By Arnold Schölzel
Military planning certainty looks different, and reliable foreign policy is nonexistent. With Donald Trump, this is even less true than usual when it comes to so-called allies—in other words, loudmouths. Anyone expecting this has been asleep since his second term and should rethink their political approach. The Western European approach is straightforward, so it wouldn’t pose a problem. It contains roughly ten commandments, all of which boil down to: ruin Russia and somehow defeat it. Superstition is necessary for victory over the Muscovites and, by tradition, remains particularly unshakable in Germany. Here, Russia mania sometimes drives the ruling class almost to the point of self-destruction. But they are happy to be rescued by the USA.
Therefore, if it is currently emerging from Washington that the Germans will soon have to live with 5,000 fewer GIs, Poland will wait in vain for 4,000 for the time being, and the US troop strength according to NATO commander, i.e. the US General Alexus Grynkewich, will be reduced in a “continuous process over several years” has some people jumping out of bed, others, such as in Berlin, are silent, and Warsaw is downplaying it. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna is among the former, who had a message conveyed to the Financial Times on Wednesday, saying he expected “more coordinated channels” of communication in such cases. This will surely land on Trump’s desk.
Silence and downplaying the issue are appropriate. The number of US soldiers in Western Europe that, according to Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, allow the US and Israel to conduct their genocidal land acquisition campaigns – Israel has now effectively annexed more than 1,000 square kilometers in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria – is unknown. Sometimes the figure is 100,000, sometimes 80,000. Only long-term reductions could bring about any qualitative change.
Germany’s silence on the troop roulette has another dimension, however: The unreliable Trump, the German mainstream press is ranting, is alleged to have gifted Taiwan to Xi Jinping. If true, the dream of a Far Eastern front against China would almost certainly be shattered. The NATO Europeans are struggling to maintain their front against Russia, primarily through German financial contributions. If the US troop reductions continue, the war strategy against Russia and China is doomed. The new German “leading power” in the EU will then have its work cut out for it.
Previously published in German in the newspaper Junge Welt here. Translation with AI support by UWI.