentions.
The problem with NATO is that it serves America’s desire to spread its soft empire around the world. The best solution for the Ukrainian people would have been for the Ukraine to become part of the European Union. Unfortunately, the European Union has not become the powerful entity it should have become because we Americans have kept the Europeans divided amongst themselves by using our NATO wedge. As expected, the American Congress provides the weaponry so that Europeans can kill one another. This problem goes back to World War I when America ought to have remained neutral. Remarkably, despite being wedged between the combatants, the Netherlands maintained their neutrality. But America could not. Had we not intervened there would never have been World War II.
Too often we Americans hear repeated ad nauseam the superficial, and misleading, announcement that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine has united the West as never before. Unfortunately this tidbit of news is swallowed readily by the American people because few are actually well informed regarding the European Union and NATO. Americans are not aware that each and every time President Macron and the French propose strengthening the military capability of the Europe Union they are met with protests, most notably from Eastern European countries who fear Russia, that the European Union should not duplicate what they already possess with NATO. While most Americans lamented BREXIT, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, I welcomed it because I understand that the British were the largest stumbling block to the development of the European Union as a military power. The French and the Italians desire this. But the British and Poles would prefer to keep America entrenched within European affairs.
Listen to what America’s retired generals are saying. There is little meaning within the lives of such creatures unless they participate in war. They are determined to use the Ukrainian people as the cannon fodder needed to complete the task that they could not do using American soldiers. America is fighting a proxy war with the Russian Federation using the Ukrainian people as the cannon fodder. The retired American generals are determined to see the Ukrainian people not only “break the back” (Lt. General Ben Hodges) of the Russian Federation but actually achieve its dissolution. This was also the desired objective those American hawks had regarding Syria until the Russians intervened.
Germany pays the bills. What the Ukrainians, and the Eastern European nations, who are net recipients of European Union tax money, need to understand is that without the importation of inexpensive Russian natural gas and materials Germany would not have the budget surplus it has that enables it to pay the lion’s share of taxes to the European Union from which they benefit. As an American, I bristle against this entitlement attitude adopted by Ukrainians and Eastern Europeans that it is in some way the obligation of both the Germans and us, the Americans, to support war against the Russians. When I was a child we hid under our desks as schoolchildren during air raid drills in preparation of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union of which the Ukrainians were an integral part. As I see it, the Ukrainians were no less responsible for the Soviet Union’s share of the blame for the Cold War than are the Russians. Yet now the Ukrainians adopt a petulant attitude of entitlement expecting sacrifice from both Americans and Germans because they choose to turn traitor on their Slavic brothers. But Serbia, and the Southern Slavs, have not forgotten when the Russians saved them from the Turks. The best that we can hope for now at this late stage of the Ukrainian crisis is for the American people to recognize that we are not needed as part of NATO. The Europeans can protect themselves from whatever challenges they confront. Europe and the world would be a more peaceful place if America did not seek to spread its soft empire using NATO.