Driving Force for the EU Army

As sure as the sky is blue, although in the beginning stages, the European Army is coming courtesy of the Fourth Reich in Germany, modern day Assyria. Unfortunately, for this to happen, it means the world’s lone superpower, America, has to give way — and it is, as we speak, in suicidal freefall. Someone will ultimately fill the gap (as no one trusts Russia and China to lead the world) and it’s likely a new ‘United States of Europe’ where the political and economic foundations are already being laid. We’ll find out soon what a world without America as a superpower looks like.

BERLIN (Own report) – Military experts of the SPD group in the German Bundestag are calling for an EU “military academy” and “permanent military headquarters” along with other steps toward establishing an EU army. “As Social Democrats, we want to be the driving force in Europe of a parliamentary controlled European army,” declared its “Working Group on Security and Defense Policy” in a position paper. The paper was presented last week by the SPD parliamentary group’s defense policy spokesperson Rainer Arnold. The EU is “a global actor” due particularly to its economic influence, the authors explain. Its foreign and military policy, on the other hand, is inadequate and “urgently in need of improvement.” These demands are being raised at a time when the Bundeswehr has begun to establish “European” military structures through bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects, and when Germany’s Minister of the Economy is calling for the establishment of an EU armament industry with a strong German base, independent of the USA. Already a few years ago, SPD politicians called for reopening the discussion on the EU’s war and peace decision-making authority, and possibly taking this authority away from the national parliaments.

German Global Policy and its Minister

BERLIN (Own report) – With the appointment of a foreign minister, who is under heavy criticism for his stance on human rights, the new German government is preparing a global policy offensive. According to the CDU/SPD Coalition Agreement, the government is more determined than ever to help “shape international policy” and play “a strong autonomous role.” Counting on the EU, to couple more tightly its “civilian and military instruments” to intervene globally, the German government will promote EU foreign and military policy at the summit in Brussels later this week. Designated Foreign Minster, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), has been actively involved in Berlin’s geopolitical climb since he became the Chancellery’s coordinator of the German intelligence services in 1998. In 2001, he became Chief of Staff of the Federal Chancellery and played a central role in the German/US-American coordination in the “War on Terror,” which had initially consisted of the abduction and torture of terror suspects. For this, Steinmeier has been repeatedly under criticism – without effect. He will once again preside over the foreign ministry.

Impact of the Crisis

Experts and analysts always say China, but it’s the one you never see coming that hits the hardest. They likely do not account for the fact that China, although ‘rising’, is not trusted throughout the world and will likely have a limited role instead of a leading one on the world stage because of this.

On the other hand, Germany’s stranglehold on and ever-growing control of the EU (the world’s largest economy) is also not accounted for. Couple that with the misguided appearance of being 100% pacifist since the second World War, yet it’s the third largest arms exporter in the world, you can give the upper hand to Germany. It’s a highly overlooked and dismissed fact.

BERLIN (Own report) – The EU crisis is causing a serious weakening of the EU’s foreign policy, concluded a recent study published by the Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. Not only are the member states’ financial outlays for foreign and military activities clearly diminishing, due to leeway shrinkage caused by budget cuts, but “conflicts between member states have grown” around how to handle the crisis, according to the SWP. This has stifled “joint foreign policy initiatives.” The think tank points out that the enduring crisis and the hard-line German austerity dictate have damaged the prestige of the EU and, therefore, also severely tarnished its global “soft power.” Particularly damaging are the cuts in the military sector, even ranging up to 30 percent reductions in defense spending of the smaller and medium sized EU countries, jeopardizing their long term capability of participation in EU wars. The option of instrumentalizing a common EU foreign and military policy, to reinforce German clout and eventually promote it to world power status, had always been an important motive in Berlin for the buildup and development of the EU.