Tone shift?

February 15, 2026 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: Europe, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Munich Security Conference, NATO, Security Leave a comment

I suppose. But the message was just the same.

Marco Rubio said essentially nothing different than J.D. Vance did here last year. But go ahead and welcome it this time, Europe, if it makes you feel better.

EU leaders welcome US tone shift in Rubio’s Munich speech – While European leaders cautiously welcomed a softer tone from the US at the Munich Security Conference, American independence and the “Trumpian narrative” remained top of mind for Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.”

The US is not powerful enough to go it alone”

February 14, 2026 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking Tags: Defense, Friedrich Merz, Munich, Munich Security Conference, NATO, Power, Security, Speeches, Unilateralism Leave a comment

Says the leader of Germany, a country that is not powerful enough to “go it” with the help of partners and allies.

Meaning, I suppose: “But we’ll help you if you ask nicely.”

US ‘not powerful enough to go it alone’, Merz tells Munich conference – German chancellor rebuts idea of American unilateralism and says ‘democracies have partners and allies.’

The US acting alone has reached the limits of its power and may already have lost its role as global leader, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, warned Donald Trump at the opening of the Munich Security Conference.

Merz also disclosed he had held initial talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, over the possibility of joining France’s nuclear umbrella, underlining his call for Europe to develop a stronger self-standing security strategy.

Lost In Translation?

February 16, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hypocrisy Tags: America First, Defens, Defense Spending, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hypocrisy, MSC, Munich Security Conference, NATO, Security Leave a comment

Or lost before the translation even began?

”‘Great again’ but at the expense of neighbors and partners?” That’s an odd thing for a German president to criticize at a security conference.

Granted, Germany is anything but ‘great again’ (because that’s how Germans insist Germany must forever remain) but when it comes to security and promised NATO contributions, Germany has been living at the expense of its neighbors and partners for many, many years now.

Germany’s president kicked off the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday by taking a swipe at President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy approach.

In his opening remarks, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that the United States would put its own interests first at the expense of allies.

“In this scenario, the security of one is the insecurity of others.”

Complicated?

February 18, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Defense, Defense Spending, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Munich Security Conference, NATO, Sigmar Gabrial, Two Percent 1 Comment

Not at all. It’s called freeloading.

Germany and two percent for defense – it’s complicated.

Lofty goals of European and NATO cooperation abound here at the Munich Security Conference, but who will pay the bill?

Top German leaders here have managed to put a damper on the expectation that Berlin would radically ramp up its defense spending, as Washington would have it, stressing instead that gradual boosts and integration with foreign development would yield better results than military might alone.

“We no longer recognize our America.” No, Sigmar. I guess you don’t. That America where nobody bothered to call it freeloading up until now, I mean.

Good Point

February 4, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Armies, Demolition, Explosions, Foreign Policy, Frankfurt, German, Germans, Germany, Military, Munich Security Conference, Pacifism, Responsiblity Leave a comment

“While there are genuine pacifists in Germany,” as German President Joachim Gauck recently noted at the Munich Security Conference, “there are also people who use Germany’s guilt for its past as a shield for laziness or a desire to disengage from the world.”

Very true. But believe you me, if he or anybody else out there seriously thinks for one cotton-pickin’ minute that Germans are suddenly going to seriously consider “a more muscular foreign policy” (use their army for what armies are actually intended to be used for) just because of any good points he or anybody else out there might make, he and that anybody else out there should be tested for doping. Ain’t NEVER gonna happen here.

Es darf nichts kosten (it can’t cost anything).

“Germany is really too big to just comment from the sidelines.” Duh. So? How does that saying go again? Germany is too big for Europe and too small for the world.

PS: Germans are still really good at blowing up stuff, though.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Munich Security Conference