Germany wants Europe to form a 'counterweight' to US

[zectech]

U.S. officials have long denied acquiescing to Iraqi chemical attacks, insisting that Hussein’s government never announced he was going to use the weapons. But retired Air Force Col. Rick Francona, who was a military attaché in Baghdad during the 1988 strikes, paints a different picture.

“The Iraqis never told us that they intended to use nerve gas. They didn’t have to. We already knew,” he told Foreign Policy.

According to recently declassified CIA documents and interviews with former intelligence officials like Francona, the U.S. had firm evidence of Iraqi chemical attacks beginning in 1983. At the time, Iran was publicly alleging that illegal chemical attacks were carried out on its forces, and was building a case to present to the United Nations. But it lacked the evidence implicating Iraq, much of which was contained in top secret reports and memoranda sent to the most senior intelligence officials in the U.S. government. The CIA declined to comment for this story.

Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran

The U.S. knew Hussein was launching some of the worst chemical attacks in history -- and still gave him a hand.

foreignpolicy.com

Since Iraq was attacking Iranian enemies of the US, US knew of chemical weapon use and did not alert the world to get support for Iran, who was trying to let the UN know of what was happening.

Europe wants to form a counterweight against this:

Europeans are well aware of US dirty nothing tricks.

 

[PeaceGen]

Europe wants to form a counterweight against this:

Europeans are well aware of US dirty nothing tricks.

i'd say that outside of defence forums like this here, very few Europeans are aware of the US' dirty tricks.

and just because one German defense minister (who could get replaced at the next elections there) says he wants to form a counterweight, does not mean that all of Europe wants that. It's called a political trial-balloon, and we've yet to see if it'll stay up in the air at all. Statements like these are usually quickly snowed over by differing opinions in the western media.

 

[vi-va]

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1960s-america/a/the-vietnam-war

Overview

• The Vietnam War was a prolonged military conflict that started as an anticolonial war against the French and evolved into a Cold War confrontation between international communism and free-market democracy.
• The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries, while the United States and its anticommunist allies backed the Republic of Vietnam (ROV) in the south.
• President Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated US involvement in the conflict, authorizing a series of intense bombing campaigns and committing hundreds of thousands of US ground troops to the fight.
• After the United States withdrew from the conflict, North Vietnam invaded the South and united the country under a communist government.

I mean the competition nowadays has little to do with communism.

 

[PeaceGen]

I mean the competition nowadays has little to do with communism.

that's not what the Americans are saying! they are *very* worried about socialism / communism infecting their own political system!

(you'd know this if you'd watch Fox News a little more from time to time, like i do)

 

[vi-va]

that's not what the Americans are saying! they are *very* worried about socialism / communism infecting their own political system!

(you'd know this if you'd watch Fox News a little more from time to time, like i do)

Americans system is just a modern feudality. It's Aristocracy, Vetocrazy, Kleptocracy, or Plutocracy, kind of Dictatorship.
One man one vote is more or less a show.

They not only worried about socialism/communism, their left and right fought even harder against each other. So basically they worried about any different systems.

 

[Feng Leng]

Russia and China would be expecting a pawn or bishop or rook or horse to enter the field of geopolitics, but they'd get a horse with ambitions to be a king or a queen!
Think twice, Chinese and Russians. it's in your best interest.

It's time to take down the Anglos! They have caused enough suffering in the world!

 

[Han Patriot]

competition between communism and capitalism.. don't blame it all on the westerners, ok.. you'll make a fool out of yourself that way.

Iraq is communist? Wtf. What about supporting pinochet? So it's okay to kill Viets because they are communist? Just because they are different? What about enslaving blacks? And killing native Americans?

 

[PeaceGen]

Iraq is communist? Wtf. What about supporting pinochet? So it's okay to kill Viets because they are communist? Just because they are different? What about enslaving blacks? And killing native Americans?

Vietnam War | Facts, Summary, Years, Timeline, Casualties, Combatants, & Facts | Britannica

The Vietnam War (1954–75) was a conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. It was part of a larger regional conflict as well as a manifestation of the Cold War.

www.britannica.com

Why did the Vietnam War start?
The United States had provided funding, armaments, and training to South Vietnam’s government and military since Vietnam’s partition into the communist North and the democratic South in 1954. Tensions escalated into armed conflict between the two sides, and in 1961 U.S. President John F. Kennedy chose to expand the military aid program. The terms of this expansion included yet more funding and arms, but a key alteration was the commitment of U.S. soldiers to the region. Kennedy’s expansion stemmed in part from Cold War-era fears about the “domino theory”: if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would topple democracies throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, it was thought.
Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, continued the work that Kennedy had started. Johnson raised the number of South Vietnam deployments to 23,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of his first year in office. Political turbulence there and two alleged North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. It granted him broad latitude in handling the struggle against communism in Southeast Asia.

it's that same "domino theory" that has caused the suffering of the world ever since at least the end of WW2.
NOT one side or another. i can do lookups about both China *and* Russia causing mass suffering to either their own people or to people not yet under their control, all throughout history.
But that would just start a useless 'point the finger at the other guy' game here on this forum, and that's something i'd like to avoid.

i say the borders are defined quite enough, that the world has had it's time to build up alliances through the fostering of military power around the world (there's enough weapons to kill *everyone* 10 times or 100 times over)..

It's time to take down the Anglos! They have caused enough suffering in the world!

and that *now* is the time to start working on diplomacy and cooperation *between* the superpowers, to *not* see the endless competitions continue.

 

[Cherub786]

I always prefer America to Europe. Europe has an ingrained venomous hatred for Muslims, it's part of their DNA. We need America to keep them in their place

 

[bshifter]

Pfft... So the Iraqi leaders failed their people, that gives you the right to destroy, occupy and kill hundreds of thousands of their people..? such a typical colonialist mindset...

We don't blame you for the failings of the Iraqi leaders... we are blaming you for the killings and destruction you did to them... a war done on fake allegations of WMD.

He is Dutch, those people have a history of being colonizers themselves including occupying Indonesia. He is just a hypocrite nothing new here. He will defend all the war crimes committed by the West in name of peace.

 

[striver44]

The US should pull it's military out of Germany and send it to the Baltics and Poland, let Russia do some aggressive moves in Europe and let's see if Germany will change their mind.

 

[aziqbal]

well they can start by stoping the free submarines to the Israelis

 

[PeaceGen]

He is Dutch, those people have a history of being colonizers themselves including occupying Indonesia. He is just a hypocrite nothing new here. He will defend all the war crimes committed by the West in name of peace.

no!

YOU ALL seem to want to blame the west for all the wars that have happened!

we have a saying over here in my country : when 2 fight, both are to blame.

and that DOES apply to international political/military competitions like we've seen all over the world ever since the "invention" of militaries!

i'm saying that THE ONLY way for you all to achieve your goals of more influence, prosperity, and glory as societies, is through *peaceful* resistance to western power.

you can use our free press to prevent us from encroaching on your territories, you can negotiate with us about how to tax the sealanes and land routes of goods, but you can NOT pretend that you can conquer us or the territories that we (semi-)administrate by force!

once again, arms races are expensive AND dangerous!
but if you force us into one, *we'll* come out on top!
we *know* some of you hate us. usually you're the loudest among your countrymen too.
and we will NOT let you or anyone else dominate our way of life!

The US should pull it's military out of Germany and send it to the Baltics and Poland, let Russia do some aggressive moves in Europe and let's see if Germany will change their mind.

from what i know, that's indeed Trump's plan. But he's gone soon, let's see what Biden does..

 

[PeaceGen]

He is Dutch, those people have a history of being colonizers themselves including occupying Indonesia. He is just a hypocrite nothing new here. He will defend all the war crimes committed by the West in name of peace.

Don't get me dragged into a fight match over who was worse to the people under their control.
I can *PROVE* that it was the Chinese governments, ever since the unification of large swaths of China.

 

[Titanium100]

This article is absolutely garbage why would europe form any counter weight against the US for Iran nuclear deal or China? really? anyone with a half a brain knows they don't give a shit nor can they say anything against the US policies