Germany's choice

Not really sure what your comment was, Lenard. Are you pro-EU, pro-German, pro-fiscal responsibility - or just being your sarcastic self, without making any sense? Anyway, what I take from this story, is that the EU is going to be a tough act to hold together. Yes, Germany is the strongest economy in the EU but, will it be able to hold it together on its own? They may come to the rescue of some of the economically weaker EU members, but in the long run the EU, meaning Germany, will not be able to sustain the European continent. The EU's expansion was so quick, and so ill thought out, that now in times of worldwide economic hardship, Germany alone cannot keep this project together for long. Greece, in my opinion is just the tip of the iceberg, wait till other neighbors start revealing their true balance sheets. We know that Club Med is in trouble, too, but what if England or France are the next players to say, oops, we're in a bit of a fiscal jam. Will mighty Germany be able to carry the entire EU on its back?

Every time Germany starts playing "Weltpolitik" it is a bad news for everyone, including the Germans. Adenauer knew that. In the 50's he refused Stalin's offer for unification outside NATO. Ancoring Germany to the "West" was the real geopolitical goal, unification can wait. So it waited for another 40 years, with the Berlin wall and all other "niceties". Yet in the 90's Germany unified within NATO. During Kohl's last years it became the most important strategic parthner of the US in Europe, overtaking the weak UK under Major. Schroeder blew it all. He started the unashamed flirt with Russia, a policy continued by Merkel. If there was a country that had to be bailed out it was Ukraine after the Orange revolution. Only with Ukraine, Europe could be a stable World player. Draging it to the West would have been the restoration of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918. Germany was on a whisker to end victoriously a century of defeats. The upcoming return of Ukrain to the Russian fold and the "alienation" of the US and may be the entire Anglosphere may put Germany again it the merciless position to defend "festung Europe" (The fortress Europe). The last time it adopted such a doctrine after the defeat at Kursk, it turned out a sheer imposibility.

Charles,
First of all I am a Bulgarian, not an Albanian.132 years ago my country was the usual battlefield between two semi-European Empires – the Russian and the Ottoman. Our patriots wanted to be a subject to none of them and to build a European nation instead. The problem was that the Russians and the Turks were dead set to control our lands while Europe was deeply skeptical about our European identity. If that geopolitical situation was bad enough, we had also the Serbian incursion down the Morava Vardar valley. So with ups and downs it took us more than a century for us to become equal member of the European country and the Serbian occupation of Macedonia to come to an end. Nostalgia for Brest-Litovsk? Well a compromise peace between the Entente and the Central Powers after Brest-Litovsk was going to spare the world only the Nazism, the Second World War and the Cold War.
The fading of the Orange Revolution is a tragedy first of all for the Ukrainian people. The chance for the yung Ukrainians to enjoy the freedons of their Polish or Bulgarian neighbours across Europe is disapearing. As for America… it is the only thing all European countries have in common. It is their natural extension, the place where most Europeans have relatives or close friends. The German policy of backing United Europe with their checkbook, while accepting the ultimate American guidance was a smart and far reaching. Flirting with Russia and driving a wedge between “Europe” and the Angloshere is suicidal. As for Russia being a European nation I would say: It has a chance to become one. In a long run the dangers for Russia come from the East and the South, not from the West. But it must first of all forget the idea of having a sphere of influence of its own. Like Germany seemed to has given up. Or has it?

Charles,
Russia, like the Ottoman Empire was a semi-European empire back in 1878, because it cherished a despotic rule, its peasants, just freed from bondage were largely illiterate (It came as a cultural shock to them that the Bulgarians they came to liberate from the Ottomans were generally wealthier and more educated).
It is true that after 1989 the Russians dismantled their empire without causing much trouble. Luckily there was not a Russian Milosevic demanding all Russians in one country. Yet tragically Russia fell short of going all the way of democratization and joining the Western economic and security system. While all of the Eastern Europeans opened the archives of their secret agents (demonizing them in on degree or another) in Russia the KGB corp. … openly took the power. Far from approaching the ways of Western capitalism, the Russian system was more of a copy of the czarist times when Peter “the Great” could appoint (or sack) businessmen. The malign influence of the Russian mafia could be felt as far as Las Vegas, but in the “near abroad” and in countries like Bulgaria its effects are often devastating. Only a strong politically minded interference led by the Anglo-Saxon prowess and underwritten by the fat German checkbook could remove the “Eastern” influence and impose the Western ways of (relatively) clean jurisdiction and some administrative capacity. The locals can not comb out the malign influence of the Russian “feeding tubes” such as Southern Stream, the Belene nuclear plant project etc. where the money goes not to the effective competitor, but to the politically comfortable corruptor. The West stands a chance in this unequal fight only if it creates a thorough Marshal Plan for Eastern Europe including Ukraine and Georgia. Only then Russia would realize that it has to change its own ways, accept “monitoring reports” etc. and finally join the West.

Germany will let the dead beets suffer their follys. It will be very tough lesson time to live in your means their are no gold laying gooses simpletons. They thought the Bank of Germany credit cart was free money how embarrassing. Now they will be slave to the lender Germany and you thought Germans were going to be nice shmaks. No they are very serious bankers they are not amused. Better think fast how to pay those loans the party is over and the music has stopped.

Nik - Your comment is absolutely mindblowing. Are you joking? Victory is a restoration of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty? Absolutely no one except the occassional Albanian/Croat WW2 Axis nostalgic/tragic still thinks like that.
For now, you have been a useful puppet in America's plans to drive wedges in between European countries (peace and prosperity in europe is not in their interest), but the sun is setting on that nonsense. If nothing else, the Americans know when to cut their losses and move on elsewhere. Just take a look at how meekly the Orange revolution has now faded - they are moving on Nik, it should be a wake up call for you.
More and more people in Europe (not America) realize the "end game" needs to be partnership and freindship between ALL european countries and a newsflash for you Nik is that Russia IS a european country. Much, much more european than Albania. Soon you will be the irrelevant backwater you deserve to be. My guess is that in the new european order, you will be delegated to Italy to keep an eye on you. That should make you Axis romantics happy no doubt. Serbia will have Kosovo delegated back to it - mark my words. There will be many grand bargins in the years ahead between the big european players to keep peace in Europe and those that acted as American pawns to stir trouble will be heavily punished (ie Albania). Sorry to break the bad news to you.

Nik,
So Bulgarians (Slavic, orthodox tradition) are Europeans, but Russians (Slavic, orthodox tradition) aren't? Are you telling me the land that gave us Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, the grand city of St Petersburg etc is not European, but Bulgaria and Albania (gulp!) are?? Let's be consistent, if Russia is only "semi European", then neither is Bulgaria (or Serbia, Romania etc for that matter). Shall we kick Bulgaria out of the EU then? Even more ridiculous, how can the Ukraine be European, but Russia isn't? The Ukraine is also the birth place of the Russian state.
You've also got to laugh at the idea of Russia first having to "renounce the idea of having a sphere of influence" before it can be European. For those with short memories, 20 odd years ago the Russians (on their own initiative) did the following:-
1. Dissolved the Warsaw Pact
2. Withdrew all forces from central Europe
3. Allowed Germany to reunify
4. Permitted their own country to dissolve into its constituent republics (leaving millions of ethnic Russians on the wrong side of new borders).
5. Allowed all former satellites to decide how to run their own affairs, no questions asked.
In short, the Russians withdrew lock, stock and barrel into their own home territory without a shot being fired, the greatest ever peaceful transition of power in world history! They could have made hell if they wanted to and gone down guns blazing (something I am sure the USA would have done), but they chose not to. I'm pretty sure that gives then an A+ in "renouncing the idea of having a sphere of influence".
What you (and the "angloshere" as you call it) are proposing is a new, bogus cold war, with the new iron curtain running along Russia’s border rather than thru Germany.
That’s great news for US arms manufacturers, but why would any European want that?
They don't and it will not happen no matter how much the USA wishes it so. Permanent peace in Europe is what Europeans want (that is the fundamental aim of the EU) and that cannot happen without Russia.
That is the new, emerging "realpolitik" of Europe, bring Russia into the fold, rather than lock it out.
It's going to take a few more decades, but it is well underway.

"Only a strong politically minded interference led by the Anglo-Saxon prowess and underwritten by the fat German checkbook could remove the “Eastern” influence and impose the Western ways..."
So I guess here we see all we need to know, America, aka "Anglo-Saxon prowess" will IMPOSE Western ways. Doesn't sound very democratic to me. Others would call it imperialism.
Today the economic, environmental and war carnage of "Anglo-Saxon prowess" globally is all around us to see. That's my point Nik, like it or not, the game is up for America, they are broke, lost and in no position to IMPOSE anything, even on their "allies" like the French, Germans etc anymore. These countries now plan to take responsibility for what is going on in Europe because they sense that America intends to divide and rule Europe by creating a phoney new cold (possibly even hot) war with Russia. It's as plain as the nose on your face. Under the Bush years, this madness became so serious a threat to peace in Europe that there was an actual war with Russia (Georgia 2008). It was a close call that it didn't become something bigger and, after that, the key European players made the irreversible decision to dismantle USA militarism in Europe for good. The global financial crisis (another glorious chapter of "Anglo-Saxon prowess") has accelerated this, because now, even if America still wants confrontation and war - they just can't afford it anymore (e.g. bye bye missile "defence" systems).
It's going to happen gracefully and tactfully without any need for undue embarrassment (that is the real Europe), but the USA will be out, Russia (as a major European state) will be allocated a seat at the table and everyone that loves peace will be happy. The Russians have made it clear that they have no issues with the EU enlargement, that will continue (and I think in 20 years Russia will be an EU member). The anti-Russia, American lead NATO pact will join the Warsaw pact in the dustbin of history for sure. If you want proof of what Europe thinks, this month the French announced they intend to sell warships to the Russian navy (I'm talking about aircraft carrier sized things) - a message straight to the USA that France for one will not be part of America's plans anymore.
We’ll have to reconvene this discussion in 20 years to see who is right.

Germany will let the dead beets suffer their follys. It will be very tough lesson time to live in your means their are no gold laying gooses simpletons. They thought the Bank of Germany credit cart was free money how embarrassing. Now they will be slave to the lender Germany and you thought Germans were going to be nice shmaks. No they are very serious bankers they are not amused. Better think fast how to pay those loans the party is over and the music has stopped.

Every time Germany starts playing "Weltpolitik" it is a bad news for everyone, including the Germans. Adenauer knew that. In the 50's he refused Stalin's offer for unification outside NATO. Ancoring Germany to the "West" was the real geopolitical goal, unification can wait. So it waited for another 40 years, with the Berlin wall and all other "niceties". Yet in the 90's Germany unified within NATO. During Kohl's last years it became the most important strategic parthner of the US in Europe, overtaking the weak UK under Major. Schroeder blew it all. He started the unashamed flirt with Russia, a policy continued by Merkel. If there was a country that had to be bailed out it was Ukraine after the Orange revolution. Only with Ukraine, Europe could be a stable World player. Draging it to the West would have been the restoration of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918. Germany was on a whisker to end victoriously a century of defeats. The upcoming return of Ukrain to the Russian fold and the "alienation" of the US and may be the entire Anglosphere may put Germany again it the merciless position to defend "festung Europe" (The fortress Europe). The last time it adopted such a doctrine after the defeat at Kursk, it turned out a sheer imposibility.

Nik,
So Bulgarians (Slavic, orthodox tradition) are Europeans, but Russians (Slavic, orthodox tradition) aren't? Are you telling me the land that gave us Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, the grand city of St Petersburg etc is not European, but Bulgaria and Albania (gulp!) are?? Let's be consistent, if Russia is only "semi European", then neither is Bulgaria (or Serbia, Romania etc for that matter). Shall we kick Bulgaria out of the EU then? Even more ridiculous, how can the Ukraine be European, but Russia isn't? The Ukraine is also the birth place of the Russian state.
You've also got to laugh at the idea of Russia first having to "renounce the idea of having a sphere of influence" before it can be European. For those with short memories, 20 odd years ago the Russians (on their own initiative) did the following:-
1. Dissolved the Warsaw Pact
2. Withdrew all forces from central Europe
3. Allowed Germany to reunify
4. Permitted their own country to dissolve into its constituent republics (leaving millions of ethnic Russians on the wrong side of new borders).
5. Allowed all former satellites to decide how to run their own affairs, no questions asked.
In short, the Russians withdrew lock, stock and barrel into their own home territory without a shot being fired, the greatest ever peaceful transition of power in world history! They could have made hell if they wanted to and gone down guns blazing (something I am sure the USA would have done), but they chose not to. I'm pretty sure that gives then an A+ in "renouncing the idea of having a sphere of influence".
What you (and the "angloshere" as you call it) are proposing is a new, bogus cold war, with the new iron curtain running along Russia’s border rather than thru Germany.
That’s great news for US arms manufacturers, but why would any European want that?
They don't and it will not happen no matter how much the USA wishes it so. Permanent peace in Europe is what Europeans want (that is the fundamental aim of the EU) and that cannot happen without Russia.
That is the new, emerging "realpolitik" of Europe, bring Russia into the fold, rather than lock it out.
It's going to take a few more decades, but it is well underway.

Nik - Your comment is absolutely mindblowing. Are you joking? Victory is a restoration of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty? Absolutely no one except the occassional Albanian/Croat WW2 Axis nostalgic/tragic still thinks like that.
For now, you have been a useful puppet in America's plans to drive wedges in between European countries (peace and prosperity in europe is not in their interest), but the sun is setting on that nonsense. If nothing else, the Americans know when to cut their losses and move on elsewhere. Just take a look at how meekly the Orange revolution has now faded - they are moving on Nik, it should be a wake up call for you.
More and more people in Europe (not America) realize the "end game" needs to be partnership and freindship between ALL european countries and a newsflash for you Nik is that Russia IS a european country. Much, much more european than Albania. Soon you will be the irrelevant backwater you deserve to be. My guess is that in the new european order, you will be delegated to Italy to keep an eye on you. That should make you Axis romantics happy no doubt. Serbia will have Kosovo delegated back to it - mark my words. There will be many grand bargins in the years ahead between the big european players to keep peace in Europe and those that acted as American pawns to stir trouble will be heavily punished (ie Albania). Sorry to break the bad news to you.

Charles,
First of all I am a Bulgarian, not an Albanian.132 years ago my country was the usual battlefield between two semi-European Empires – the Russian and the Ottoman. Our patriots wanted to be a subject to none of them and to build a European nation instead. The problem was that the Russians and the Turks were dead set to control our lands while Europe was deeply skeptical about our European identity. If that geopolitical situation was bad enough, we had also the Serbian incursion down the Morava Vardar valley. So with ups and downs it took us more than a century for us to become equal member of the European country and the Serbian occupation of Macedonia to come to an end. Nostalgia for Brest-Litovsk? Well a compromise peace between the Entente and the Central Powers after Brest-Litovsk was going to spare the world only the Nazism, the Second World War and the Cold War.
The fading of the Orange Revolution is a tragedy first of all for the Ukrainian people. The chance for the yung Ukrainians to enjoy the freedons of their Polish or Bulgarian neighbours across Europe is disapearing. As for America… it is the only thing all European countries have in common. It is their natural extension, the place where most Europeans have relatives or close friends. The German policy of backing United Europe with their checkbook, while accepting the ultimate American guidance was a smart and far reaching. Flirting with Russia and driving a wedge between “Europe” and the Angloshere is suicidal. As for Russia being a European nation I would say: It has a chance to become one. In a long run the dangers for Russia come from the East and the South, not from the West. But it must first of all forget the idea of having a sphere of influence of its own. Like Germany seemed to has given up. Or has it?

Charles,
Russia, like the Ottoman Empire was a semi-European empire back in 1878, because it cherished a despotic rule, its peasants, just freed from bondage were largely illiterate (It came as a cultural shock to them that the Bulgarians they came to liberate from the Ottomans were generally wealthier and more educated).
It is true that after 1989 the Russians dismantled their empire without causing much trouble. Luckily there was not a Russian Milosevic demanding all Russians in one country. Yet tragically Russia fell short of going all the way of democratization and joining the Western economic and security system. While all of the Eastern Europeans opened the archives of their secret agents (demonizing them in on degree or another) in Russia the KGB corp. … openly took the power. Far from approaching the ways of Western capitalism, the Russian system was more of a copy of the czarist times when Peter “the Great” could appoint (or sack) businessmen. The malign influence of the Russian mafia could be felt as far as Las Vegas, but in the “near abroad” and in countries like Bulgaria its effects are often devastating. Only a strong politically minded interference led by the Anglo-Saxon prowess and underwritten by the fat German checkbook could remove the “Eastern” influence and impose the Western ways of (relatively) clean jurisdiction and some administrative capacity. The locals can not comb out the malign influence of the Russian “feeding tubes” such as Southern Stream, the Belene nuclear plant project etc. where the money goes not to the effective competitor, but to the politically comfortable corruptor. The West stands a chance in this unequal fight only if it creates a thorough Marshal Plan for Eastern Europe including Ukraine and Georgia. Only then Russia would realize that it has to change its own ways, accept “monitoring reports” etc. and finally join the West.

Not really sure what your comment was, Lenard. Are you pro-EU, pro-German, pro-fiscal responsibility - or just being your sarcastic self, without making any sense? Anyway, what I take from this story, is that the EU is going to be a tough act to hold together. Yes, Germany is the strongest economy in the EU but, will it be able to hold it together on its own? They may come to the rescue of some of the economically weaker EU members, but in the long run the EU, meaning Germany, will not be able to sustain the European continent. The EU's expansion was so quick, and so ill thought out, that now in times of worldwide economic hardship, Germany alone cannot keep this project together for long. Greece, in my opinion is just the tip of the iceberg, wait till other neighbors start revealing their true balance sheets. We know that Club Med is in trouble, too, but what if England or France are the next players to say, oops, we're in a bit of a fiscal jam. Will mighty Germany be able to carry the entire EU on its back?

"Only a strong politically minded interference led by the Anglo-Saxon prowess and underwritten by the fat German checkbook could remove the “Eastern” influence and impose the Western ways..."
So I guess here we see all we need to know, America, aka "Anglo-Saxon prowess" will IMPOSE Western ways. Doesn't sound very democratic to me. Others would call it imperialism.
Today the economic, environmental and war carnage of "Anglo-Saxon prowess" globally is all around us to see. That's my point Nik, like it or not, the game is up for America, they are broke, lost and in no position to IMPOSE anything, even on their "allies" like the French, Germans etc anymore. These countries now plan to take responsibility for what is going on in Europe because they sense that America intends to divide and rule Europe by creating a phoney new cold (possibly even hot) war with Russia. It's as plain as the nose on your face. Under the Bush years, this madness became so serious a threat to peace in Europe that there was an actual war with Russia (Georgia 2008). It was a close call that it didn't become something bigger and, after that, the key European players made the irreversible decision to dismantle USA militarism in Europe for good. The global financial crisis (another glorious chapter of "Anglo-Saxon prowess") has accelerated this, because now, even if America still wants confrontation and war - they just can't afford it anymore (e.g. bye bye missile "defence" systems).
It's going to happen gracefully and tactfully without any need for undue embarrassment (that is the real Europe), but the USA will be out, Russia (as a major European state) will be allocated a seat at the table and everyone that loves peace will be happy. The Russians have made it clear that they have no issues with the EU enlargement, that will continue (and I think in 20 years Russia will be an EU member). The anti-Russia, American lead NATO pact will join the Warsaw pact in the dustbin of history for sure. If you want proof of what Europe thinks, this month the French announced they intend to sell warships to the Russian navy (I'm talking about aircraft carrier sized things) - a message straight to the USA that France for one will not be part of America's plans anymore.
We’ll have to reconvene this discussion in 20 years to see who is right.