Political men, I mean. And military women.
Sie hat 4000 Flugstunden absolviert, lenkte die Präsidentenmaschine “Air Force One” und servierte an Thanksgiving Truthahn auf dem Stützpunkt Ramstein: Margaret Woodward kommandiert die US-Kampfjets über Libyen – die erste Frau, die einen Luftkrieg koordiniert.
How could they?
Here are some lines from a report by a Spiegel journalist who, being a product of his Umwelt (environment), obviously can’t understand what is going on with these peculiar, “fatalistic” Japanese who have the audacity to show courage in the face of disaster.
There is little evidence of panic.
There is not a single person protesting on the streets in the entire city (Tokyo).
Japanese fireman Nakamura Junichiro: “It was not my choice, but I wanted to go there. This is the most difficult hour for Japan. It was my duty.”
“The tsunami represents a good opportunity to cleanse this greed (the egoism the elder speaker believes his fellow Japanese have succombed to), and one we must avail ourselves of.”
The destructive forces of nature, writes Asia expert Ian Buruma, are “to a certain extent part of Japanese culture.” This creates fertile ground for a Japanese fatalism that has developed throughout history and culminates in the expression “shikata ga nai,” meaning “it can’t be helped.” A further product is the widespread belief that nothing beautiful on Earth is permanent and that the Japanese people must close ranks in times of national disaster.
Those who seek to wait it out in Osaka must be gaijin — a non-Japanese or outsider. Someone who doesn’t understand that now, more than ever, every cog in the wheel counts. Someone who shirks his responsibility while a hero like fireman Nakamura Junichiro risks his life to cool down the reactors in Fukushima.
Oh these hypocrites. No, not the German ones.
I’m talking about those awful allied ones who didn’t abstain from voting in the UN Security Council like, uh, the rest of us.
In a recent talk show, German Development Minister Dirk Niebel found “it is notable that exactly those countries which are blithely dropping bombs in Libya are still drawing oil from Libya.”
I found his comment quite notable too, but maybe that’s just me. I found it notable to have been placed into a time warp without my expressed written consent and to have landed back in the good old Germany of those good old German Gerhard Schröder days (author of the old saying-no-to-an-allied-attack-on-Saddam-to-get-re-elected trick).
I also found and still find it notable that regardless of who comes to power here, the answer is always no. Back then it was the SPD and the Greens who said no, with the CDU/CSU and FDP questioning their judgement (albeit very quietly, and only at first). Now it’s the CDU/CSU and FDP who say no while the SPD and the Greens question their judgement very loudly (albeit not at all at first, actually having agreed with the abstention instead = meaning no).
You’ve got to have priniples here, I guess. And you have to wear them like a shirt. And change them just as regularly.
So you see… Some might also refer to behavior like this as being, well, hypocritical. Only if one wanted to, I mean. I would, for instance, and do. But nobody is ever going to invite me to a talk show.
Niebel said that the German abstention was correct “because not all non-military possibilities had been exhausted.” He also insisted that the move was not politically motivated, ahead of two important state votes in Germany this Sunday.
Becomes final today. Me and little Sar-ko-sy will be goin’ away…
So much for France and Germany as the inseparable couple at the heart of Europe.
The issue here is not direct German military participation. Everyone would have understood if that was not possible. But how could Germany not support a UN resolution backed by its principal European partners, the United States and the Arab League?
Like so many contemporary European politicians, they (in the German government) follow rather than lead public opinion.
“We calculated the risk. If we see that three days after this intervention began, the Arab League already criticises [it], I think we had good reasons.” While French and British pilots risk their lives in action, the German foreign minister is virtually encouraging the Arab League to make further criticism.
Latest Angst Update:
++ Ticker Ticker++Several German container shipping companies have stopped going to eastern Japanese ports including Tokyo for the time being amid fears of radiation++ Ticker Ticker ++Fukushima radiation detected in Germany!!!
And thanks for this cool Angst Republic link, A.K.
You’ve got to hand it to them. The Germans are consistent, at least.
Germany has withdrawn its four vessels from NATO operations in the Mediterranean because NATO has finally announced that it will support the no-fly zone over Libya by monitoring sea traffic in the region, this to include intercepting any vessels suspected of carrying illegal arms or mercenaries to that country.
Normally Feuer und Flamme (full of enthusiasm) for things like arms embargos (if German arms aren’t involved), the Germans don’t like this particular one because, well, they would actually be involved in it. And worse still, this mission permits the use of force if necessary, something the German navy could never ever bring itself to do, ever. Never. So they’ll pass again, thank you.
Mr Rasmussen at NATO: “All allies are committed to meet their responsibilities under the United Nations resolution to stop the intolerable violence against Libyan civilians.”
You know, the German Duck Responsibility Dance?
It goes like this: Over 60 percent of Germans asked think that the military intervention in Libya is a good thing. Over 65 percent of the same Germans asked think it’s even better that Germans are shirking their responsibility there.
It can be lonely living on the moral highground sometimes I guess, but who says you can’t have your Kuchen and eat it too?
Deutschland hatte sich bei der Abstimmung im UN-Sicherheitsrat enthalten und schließt einen Einsatz von Bundeswehrsoldaten aus.
We couldn’t have done it without you. But we did anyway.
“The Obama administration and America’s allies have won an open-ended endorsement from the United Nations for military action in Libya.”
“The administration deserves credit for getting this resolution passed with such strong support,” said a joint statement from Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
Five nations abstained from the vote, one of them being America’s ally you-know-wer (who).
Bei der Abstimmung enthielten sich die Vetomächte Russland, China sowie Indien, Brasilien und auch Deutschland (way down on the bottom of the article).
As expected, Germany has rejected the idea of a no-fly zone over Libya on the grounds that someone (from Germany) might get hurt.
Using standard German anti-non-German-war reasoning, the creation of a no-fly zone would amount to a possible so-called military action which could actually involve so-called attacks against Libyan recent-old-buddy-now-despotic-leader Muammar Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft defenses.
This would be bad enough, for some reason, but worse still would be that these attacks, if unsuccessful, could open the way to an intervention on the ground which Germany would never, ever, ever be a part of anyway, as we all know, so why not just say no to the whole thing right now and get it over with?
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday that “only the threat of force can stop Gaddafi”. He said that several Arab states were ready to assist Western military intervention.
They call it Instrumentalisierung here, or instrumentalisation (exploitation), if your prefer: “To take advantage of a situation, especially unethically or unjustly for one’s own ends.”
Demonstrators in Stuttgart formed a human chain reaching 45km (27 miles) for the protest, planned before the current nuclear crisis in Japan.
Organisers said events in Japan had proved atomic power was an uncontrollable and risky. technology.
Normally outraged at the very thought of American Alleingänge (solo runs), concerned Spiegel journalists and countless German Gutmenschen (starry-eyed idealist types) everywhere are clearly upset that President Obama is now backpedaling as fast as he can at the very thought of leading the way to establish a no-fly zone in Libya.
Gaddafi is not rolling over and dying as quickly as expected and this is turning into yet another embarassment for Germany and the rest of the EU because if this keeps up, sooner or later these countries may be forced to actually “do something” themselves and this, as we all know, is not something that they are prepared to do.
Hey, Germany. He’s your President. Too, I mean.
Obama schreckt vor Libyen-Alleingang zurück.
