germany re-engineered ally

8/12/2019 Germany Re-Engineered Ally

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GERMANY, THE RE-ENGINEERED ALLY

PART 1: Readiness for endless war

By Axel Brot (*) Republished with author‘s permission from Asia Times Online

Not so many years ao! many hoped "urope miht step up as a #ounterweiht to $% impe&rial poli#ies' %u#h hopes were fo#used in parti#ular on ermany & not only as the leadin

"uropean power! but as a nown moderatin! non&military for#e in international politi#s'

$% ituperation of the reputed "uropean preferen#e for diploma#y and pea#eful #onfli#t

resolution as well as offi#ial Britain! in the person of Ri#hard +ooper! former prime minister

Tony Blair‘s international&relations uru! deemed it ne#essary to le#ture ,post&industrial

"urope- about the need for ,double standards- and #olonial ruthlessness to beat down

benihted non&.esterners! seemed to ie substan#e to these hopes'

.ell! ermany and the "uropean $nion did step up & but rather differently than expe#ted'

And it was no ele#toral twit#h that set the stae for ,better be wron with the $nited %tates

than bein riht aainst it-' %in#e Anela /erel‘s isit to .ashinton (as the #onseratie

opposition leader) on the ee of the $% inasion of 0ra! to denoun#e then&#han#ellor er&

hard %#hroeder‘s de#ision to oppose the war! the return to $% ood ra#es was not only the

main #onseratie forein&poli#y pro2e#t3 it turned rapidly into the supreme pro2e#t of the

erman politi#al #lass & in#ludin the %o#ial 4emo#rats'

/erel be#ame the #han#ellor&to&o&to! the most trusted "uropean interlo#utor for the $%

politi#al #lass to wor 2ointly and determinedly to harden $% lobal heemony aainst the

#onseuen#es of Ameri#a‘s 0ra&infli#ted weaness & this not only in the wider /iddle "ast

but also! and espe#ially! with reard to Russia and +hina! the Bush administration‘s oriinal

enemy of #hoi#e before the ,birth pans of a new /iddle "ast- #onsumed so mu#h of its

politi#al #apital'

Oer#omin the domesti# #onstraints on its ability to use the erman army more extensi&

ely for ,humanitarian interentions-! for the defense of ,.estern #iili5ation- aainst 0sla&

mist terrorism! is an important! thouh not the most important! part of the /erel oern&

ment‘s ,the .est united behind the $%- poli#y' Notwithstandin the absen#e of publi#

debate on its stratei# impli#ations & e! of the $% (and 0sraeli) do#trine of preentie war!

the abolition of the North Atlanti# Treaty Orani5ation‘s eoraphi#al restri#tions! the mis&

sion of ,se#urin a##ess to raw materials- & the re2e#tion on eneral prin#iples of a more

a#tiist military role by a ma2ority of ermans has not (yet) been oer#ome'

This has far&rea#hin #onseuen#es6 it has! in a sinifi#ant way! rebooted erman elite atti&

tudes and expe#tations toward the "$! and toward ermany‘s relationship with 7ran#e' The

publi# dis#ourse about forein poli#y as well as the underlyin elite mindset is #hanin &

from ,responsibly #onseratie- to the #hannelin of the demons 8annah Arendt dealt with

in her sear#h for the oriins of 9:th&#entury disorder6 (British) imperialism! .estern milita&

rism and ra#ism' And sin#e the ma2ority of ermans is (aain) far behind the #ure of elite

opinion! the efforts of ,re&edu#atin- them (as 4er %pieel re#ently demanded aain) are

as #onsistently strident as they are mytholoi5in'

But there are also uite a number of senior offi#ials and politi#ians! still serin or retired!

who are looin with dismay or worry at the eolution of erman poli#ies in response to the

#risis of $%&erman relations' Their publi#ly oi#ed #on#erns are fo#used on the expansion

of erman military #ommitments & of the easy to et into! but next to impossible to et outof sort & and the rapid deterioration of relations with Russia'



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0n addition! amon the small number of senior experts on international e#onomi#s! a ma2o&

rity are looin with deep forebodin at the mountin instabilities of the international finan&

#ial system' They see them drien by the hue trade imbalan#es of the $% and the rowin

threat to leerae them aainst the #reditor nations & in parti#ular aainst +hina! Russia!

and the members of the Orani5ation of ;etroleum "xportin +ountries that are runnin

lare surpluses'

The $% #onressionally mandated finan#ial san#tions aainst su#h #ountries as 0ran! %yria!

+uba and North <orea are taen! moreoer! as indi#ators that the $nited %tates is about todestroy the trust the international finan#ial system is based upon' The #onseuen#es of its

eentual & sooner rather than later & meltdown will be dramati# and un#ontrollable'

These warnin oi#es are! thouh! in the wins of the erman debate' The stae is held by

the narratie of the terrorist mena#e' But there are ery few serious experts who sin#erely

beliee that 0slamist terrorism is motiated by their hate for ,.estern freedoms and

alues-' 8ate and the desire for reene are #ertainly #ru#ial elements3 but this has not

mu#h to do with .estern #ulture or with the alleed humiliatin reali5ation of /uslim infe&

riority'

0f one should be looin for #auses! the de#ades of iolen#e the .est isited upon these#ountries! either dire#tly or throuh its dependent reimes! is a ne#essary part of the

explanation' The other part! of #ourse! would hae to fa#e the fa#t that it was the .est that

transformed wea and isolated fundamentalist #ells into its terrorist olem' 0t nurtured!

trained! finan#ed! orani5ed and used it for de#ades in terror #ampains aainst se#ular

nationalist and so#ialist reimes and moements until those were defeated or isolated! lea&

in their #ompromised remnants to do the .estern biddin'

Thouh ermany was not in the forefront of /iddle "ast meddlin! it was fully enaed in

#reatin and empowerin a .ahhabi&%alafist #oalition to fiht the %oiets and the

#ommunist reime in Afhanistan & the #entral front in the lobal anti&#ommunist offensie

that appeared to hae turned terrorism on three #ontinents into the .estern weapon of

#hoi#e'

And for the /iddle "ast this still seems to be the #ase' 0t is seen in the .estern use of %unni

terror roups (and the anti&0ranian &oernment /u2ahadeen&e&<hal! as well as the 0ranian

sister orani5ation of the <urdistan .orers ;arty) aainst 0ran! and aainst the as#endent

%hi‘ites in =ebanon'

But the mytholoi5ation of al&>aeda and the ,#lash (in erman! war) of #iili5ations- seres

to leitimi5e the readiness for endless war' 0n the words of a retired erman offi#ial6 ,.e

hae been walin the world oer the #liff! and are fallin into a sea of blood'-

All of this does not only inole ideoloi#al re&riin' 0n the $% wae! ermany is runninup the pennant of permanent war' The followin should sere to proide a iew into some of

its parti#ulars'

The German-ren!h "andem

%in#e 1?@@! after 7ran#e left the North Atlanti# Treaty Orani5ation‘s military interation!

ermany has been 7ran#e‘s primary partner! and the 7ren#h&erman tandem was the a#tie

#ore that droe the "uropean "#onomi# +ommunity toward the "uropean $nion' ermany

handled the tension between its #lose relationship with the $% and the one with 7ran#e by

#ompartmentali5in6 with 7ran#e! "urope3 with the $%! NATO and se#urity'

But notwithstandin the efforts to preent #onfli#ts deelopin between these two poles of erman forein poli#y! there was always a stron tenden#y within the erman politi#al #lass

to reard the pro#ess of "uropean interation as leadin toward an in#reasin autonomy of

"uropean interests and poli#ies from those of the $%' The $% did not see it differently & par&



ti#ularly after the end of the +old .ar' The administrations of Bill +linton and eore 8 .

Bush inested! therefore! a lot of politi#al #apital and #unnin to preent that from o##ur&

rin' Both administrations #onsidered the "uropean relationship with Russia as the ey for

the iability of su#h a pro2e#t and the "$‘s and NATO‘s new east "uropean members as the

leer to assure its abortion'

But with the allian#e #risis of 9::9&: & also! dependin on the perspe#tie! the apoee or

the nadir of the 7ren#h&erman duo & the $% was able to mobili5e not only the politi#al eli&

tes of the new NATO & and "$ & members of eastern "urope as well as those of 4enmar!the Netherlands and %pain aainst the spe#ter of an independent "uropean #ourse' 0t was

the reolt of the 7ren#h and erman $%&oriented elites & expressin itself publi#ly in an

in#essant and thorouh media #ampain & that sealed its fate' All of a sudden! the erman&

7ren#h spe#ial relationship had lost mu#h of its salien#e' The hori5on of the ind of "uro&

pean interation the $nited %tates #onsidered a threat to its own international role reealed

itself as mu#h more of a mirae than it appeared before it was put to the test'

+han#ellor /erel is the erman in#arnation of this reolt' And the lioni5ed #hampion of the

#olle#tie "uropean riht! the Ameri#ans! and the 0sraelis! Ni#olas %aro5y! is the ideal

7ren#h president for turnin /erel‘s reat forein&poli#y pro2e#t into a 2oint enture6 wel&

din the "$ to the $%! main "uropean interation sere the $%&dominated! .esterninternational order & whateer the #ost'

0t is not as if former 7ren#h president a#ues +hira# and his forein and military poli#y

bureau#ra#ies had still been able to put the braes on /erel' After #onfrontin the $% on

the 0ra issue in 9::9&:! toether with then&#han#ellor %#hroeder! and hain maneuered

Russian ;resident Cladimir ;utin into tain the same stan#e! +hira#‘s politi#al will was

exhausted and prospe#ts for a more independent "uropean road in international politi#s was

dead' %#hroeder‘s #apa#ity to a#t in tandem with +hira# was in#reasinly #ir#ums#ribed by

his domesti# weaness3 and the $% reminded the 7ren#h administration for#efully of what it

means to play hardball with 7ren#h interests' 8e was stymied! lie %#hroeder! by the neo&

#onseratieDneo&liberal! $%&oriented ma2ority of the elites'

After 9::! 7ren#h poli#ies followed ermany somewhat listlessly in supportin the $%

ones! in parti#ular in the wider /iddle "ast & thouh still tryin to play their own ame in

=ebanon! while ein on the Ameri#ans and 0sraelis aainst %yria and 0ran' Neertheless!

while #on#edin the ame in the /iddle "ast! +hira# and %#hroeder still tried to #reate a

stable framewor of relations with Russia and +hina! the basis of somethin lie a "urasian

#ommon e#onomi# reion' This notion has already 2oined the miht&hae&beens of history'

Neither would hae led the ele#tion of %aro5y‘s #ompetitor! %eolene Royal! to a reatly

different #on#eption of 7ren#h forein poli#y' Royal was roomed by 7ran#ois /itterrand! the

%o#ialist president who had brouht to perfe#tion the art of de#oratin with left&win flouris&

hes an ex#eedinly hard&nosed! rather i#ious! #oert&operations approa#h to forein poli#y'

0n fa#t! the different ersions of the 7ren#h %o#ialist ;arty after .orld .ar 00 were neer

nown for parti#ularly salubrious poli#ies6 from their allian#e with the +orsi#an heroin mafia

in /arseilles to their support of 7ren#h #olonial wars! from bombin reenpea#e ships to

inolement in the Ruanda eno#ide' There is nothin surprisin! therefore! that both Royal

and %aro5y are #lose to the parti#ularly shrill 7ren#h ersion of ,humanitarian interentio&

nists-! drawin from the same sto# of #iili5ational warriors that dominates 7ren#h publi#

dis#ourse'

%aro5y‘s #hoi#e for forein minister! Bernard <ou#hner! is therefore less of a pea#e offerin

to the %o#ialists than an indi#ator of ideoloi#al #ommitments' <ou#hner is not only one of the ideoloi#al odfathers of ,anti&totalitarian! humanitarian interentionism-! he is also the

one under whose beneolent eyes & in his fun#tion as its $nited Nations administrator &

<osoo a#uired the mains of the first! ethni#ally almost pure! "uropean mafia&state'



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4urin the 1?F:s! some of his /ede#ins du /onde (whi#h he founded after splittin from

the /ede#ins sans 7rontiGres) assisted the Afhan mu2ahideen with somewhat more than

medi#al&only rear seri#es'

Thouh he miht not be tainted with aidin the Ameri#ans (as some suspe#ted)! as other

non&oernmental orani5ations are! in turnin the +ambodian refuee #amps in Thailand

into bases for the re#onstitution of the <hmer Roue as $% proxies! his re#ord! neerthe&

less! 2ustifies +olin ;owell‘s famous di#tum about NOs as $% ,for#e multipliers- aant la

lettre6 human rihts and medi#al seri#es for $% friends and #lients! none for the opposi&tion'

%aro5y‘s ideoloi#al baae also #ontains the 7ren#h&0sraeli business lawyer Arno <lars&

feld!a rather hysteri#al #ampainer for the rihts of 0srael and the defense of .estern #iili&

5ation as well as the son of noted Na5i hunters %ere and Beate <larsfeld' 8e olunteered in

9::9 to sere in the 0sraeli 4efense 7or#e and a##ompanied the 0sraeli border uards as a

member on their rampae throuh the ;alestinian territories' <larsfeld was %aro5y‘s lea&

din #andidate for headin the #ontroersial new /inistry for 0mmiration and National

0dentity & a moe #omparable to Bush proposin riht&win 0sraeli politi#al leader Aidor

=iebermann as the head of a new department for 8ispani#s! /uslims and Afri#an&Ameri#ans'

7or the time bein! thouh! %aro5y seems to hae re#onsidered this ex#eedinly proo#a&tie appointment'

.idely uoted as mentor and inspirer of %aro5y‘s ,anti&totalitarian- outloo is philosopher

AndrH lu#smann6 one of the many minor embodiments of 8annah Arendt‘s insiht about

the 7ren#h haute boureoisie‘s romanti# infatuation with the rhetori#al bombast of ideoloi&

#al roues and the titillations of iolen#e' 4urin the 1?F:s he mareted nu#lear war as an

antidote aainst the "uropean addi#tion to pea#e and to sae humanity & and .estern #iili&

5ation & from #ommunism' After the %oiet #ollapse! he aitated for "urope to 2oin any

Ameri#an or 0sraeli war in rea#h aainst the ,new 8itlers- (/ilosei#5! %addam 8ussein!

Arafat! Assad! et#) and ,0slamofas#ists-! as well as for his ind of moral poli#ies aainst

,totalitarian- +hina and ,newly&totalitarian- Russia'

These attra#tions! howeer! did not remain limited to the ;arisian salons and media6 As the

preferred 7ren#h interlo#utor for #astiatin the erman la# of martial fiber! while in er&

many lu#smann briefly repla#ed on ,hih&brow- TC the well &respe#ted! thouh liberal

and measured! spe#ialist on erman&7ren#h relations! ;rofessor Alfred rosser' 0n 9::9!

rosser had #ommitted the rather deadly mistae of #riti#i5in instead of defendin 0srael‘s

riht to do as it lies in the ;alestinian territories' 8e disappeared from erman s#reens as

did many of the erman #orrespondents of the publi# media who had failed to appre#iate

the ;alestinians as the new Na5is'

0n iew of the fa#t that most "uropean mainstream #onseratie parties (and een some

%o#ial 4emo#rati# #urrents) propaandi5e the immirant issue in#reasinly in terms of the,#lash of #iili5ations- and the ,new antisemitism-! they hae spurred an interestin

#hane of orientation in the extreme riht with all the potential for open (lie in 4enmar or

0taly) or ta#it allian#es (lie in %pain)'

The extreme riht (7ront National! Claams Belan! =ea Nord! Allian5a Na5ionale! ;arti an

de Cri2heit et#) and its nebula of oon suads hae also been busy buildin brides to 0srael

and to the iolen#e&in#lined! but tihtly leashed! Iionist riht (=iud "urope! Betar! ewish

4efense =eaue! et#) in the strule aainst ,"urabia-' One miht! therefore! wonder

whether %aro5y has not already taen his #ommitment to fiht aainst the ,new antisemit&

ism- and to defend 7ren#h ,national identity- a tad too far' ien the thousands of maimed

or dead Arab! Asian! and Afri#an immirant i#tims of ra#ial iolen#e in .estern "uropedurin the last 1J years & underinestiated! underreported! and underprose#uted in er&

many as well as 7ran#e & one miht een wonder whether the #all to arms aainst the rise



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of antisemitism is not misdire#ted and whether %aro5y and his #ir#le do not do double duty

as arsonists in the fire&briade'

Bur %aro5y is not only a #iili5ational warrior' 8e and his adisers & the +"Os of the larest

media #onlomerates and the insuran#e business & are #ommitted to a radi#al restru#turin

of the distribution of power between the patronat and the unions! between state and

so#iety! between the worers and the haute boureoisie'

%aro5y has mareted himself as the enereti# exe#utor of a #onsensus in sear#h of an exe&#utor for the last 9: or so years' 4eleitimi5in the whole system of so#ial prote#tions with

their institutional underpinnins has been at the #enter of what amounted to a psy#holoi#al

warfare #ampain aainst the idea that there is a leitimate #laim on so#ial 2usti#e' After

seeral false starts! this proram seems to hae found with him the e#hoes of the pre&.orld

.ar 00 deep riht‘s ,patrie! famille! traail-! instead of ,libertH! fraternitH! HalitH-'

"en the %o#ialist leadership! not at all dis#omfited by Royal‘s defeat & as testified by its well

publi#i5ed #olle#tie sih of relief & is into the spirit of thins' 7ren#h %o#ialist ;arty politi#ian

4ominiue %trauss&<ahn‘s ,the red fla is in the mud for ood- phrase renders unsurprisin

that not a few oters miht hae pondered the adantaes of ettin the unaoidable up

front instead of in fits! starts! and misdire#tion'

Neither the 7ren#h elites! nor the erman #han#ellor! nor the $%! are in the mood for dea&

lin with ualms and hesitations a la Royal' %aro5y! in #ontrast! has the intention! the will!

the enery! the support of the politi#al #lass! as well as the #on#eption of himself as the

riht man for the 2ob! to pull 7ran#e to the Ameri#an ood side' A ,noble #ompetition- bet&

ween /erel and %aro5y miht een be shapin up! reardin who is oin to wor more

#losely with the $% & espe#ially sin#e /erel is at a disadantae' %he is burdened with a

%o#ial 4emo#rati# #oalition partner tryin to sae the remnants of %#hroeder‘s Russian poli&

#ies and under pressure from the pa#ifist left! and more importantly! from a new! non&se#ta&

rian left&win party that is eatin into its ele#torate and party membership'

ien the fa#t that the ma2ority of the erman politi#al #lass and the media are runnin

aain a hih Russophobe feer! there is not mu#h #han#e that these remnants will be sala&

eable' 0t is! instead! possible that ermany will 2oin in when a suffi#iently stron #ataly5in

eent tips relations with Russia into a no holds barred effort to et to the end of the ,Rus&

sian problem-' 0n the meantime! the Russians will #arry on as if they had a ,stratei# part&

ner- in /erel! and /erel will #ontinue to sinal her dissatisfa#tion with Russia‘s delierin

on .estern demands & and leae it to the %o#ial 4emo#rati# leadership to deal with its nos&

talia'

Refi""in# T$r%e& for i"s 'ro'er role

One of the most interestin poli#y initiaties of the new erman&7ren#h tandem may appear

to be a sideshow but is! in fa#t! emblemati# of the shape of thins to #ome6 repla#in the"$ hori5on for Turey with one more fittin for an oriental stratei# asset'

/erel and %aro5y are now 2ointly leadin an "$&wide #oalition dead set aainst main

ood on the de#ades&old promise for the interation of Turey into the "$ as soon as it is

able to implement the a#uis #ommunautaire (total body of "$ law)' .ith the ele#tion of

%aro5y the ,open&ended- a##ession neotiations hae no #han#e of remainin open&ended

and with his help /erel will be able to outmaneuer her %o#ial 4emo#rati# baae while

still insistin on neotiatin with Turey in ood faith'

7or /erel! %aro5y and their #iili5ational warriors! Turey has no "uropean ,o#ation-! for

#ultural! +hristian! and o##idental reasons' /erel promises! instead! a ,spe#ial relation&ship- and %aro5y proposes to sponsor a ,/editerranean #ommunity-! an#hored on Turey!

0srael and /oro##o! as a eopoliti#al barrier aainst Afri#an immirants! 0slami# fundamen&

talists! and as an additional enue for 0sraeli ambitions'



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The uestion! thouh! is how to mae Turey ie up its "$ aspirations and fall into line

with whateer plans are made for it' And the main problem is! in fa#t! that Turey‘s most

#ommitted "uropeanists are to be found in the moderately #onseratie and moderately

reliious #enter&riht usti#e and 4eelopment (A<;) party! the first oernin party after

.orld .ar 00 whi#h is fairly #lean! rather #ompetent e#onomi#ally! and tena#iously diin at

the immensely #orrupt and #riminal ,deep state-6 the #onlomerate of politi#ians! military

intellien#e! spe#ial poli#e suads! and their leions of #ut&outs! #ut&throats! and patsies!

the Turish mafia! rey .oles (ie! rihtwin terrorists)! feudal landowners! and asso#iatedbusiness entures' This oernment is tryin to drain a swamp in whi#h erman intellien#e

was up to its nees sin#e the days of its bein tased with #haperonin the ,Trident- intelli&

en#e #oordination between the Turish! 0ranian! and 0sraeli intellien#e seri#es'

Turey‘s ,deep state- has been (and! to some deree! still is) the enablin enironment &

and with 0srael! the "astern /editerranean hub & for the interbreedin of intellien#e! the

se#urity business! terrorist roups for hire! and mafia operations' 0t has produ#ed the stran&

est! rather frihtenin! but most lu#ratie! hybrids between bla# operations! subersion!

tareted illins and idnappins! and the whole panoply of the dru! prote#tion! oran har&

estin! bla# medi#al resear#h and pharma#oloy! the emiration! slae labor! weapons

and te#hnoloy! #ounterfeitin! money launderin ra#ets' oined to 0srael‘s netherworld! itsrea#h extends from the Arab #ountries to Afri#a! from Russia and the +0% to western and

+entral Asia! and! of #ourse! to "urope'

This is what the Turish oernment & with a stron popular mandate & is tryin to reform in

order to #onform to the reuirements of "$ membership' The A<; is! for ood reasons!

stronly #ommitted to the "$6 by itself it would be uite unable to mae its sanitation man&

date wor! whateer the strenth of its ele#toral base' 0t is only ia the "$ that it #an een

approa#h the holy of holies! the #onstitutional ;raetorian preroatie of the Turish military'

0ts defenders & the parties of the se#ular ,.hite Turs- (ie! the urban elites) who reard the

reforms the "$ a##ession pro#ess imposes as endanerin their ownership of the state & are

pre#isely those %aro5y and /erel are relyin on to derail Turey‘s "$ prospe#ts'

The .hite Turs‘ ,deep state- is already swinin into a#tion6 from a spate of hih&profile

murders with an ostensible ,fundamentalist- ba#round! to the threat of a military #oup

d‘Htat! from the demonstrations with the mali#ious sloan ,neither %haria! nor puts#h- (try&

in to taint the A<; with the fundamentalist brush)! to the the #ollusion between a#tin ;re&

sident Ahmet Ne#det %e5er and the +onstitutional +ourt (sworn to uphold the military pre&

roaties) in prooin a #onstitutional #risis to blo# the ele#tion of the popular 7orein

/inister Abdullah ul to the presiden#y'

%in#e Turey‘s main .estern allies are de#idedly unhappy with the su##esses of reform and

the rowin self&#onfiden#e of the oernment of Turish ;rime /inister Re#ep Tayyip "rdo&

an! /erel and her #ohorts are enaed in a rather i#ious ame of deleitimi5in Turishaspirations throuh eiled threats and humiliations' 0t is not only the moin oal posts

ame that Turey has to neotiate'

0t is the ind of #ued "uropean dis#ussion that says in effe#t! ,.e will mae sure to preent

the "$ membership of Turey- (whateer the domesti# reper#ussions in the seeral million

stron Turish #ommunity in ermany)! that is desined to #oer#e the A<; into iin up'

There is also the tidy side&payment to #onsider! namely! the domesti# deleitimi5ation of the

A<; and the reempowerment of the deep state! now represented by the Nationalist /oe&

ment (/8;) party and Turey‘s oldest politi#al party! the Turish Republi#an ;arty (+8;)

that has sered .estern eopoliti#s oh&so&well'

Tyin the Turish oernment into nots! the $% oernment and many of the "uropean

media are laudin the #onstitutional o#ation of the Turish military to prote#t the se#ular

state (implyin aain that the A<; is intent on turnin Turey into a sharia state) while! at



K

the same time! "uropean politi#ians raise the spe#ter of the threat of military interention in

Turish politi#s as proof that Turey is not "$ material' 0n the same fashion! ,hih "uropean

offi#ials- do ba#round briefins on how a military #ampain aainst the ;<< in 0ra would

strain NATO and end Turey‘s a##ession neotiations be#ause it would be proof that the Tur&

ish oernment & whi#h is aainst interention & #annot #ontrol its military' 0t is a perfidi&

ous set&up be#ause the $% and 0srael (with erman support) are doin eerythin to

strenthen and use the 0ranian ;<< networ for its proxy #ampain aainst Tehran'

But why are these for#es fihtin so hard to terminate Turey‘s "$ prospe#tsL

The answer lies not in the new #onseratieDriht&win obsession with o##idental identity

politi#s or with the enlarement blues' The $% was denied the use of Turish territory for

atta#in 0ra from the north3 Turey insisted! instead! on its /ontreux Treaty preroatie

of refusin a permanent Ameri#an naal suadron in the Bla# %ea' 0t has rather relaxed

politi#al! and hih&rowth e#onomi# relations with its neihbors! %yria and 0ran' 0t has been

a##used of drain its feet on the Nabu##o as pipeline! desined to brin +entral Asian

as to "urope and to #ir#ument the Russian pipeline system'

0t has! in fa#t! ex#ellent politi#al and e#onomi# relations with Russia while hain one out

of the 1??:s business of subertin the +entral Asian republi#s' 7urthermore! it anered0srael with its dis#reet #onta#ts with 8amas and by #oolin down the politi#al s#ope of the

military and intellien#e relationship (as well as its attendant business opportunties)' And it

hurt powerful interests with a more serious enaement with 0nterpol'

0n other words! the A<; oernment is striin to s#ale down the use of Turey as a stra&

tei# platform for all sorts of mayhem! fo#usin instead uite su##essfully on reional trade

and inestment opportunities to maintain Turey‘s e#onomi# rowth & thus stabili5in a ro&

win middle #lass of ,bla# Turs-' This approa#h! thouh! #rimps $% efforts to expand the

stratei# threat aainst 0ran' "en more importantly! it limits Ameri#an a##ess to the +au#a&

sus and +entral Asia and hampers its plans for pullin the $raine! eoria and A5erbai2an

into a permanent and mu#h more extensie military relationship'

0n sum6 thouh prudent enouh to hae a##omodated the Turish military‘s usual leel of

#ooperation with .estern ($%! 0sraeli! and erman) operations aainst its neihbors! it still

disrearded the demands of the .estern rand stratey' 0ts poli#ies did nothin to help in

the ,reat ame- of turnin the +au#asus and +entral Asia into a leer to be used aainst

Russia and +hina' Neither did the Turish oernment do enouh for the shorter&term pay&

off! ie! ainin #ontrol oer +entral Asian oil and as' All of this did not win the Turish

oernment friends in the riht pla#es' 0t set itself up! instead! for some ariant of a

reime&#hane operation in whi#h the #ampain aainst Turey‘s "$ aspirations will play a

piotal role'

Thouh the Turish military is always ood for a #oup d‘etat! it may be diffi#ult to do it thistime without an inopportune leel of iolen#e (,+hileani5ation-) sin#e the A<; won the ele#&

tions resoundinly' There are other options aailable that miht tea#h the for#es of Turish

reform lessons about red lines and oerrea#hin' A short wal down memory lane miht

illustrate what is possible'

One of the most su##essful & and ,bla#est- & of $%&British ,bla# operation- aainst a

.estern! albeit neutral! #ountry was #arried out in first half of the 1?F:s' 0n 9:::! none

other than Reaan‘s se#retary of defense! +aspar .einberer! de#lassified it in an interiew

with %wedish TC in the #ontext of an inestiation into the affair of the ,%oiet submari&

nes-'

Then %wedish prime minister Olaf ;alme was a real thorn in .estern flesh' Apart from his

ba#in for the Afrin#an National +onress and the ;alestine =iberation Orani5ation! he

was ery o#al in his #riti#ism of the in#reasinly danerous Ameri#an #onfrontation poli#ies



F

towards the %oiet $nion' 8is stan#e en2oyed widespread support within the %wedish

population' This #haned rather dramati#ally with the worldwide fren5y about ,the %oiet

aression of neutral %weden-! when %wedish territorial waters were repeatedly ,iolated

by %oiet submarines- and by landins of ,%oiet spe#ial for#es- on the %wedish #oast'

These ,in#ursions- stopped with the still unresoled murder of ;alme in 1?F@! despite two

unsu##essful attempts to #oni#t a man named +hrister ;ettersson for the #rime'

.ith a pleased smir! .einberer #onfirmed that there was nothin %oiet in the iolation

of %wedish territorial waters (the %oiets ,didn‘t hae the #apabilities-)' There were! inste&ad! routine exer#ises! ,between the %wedish nay and the Ameri#an and British naies and

sin#e they were routine! the %wedish admiral responsible saw obiously no need to inform

his superiors or his subordinates about the nature of the ,enemy-'

0t was! in fa#t! not uite a ,reime #hane-! but a 2oint $%&$< operation toether with the

top brass of the %wedish nay and %wedish intellien#e! #ondu#ted aainst the forein

poli#y of the %wedish oernment' %in#e then %weden has been rather #areful not to #hal&

lene Ameri#an poli#ies & with the ex#eption perhaps of the ery popular 7orein /inister

Anna =indh! in line to be#ome the next prime minister' %he was stabbed to death in 9:: by

a mentally disturbed youn immirant'

At the time! su#h operations brouht the world #lose to the brin of nu#lear war' The %oiets

understandably saw this as a #ru#ial indi#ator that the $% was preparin its allies! and batt&

lin with a powerful pea#e moement! for nu#lear preemption aainst the ,in#reasinly

aressie- and ,bra5en- %oiet $nion'

A ariant of su#h an operation today! thouh sure to hae its own blowba#s! would #er&

tainly not inole that ind of ris' 0t would also tae into a##ount that the Turish military

and intellien#e are not as monolithi# as they on#e were6 there is ind of nationalist rea#tion

to the easy #ontempt with whi#h they are taen for ranted' But it would #hane Turey‘s

politi#al hori5on for ood6 a poli#y sub2e#ted to a permanent ,stratey of tension-! #ounte&

rin demo#rati# aspirations with the power of the deep state' And from a #ertain perspe#ti&

e! this is an eminently desirable out#ome' 0t would mae Turey the rateful re#ipient of

%aro5y‘s idea of a /editerranean #ommunity and /erel‘s notion of a spe#ial relationship'

Gloom& old hands

There miht hae been room! of #ourse! for a debate in ood faith about Turey‘s

implementation of the "$‘s a#uis #ommunautaire' This is what the ,open&ended- neotia&

tin pro#ess was all about' 0t is bein poisoned! howeer! by the bad faith #hara#teri5in

/erel‘s and %aro5y‘s approa#h towards Turey'

The de#ay of responsible diploma#y towards an ally and the rise of #ulturalist demaouery

is the symptom of somethin one miht #all a ,proto&totalitarian transition- tain pla#e

under the uise of the ,war on terror-' 0t is led by the de#ay of responsibility and predi#ta&bility in the #ondu#t of Ameri#an forein poli#y' Thus! for not a few senior erman diplomats

& those whose #areer too off under former #han#ellor 8elmut %#hmidt or under forein

minister 8ans&4ietri#h ens#her! and those military planners who still remember the war

s#are of the first half of the 1?F:s & there is no liht at the end of the tunnel'

The Ameri#an inability to se#ure a more stable international enironment! the #ombination

of militan#y and oerrea#hin! proide the terms of referen#e for the loominess of these

senior perennials' They are #ertainly not pea#e&at&any&pri#e bleedin hearts nor #loset dissi&

dents' They hae an inrained propensity to loo at the world as the stae of ,them ersus

us-' They #ome from families of #iil serants! a#ademi#s! and military offi#ers who #an well

sort out the differen#e between the ,upstairs- and ,downstairs- & worlds of internationalpoliti#s' 0n other words! they are as solidly ,.estern- or ,Atlanti#ist- as one #ould wish'

And they are also the first eneration of senior erman bureau#rats who hae been deeply



?

#omfortable with the absen#e of reat power ambitions and with the erman role as a #ii&

lian power'

Their outloo and their refle#tion of ermany‘s #olle#tie experien#e maes them alue sta&

bility3 at least insofar as any blowba# resultin from the use of for#e should be less than

the threat #ountered' This! of #ourse! #an be liberally interpreted and does not offer mu#h

for dealin with unpredi#tability' But pruden#e! septi#ism! and an iron#lad sense of self&

limitation proided the habits for naiatin in the wae of $% and 0sraeli poli#ies'

These old hands don‘t write papers! they do not share their #on#erns in staff meetins! they

may not een #ommuni#ate them in more formal settins' Neertheless! the unease is pal&

pable and it is the retirees who are oi#in it! with different emphases and different derees

of bluntness' These are men su#h as %#hmidt! with his reputation as a no&nonsense Atlanti&

#ist3 the #onseratie former minister of defense! Coler Ruhe3 the retired head of the plan&

nin staff under Ruhe! Ci#e&Admiral $lri#h .eisser3 the former forein poli#y speaer of the

#onseraties‘ parliamentary #au#us! <arl =amers'

They are well a#uainted with the new #rop of their Ameri#an #ounterparts who prepare!

#ontrol or exe#ute Ameri#an poli#ies with brittle arroan#e and with the #risis& and #onfron&

tation &prone default settin of Ameri#an forein poli#y formation'

7or uite a few of them! howeer! the most worryin indi#ation that the $nited %tates is

irreo#ably set on drain the world into a nihtmare of #ontinuous and #haoti# iolen#e! is

twofold6 the fliht or dismissal of senior! #onseratie professionals from the exe#utie

bran#h of the oernment and the unrestrained! stranely exhibitionist loryin of many

Ameri#an politi#ians at the ability to infli#t unrestrained iolen#e'

One miht add a third one! releant espe#ially to diplomats who had been posted in the

/iddle "ast! or to the #lassi#ists6 the wholesale lootin and the destru#tion of J!::: years of

/esopotamian antiuities! 2uded on par with the %panish eradi#ation of the #omplete writ&

ten re#ord of the /esoameri#an #iili5ations as well as the #ultural heritae of all 0ndian #ul&

tures that they #ould lay their hands on3 and one that also rans with the British burnin of

!::: years‘ worth of +hinese boos! histori#al re#ords! and do#uments durin the %e#ond

Opium .ar' This barbari# la# of respe#t for one of the most important heritaes of manind

speas olumes about the mindset this war has exposed'

There is the reali5ation that institutional blo#s hae been disabled and with it their #areer

premium on a healthy sense of the need to employ $% power #arefully & to a#nowlede its

exe#utie! leal! and politi#al limitations' But sin#e the 1?K:s! patient! allian#e&buildin

ideoloue&adenturers! thin&taners and 2ournalists! hae #rept up throuh the institutions!

usin and bein used! 2oinin the fantasies of redemption! reene! plunder! and #ontrol

oer the world! into an a#tion proram for employin Ameri#an power'

The style betrays the #hara#ter' %in#e the ambitions of these ideoloues are mu#h larer

than their edu#ation! they flatter themseles into beliein they are the New Romans! that

they write history on a een reater s#ale than Titus =iius3 and their anity expe#ts awe!

not reason' But they are a#tin out the rand uinol ersion of empire whose points of

referen#e miht be %allust! ;etronius or ;ro#opius! those who #astiated or ridi#uled or

despaired at the #orruption and the pretentions of its personnel'

0t is the remarable la# of de#orum! the intentional stain of bullyin lanuae! ri#h in

threats and insults! the resentful hypo#risy! the slihtly unhined display of bad faith when

diploma#y and suasion are the order of the day! that has #onin#ed een some of the ,2ust&

a&bad&pat#h- hopefuls that the bad times are here to stay'

The fear beneath mu#h of the uneasiness has to do! of #ourse! with memories of what hap&

pens when the resentments and dreams of omnipoten#e of a politi#al #lass are hi2a#ed by

those who promise to ie them satisfa#tion on a histori# s#ale'



1:

4urin the +old .ar! there was always a mad! thouh well&#onne#ted! frine that raitated

towards Ameri#an stratei# poli#ies6 e! "dward Teller with his notion of res#uin the ery

small! ,aluable- part of humanity in the depths of mines in order to reseed the earth after

nu#lear war3 %idney 8oo with his #oni#tion that .estern belief in the trans#endent ae it

the #ru#ial nu#lear&war ede oer the #ommunists who only belieed in the here and now3

the psy#hopaths within the +0A! lie %idney ottlieb who headed the aen#y‘s /<$=TRA

mind #ontrol proram! or #ounter&intellien#e #hief ames esus Anleton3 and the many

se#ular and reliious milleniarists in the .hite 8ouse! the military! in +onress! and inthin&tans! who were intent on an apo#alypti# resolution to the seeminly endless un#er&

tainties of the +old .ar' But to the end! wiser heads preailed & if only 2ust'

0t did not last' The Ameri#an politi#al #lass seems to hae drawn all the wron #on#lusions

from the end of the +old .ar and the breaup of the %oiet $nion' 0ts leisurely stroll

towards permanent lobal heemony 2ust did not happen' Thus! frustration and the #rain

for reene hae be#ome main driers of $% poli#ies' The eents of %eptember 11 fo#used

their #ommon dysfun#tionality! but they are not its root #ause'



11


Par" (: E)er&"hin# is *ro%en

By Axel Brot

+ro%en ma!hiner&The Ameri#an politi#al #lass seems to hae drawn all the wron #on#lusions from the end of

the +old .ar and the breaup of the %oiet $nion' 0ts leisurely stroll towards permanent

lobal heemony 2ust did not happen' Thus! frustration and the #rain for reene hae

be#ome main driers of $% poli#ies' The eents of %eptember 11 fo#used their #ommon

dysfun#tionality! but they are not its root #ause'

0t is from this antae point that arises the resined and poinant expe#tation that the $%

will permit neither a stable Russia nor a non&#ata#lysmi# a##ommodation of +hina‘s rise'

Ameri#an politi#s now hae 2ust enouh flexibility to neotiate the short&term priorities of

whom to put under the pressure of reime&#hanin demands3 but the system is ried not

to reward persuasion or a##ommodation but toward in#reasin #onfrontation! deadline

diploma#y! and randstandin on prin#iples that #arry the load of broen #redibility'

Notwithstandin the worthy efforts of the 0ra %tudy roup or the ;rin#eton ;ro2e#t on Nati&

onal %e#urity to et some means&to&ends rationality ba# into $% poli#ies! politi#s are

impaired by the la# of dis#ipline and pruden#e that #ome with the reinfor#ement of the

imperial mind&set of offi#ial .ashinton by the media and thin tans'

$nfortunately! this mind&set is not only the definin attribute of the present administration

but of both parties & and abundantly so! of the serious #ontenders for the next $% presiden&

#y' They are already #ompetin in burnin the brides to a somewhat more patient

approa#h to imperial poli#ies while beratin the present administration for its weaness'

4ifferent #ombinations of bombin 0ran! breain 8e5bollah! #onfrontin the Russians! san#&tionin the +hinese! suee5in the %audis and ;aistanis! pressurin the 0ndians into a sub&

ordinate relationship! installin an ,a##ountable- di#tatorship in 0ra (andDor tain it

apart)! are on the menu of the main #andidates & plus unfetterin $% ,soft power- and hit&

#hin the allies more effe#tiely to whateer load is to be pulled'

0t is therefore all too easy to see in the #urrent traails of lobal diploma#y efforts to adapt

to the impli#it Ameri#an #hoi#e of ,either the $% or #haos-' But the lessons are not only

0ra and Afhanistan! but the failed attempts of %erbia (1???)! 0ran (9::) and %yria (on&

oin)! to bow to $%D.estern demands while eepin a measure of independen#e and di&

nity' 0n fa#t! looin at the last 1@ years or so! at the fate of the former %oiet $nion in the

1??:s! of the former Muoslaia! and of 0ra or Afhanistan! they may #ome to the #on#lu&

sion that they hae nothin to lose een in a military #onfrontation'

And sin#e the mar#h of empire is tuned to the ra#ial & alias ,#iili5ational- & superiority (of

the ,Anlosphere-)! non&.estern elites may interpret this #hoi#e as ,the $% and #haos-' 0f

it is their ambition 2ust to loot their #ountries and then to set&up shop in one of the .estern

tax&sheltered playrounds or to turn into share#roppers of their #ountries resour#es! the

#hoi#e is a ood one' 0f they are at all attentie! reasonably patrioti#! and hae a measure

of pride! they #annot but resist it'

0t is! in the last analysis! also a uestion of self&esteem and a sense of histori#al a##ountabi&

lity' +an elites in their riht mind bear to be the butt of a sardoni# witti#ism lie the one

oin around amon Anlo&%axon offi#ials! taretin the %audi #ombination of immense#orruption and payin immense prote#tion money6 the %audis ,prefer to suffo#ate on their

nees instead of dyin on their feet-'



19

But #ontempt and the lust for #haos (,#reatie destru#tion-) hae be#ome the #oin of the

realm' They are heated by fantasies of a lobal #aste so#iety where ,The %hield of A#hil&

les-! ,0mperial runts-! ,=eft Behind-! and ,The 4iamond Ae- are busy #ross &pollinatin

the imperial imaination' One miht add that a ;entaon (Offi#e for Net Assessment) study

of the #onseuen#es of #limate #hane proides a window into the darest! surialist

#orner of this mind&set and implies! in addition! an answer to the uestions ,who is the

.estL- and ,who is superfluousL-

The return with a enean#e of the ,#oert operations approa#h- to $% international poli&

#ies! therefore! has mu#h more to do with this sinister self&fi#tionali5ation than with the

nature of threats or the simple aailability of the instruments' .hile for most periods of the

+old .ar! #on#erns about exposure! blowba#! and prooin war with the %oiets ept it

somewhat under #ontrol! it has slipped the leash' "eryone who #an has one into business'

0t is not only the .hite 8ouse that is ex#eedinly liberal in its use of priateers! freuently

retreaded intellien#e and military offi#ials who should hae been disposed of out of harm‘s

way'

There is the eolution of a hue ray 5one of priate ,#onsultan#y- enterprises of former

oernment offi#ials who parlay their international #onta#ts with state and sub&state a#tors!with insuren#ies in sear#h of ups#ale sponsorin! and poli#y&lobbyin roups! as well as

their international business #onta#ts & in parti#ular with the enery! finan#ial! arms and

se#urity industries & into business and influen#e' On returnin to oernment seri#e! their

pet pro2e#ts! poli#ies and money &spinners dont 2ust o into hibernation! they are #onti&

nued as oernment poli#ies' The mer#handisin of imperial poli#ies and the mer#antili5a&

tion of military iolen#e hae be#ome the hallmar of this strane #ombination of militarism

and enality' One of the new breed of temporary! parenu offi#ials demonstrated its bottom&

line aspe#t with the pithy uestion6 ,.hat is the use of empire when you #ant mae

money out of itL-

On the poli#y leel! the #on#ern about blowba# and exposure has all but disappeared!

ex#ept as a weapon of bureau#rati# bloodlettin when the hunt for the s#apeoat is on' 0t

#an only operate as a restraint if a sense of moderation #an be imposed and if its #onse&

uen#es hae a deterrin effe#t' None of this pertains' $% poli#ies! instead! estate in the

world of the mu#h&uoted /elian 4ialoue where a sense of impunity and omnipoten#e

hae destroyed any reard for pruden#e' %in#e the tyro&days of retired Air 7or#e /a2or

eneral Ri#hard %e#ord‘s rubbin shoulders with the #o#aine mafia in order to finan#e the

Ni#arauan +ontras! this state of affairs has ien a #ompletely new meanin to ,unleas&

hin #oert operations-! ,plausible deniability-! and! of #ourse! to Ronald Reaans famous

,boys will be boys- mentality'

The more i#ious side of the problem! thouh! exposes the meltdown of the firewalls bet&

ween the bran#hes of oernment! between the exe#utie bran#h and +onress! betweenpubli# and priate! between business and oernment & in a wit#hes‘ brew of pro2e#ts and

interests' And no oernment aen#y has the #lout or the will to turn off any of the #ross&

married pro2e#ts of poli#y&lobbyin! intellien#e and bla# operations that a#uired odpa&

rents in oernment! in +onress! or with one of the powerful lobbyin outfits'

They may sin! perhaps! below the awareness threshold of the prin#ipals! but moe they

will unstintinly! metamorphosin! mutatin and spawnin des#endents in the fetid swamp

of sub#ontra#tors! publi#&priate intellien#e outfits! mer#enaries! fundamentalist missionary

orani5ations! se#urity firms! to reappear someday as ,operation in pla#e-! and thus rene&

win the #y#le' The %udanese troubles are a prime example of how this itinerant e#osystem

produ#es and reprodu#es eer in#reasin mayhem in wea states #ursed with stratei# si&nifi#an#e'



1

But all of that does not een bein to address the destru#tie effe#ts of its freuent #onne#&

tion to the underworld! of the illi#it trade in weapons! raw materials! et#! or to the lobally

operatin #rime syndi#ates and their e#onomi# infrastru#ture'

0t is only loi#al that the sele#tion of poli#y&main personnel seems now to follow the 0sra&

eli! 0talian! and apanese model! moin eer deeper into the world of #lan loyalties (the

neo&#onseraties are only the most self&#ons#iously ,family&oriented- #lan) where the dis&

tin#tion between loyalty to offi#e and loyalty to #lan disappears #ompletely at the leel of

deputy assistant se#retary'

And it is startin to infe#t ermany' Not only be#ause many #orners of the erman forein

intellien#e apparatus are! by desin and tradition! bespoe to $% and 0sraeli intellien#e!

and its politi#al #ontrol me#hanisms are sli# een by .estern standards' 0t is the osmosis

of bad habits ia the demands of .estern solidarity'

0n a moment of unuarded #andor! the Berlin #orrespondent of the #onseratie %wiss daily

Neue Ir#her Ieitun bemoaned the unrestrained re#ruitin of 2ournalists and NO repre&

sentaties by erman intellien#e as far worse than spyin on 2ournalists to plu leas' This

#omment illuminated for a short moment one of the rooms in the sub&basement of erman

forein poli#y'

Of een reater salien#e for the shape of thins to #ome is the introdu#tion into ermany of

the linae of intellien#e and business! and of both to #oert operations' A story is floatin

around in the international media that the former head of erman intellien#e and #urrent

member of parliament Bernd %#hmidbauer is alleedly the fa#ilitator for an 0sraeli intelli&

en#e aent turned businessman who is deeply inoled in 0sraeli pro2e#ts in 0rai <ur&

distan' $sin %#hmidbauer‘s #onta#ts amon the leadership of the 0rai <urds! the 0sraeli

aent reportedly se#ured land #ontra#ts worth many millions of dollars to ie the <urds a

reater share of the (disappeared) billions from the oil&for&food a##ount'

0t is probably 2ust an interestin! albeit rather disinenuous #oer&story' But whateer the

details! it is a fa#t that %#hmidbauer is usin his former offi#e for that ind of purpose! and

that is the messae' And it is hard to 2ude what is worse6 %#hmidbauer inoled in 0sraeli

shenanians that #onne#t #oert operations to business profits3 or a priate enture doin

the same'

The dis!on"en" wi"h German mili"ar& in)ol)emen"

/ore immediate! howeer! are #on#erns that erman soldiers are already bein sent into

open&ended missions in potentially #asualty&ri#h interention enironments & enironments

where Ameri#an (British and 0sraeli) poli#ies hae publi#ly! #ontemptuously! and irreersibly

debau#hed 1:: years‘ worth of international law that tried to reulate the use of military

iolen#e' The erman allies are runnin a ind of so#ial&4arwinian sele#tion experiment in

their militaries! to weed out the #ons#ien#e&ridden! the sus#eptible! and the whistle&blowersand to breed ba# the mind&set of #olonial warfare aainst ,enemy populations-! with all

the reper#ussions on #iil so#iety that this entails'

The resultin mer#enary habits and ,warrior ethi#s- & moral inhibitions restrained in faor

of ra#ial #ontempt as part of unit bondin & #annot but infe#t and then #orrode and turn the

on#e restrained professional soldiers into the ,#iti5en&soldiers- of a parliamentary army'

The more they are #ommitted to operations in the ,war on terror-! the more they will

en#ounter the desperate hate of those who hae been exposed to the Ameri#an ways of

pa#ifi#ation'

0n other words6 there is fear that erman for#es will absorb this mentality by parti#ipatinin these so#iety&destroyin operations whose results #an already be seen in 0ra! Afha&

nistan and ;alestine & and in future #ampains that hae the potential to deteriorate into

annihilation warfare' The fear is not far&fet#hed6 one miht loo at the do#trinal eolution



1E

with reard to warfare in the ,lobal hettos- or! by way of example! s#rutini5e the strate&

ies #onsidered and the feror for a war aainst 0ran'

Those with leal trainin and some histori#al awareness #annot but see parallels between

what is happenin now and the 2udi#ial and propaanda preparations durin the run&up to

the erman atta# on %oiet Russia6 imprintin on the soldiers‘ minds that they are oin

to #onfront a sub&human! i#ious! #ruel! and #unnin enemy3 then denyin whole #ateories

of enemy #ombatants any leal status! depriin others of the prote#tions of the 8aue

+onentions! and limitin the prote#tion of #iilians by the #ode of military 2usti#e to thebare bones of maintainin #ombat dis#ipline and preentin the army from turnin into a

rapin! lootin! murderin mob (whi#h it did anyway! more often than not! espe#ially after

the expe#ted short road to i#tory turned into the lon slo towards defeat)'

Thus! #lassifyin anyone as a terrorist who fihts! or as a supporter of terrorism who #ould

harbor hostile intent aainst! or support orani5ations 2uded hostile to .estern interenti&

ons and interests! wards and dependents! simply extends the erman experien#e of how to

#reate a pererted ius in bello from %oiet Russia to the whole lobe' 0t aims! of #ourse! to

deleitimi5e all armed (and in#reasinly unarmed) resistan#e to .estern military expediti&

ons and o##upation! een tryin to et international law to pros#ribe it be#ause there is a

population in the way (,human shields-) of illin the terrorists' =ess #on#erned with fin&din a way around the enea +onentions or the 2urisdi#tion of Nurembur is the innoa&

tie 0sraeli #on#ept of ,terrorist population-' 0t 2ust puts a new title oer an old di#tate6

,"xterminate with extreme pre2udi#e'-

0n the meantime! ettin around the enea +onentions proided a #hallenin o##upation

for the lawyers of the Bush Administration' They de#ided the Taliban were ,unlawful #omba&

tants- & thouh they were the soldiers of a #ountry the +linton administration exer#ised

heay pressure on ermany to re#oni5e & be#ause Afhanistan was a ,failed state-' "en

if Afhanistan under the Taliban would 2ustify the term ,failed state-! it is useful to eep in

mind that the .est bears a heay responsibility for main it thus' One has only to loo at

the textboos and instru#tion material proided to the mud2ahedin by the $% and its #o&

worers in the 1?F:s'

;arti#ularly disturbin! thouh! is the deliberately transparent hypo#risy that does not #oer

but flaunts a ind of iolen#e that elementary #ommon sense (not to mention a sense of

shame) would eep sporadi# and isolated' But there are now tens of thousands of i#tims of

the institutionali5ed lobal ar#hipelao of bla# torture prisons and #amps' They hae been

sub2e#ted by a sele#t and trained for#e to the result of de#ades of resear#h into te#hniues

of torture and sexual humiliation! as a way! one is led to beliee! of ,searin defeat into

their minds-! to spread the messae that there is no re#ourse! no redress! no defense3 any

resistan#e will 2ust hasten the transition to the iolent dissolution of so#iety! of the under&

pinnins for a fun#tional state'

/oreoer! the riht to ill at will outside this system in #oert free fire 5ones! to eep the

sub#ontra#tin domesti# se#urity apparatus of dependent states on torture and assassina&

tion standby! #annot but herald the willful surrender of any #redible #laim by these oern&

ments to leitima#y or #apa#ity for #reatin order' The $nited %tates and its allies are set&

tin the stae for the ind of massie iolen#e last seen in the ,pa#ifi#ation- #ampains in

#olonial Afri#a and Asia' This time! howeer! it is for eeryone to see & and for uite a num&

ber of its strateists! this seems to be part of the purpose'

The erman politi#al #lass and the media mae all efforts to eep the s#ale and ramifi#ati&

ons of this system as far as possible from publi# debate and from itself3 if it deals with it at

all! then it is as the unaoidable! thouh uly! battle s#ars on the fa#e of .estern alues'The #ontortions inoled in refusin its #onne#tion to erman military #ommitments and the

eer more drasti#! networed se#urity measures are nothin if not remarable'



1J

There is! neertheless! a bla# thread #onne#tin ermany to the explosion of fundamen&

talist terrorism! buried in files and memories that rea#h ba# to the late 1?K:s' At that time!

ermany souht to assure the as#endan#y of 0slamist riht&win orani5ations oer its lare

/uslim #ommunity! to neutrali5e the influen#e of left&win orani5ations' The #onseuen#es

of this ind of so#ial enineerin are still in eiden#e today! and mu#h bewailed by the politi&

#al #lass'

ermany hosted also a substantial emire #ommunity of fundamentalists from se#ular Arab

#ountries & espe#ially from %yria' %in#e 0sraeli intellien#e had the free run of ermany! andparts of erman intellien#e (as well as its Baarian odfathers) were at the be# and #all

of the /ossad! re#ruitin amon the %yrian /uslim Brothers in ermany for a terrorist #am&

pain aainst the oernment of %yrian ;resident 8afe5 al&Assad #ould hae been #alled a

2oint operation' +o&finan#ed by %audi money! 0srael and its %outh =ebanese mer#enaries

trained them in #amps in south =ebanon! aderti5ed at that time as the top&of &the&leaue

raduate s#hool offerin instru#tion in all these interestin te#hniues whi#h mae .estern

life now so thrillin'

This operation led! of #ourse! to serious bloodlettin in %yria' The suriors either returned

to ermany! possibly as re#ruiters for the anti&%oiet 2ihad in Afhanistan! or transferred

their talents dire#tly to this new theater of .estern endeaors

Re#ruitin for subersion and terrorism reuires s#reenin! interroation of the bad apples

and of the doubtful #ases! and holdin them for future use' ermans helped in the s#ree&

nin but aoided the other pro#edures (at least! one may hope so)' The <hiam prison in

south =ebanon was used for these purposes & for torture and prisoner&breain beyond the

0sraeli rule&boo (hih&alue idnappees! thouh! are still ept in the ,bla# wins- of 0sra&

eli prisons! also desined to be beyond the rea#h of the already ex#eedinly permissie

rule&boo)'

The erman #onne#tion to 0sraeli operations rea#hed the awareness of some senior erman

bureau#rats and exposed them to the meanin of ,bla# prison- ia <hiam & whi#h #an be

taen as one of the models for the Ameri#an system' The horror and reulsion of the

sus#eptible ones had at least the effe#t of main life diffi#ult for former erman forein

affairs minister os#ha 7is#her when he had to assert piously that there were ,no iolators

of human rihts- amon the :: =ebanese torture& and rape&artists ermany a##epted

from 0srael'

The will to inoran#e that dominates the erman debate maes it all too easy to sideline

#on#erns about the myriad ways this system has beun to infest ermany6 ia its spe#ial

for#es! trained in the $%! 0srael! and reat Britain3 or the offi#er ex#hane proram with the

$% Army eneral staff #ollee (where its ideoloi#al underpinnins are tauht in the writins

of 0sraeli Arabist Rafael ;atai)3 ia the busy networ of itinerant torture spe#ialists! bent

psy#holoists and /4s! interroation trainers! and anthropoloists' The politi#al prin#ipalsare #olludin with it behind the ba# of the less #ontrollable members of parliament! and

freuently aainst the better 2udment of senior #areer offi#ials'

.hat bean in 9::9 as a way to show solidarity with the Ameri#ans and went into hih ear

in 9:: to rebuild brides to the $%! transmorified the enthusiasm of former %o#ial 4emo&

#rati# interior se#retary Otto %#hily (,if they want death! they #an hae it-)! the #raenness

of former forein minister os#ha 7is#her! and /erels impe##able ,pro&Ameri#an- #re&

dentials into an ideoloi#al proram to mae ermany (and the "$) fit for eternal war

aainst the enemies of the .est'

7or de#ades! ermany! lie the Netherlands! %weden! and Norway! manaed to be reardedas more of a lobal so#ial worer than as one of the #losest Ameri#an allies' 0ts role was

well sered by eepin aloof from military interentions! sti#in s#rupulously to its #ommit&

ments! striin to #oopt the moderni5in elites of deelopin #ountries into the .estern



1@

system! een at the pri#e of hih politi#s eepin itself inorant of its netherworld‘s doins!

and of sometimes dierin from $% poli#ies' ermanys ood name was a net proider of

leitima#y for the .est'

But under the new dispensation when the netherworld has be#ome the main show and the

#ompensatory human rihts rhetori# an eer more strident exer#ise in hypo#risy! leitima#y

seems to #ome from impunity' And the Ameri#an politi#al #lass has no more patien#e with

dierent interests! #laims of independent 2udment! or ,de#ent respe#t for the opinion of

manind-'

The dis!on"en"s wi"h German-Israeli oin"ness

=ast year! ermany inserted itself militarily into the /iddle "ast‘s troubles with a naal

suadron off the =ebanese #oast' 0ts mission6 to preent the replenishment of 8e5bollah

armament sto#s from the o#ean' 0t has openly taen sides! notwithstandin its sub rosa

allian#e with 0srael for de#ades! thus be#omin part of a problem without a solution' Not

only a ma2ority of the population refuses to support the erman #ommitment3 it is also

a##ompanied by the misiins of uite a number of professionals & for ood reasons'

One of them is rooted in the #oni#tion that the poundin the $% and 0srael are infli#tin on

the /iddle "ast is lo#in the .est into an unendin #y#le of iolen#e' 4riin it is 0srael‘sinability to #onsider pea#e more desirable than eepin its #onuests' Thouh it would be a

real #areer iller to admit to fears that 0srael miht use! or inite itself! another #onflara&

tion in the /iddle "ast to resole its ;alestinian problem on#e and for all & and! at the same

time! to destroy all #hallenes to its heemony & it is impossible not to be aware of this pro&

spe#t' 0t informs #on#erns about the impa#t of the ,war of #iili5ations- rhetori# that

erman (and "uropean) opinion leaders are spreadin in the media3 a rhetori#!that #an turn

any moment into a free ti#et for the 0sraeli leadership to et serious about what it has pre&

pared its allies to expe#t and what a ma2ority of its population demands'

0n fa#t! indi#ators that the 0sraelis miht limit their ambition to establishin a Bantustan&lie

system run by the 4ahlan&Balusha oon suads of 7atah appears to be taen by offi#ial er&

many as testimony to admirable and forward&looin 0sraeli restraint & to be en#ouraed!

leitimi5ed! and paid for to eep the 0sraelis from ,a#ts of desperation-'

The use of the term ,Bantustan- in this #ontext has nothin to do with an anti&semiti# slur6

when former %outh Afri#an premier and Na5i sympathi5er ohn Corster isited 0srael in

1?K@! %himon ;eres! /ena#hem Bein! Mit5ha Rabin! Mit5ha %hamir! et al! lauded the

%outh Afri#an system of ra#ial separation as a role model for dealin with ,their ushims-

(,niers-)' And the #onseratie part of the erman politi#al #lass (espe#ially in Baaria!

where the rather in#estuous relationship between erman intellien#e and the +hristian

%o#ial $nion had sired its own forein poli#y priorities) was deeply inoled in the stratei#

#ooperation between 0srael and %outh Afri#a' "xamples in#lude support for the /o5ambi#an

National Resistan#e (Renamo) & also dubbed the ,<hmer Noir- for startin the Afri#an pla&ue of re#ruitin small #hildren by traumati5ation & to ./4 resear#h! to the illeal transfer

of blueprints for a new #lass of #ruise&missile #apable submarines' 0n the 1??:s! by the way!

ermany donated seeral of these submarines to 0srael'

4urin the 1?K:s and 1?F:s 0srael and %outh Afri#a were 2oined at the hips in their

#ommon fiht aainst the ushims (and aainst the still numerous ewish #ommunists!

hated by the 0sraeli politi#al #lass more than the remainin erman Na5is)' And from some

erman #onseratie noos and #rannies! there was always fa#ilitation! s#ientifi# support! or

#o&finan#in aailable'

But the aboe&board erman support for 0srael has also a tradition of un#onditionality &sin#e the 1?K:s espe#ially & in #o &finan#in the 0sraeli ways of o##upation and neer hol&

din 0srael to its obliations under the enea +onentions' 4urin the %#hmidt and <ohl

oernments it was tempered! neertheless! by their #ommitment ,to fa#ilitate dialoue-'



1K

/u#h of the reportin from the erman embassy sered to aue where and when dis#rete

erman assistan#e #ould mae a differen#e in en#ourain #onta#t between offi#ial 0srael

and #hosen ;alestinian interlo#utors '

$nder reen neo#onseratie forein minister 7is#her! thouh! not only #ontext had #han&

ed' 8e threw the prin#iple of differentiation out of the window' 8e #hose himself as the

main propaandist of 0sraeli #laims that ;alestinian iolen#e had nothin to do with the

o##upation but with the failure of ;alestinian leadership and institutions! with forein insti&

ation (led by 0ran and %yria)! and that 0srael is under ,existential threat- by a tide of anti&semitism rooted in #ultural and politi#al retardation' As rumor has it! he een forbade any

in&house dis#ussion that went #ounter to his iew of the world! aluin 0sraeli (or $%) inst&

ru#tion mu#h hiher than the briefins of his des offi#ers'

At any rate! ,un#onditional support- #ame to mean no more in&house dissonan#es in ana&

lysis or 2udment from the ,solitary- interpretation of 0sraeli poli#ies! motiations! and their

#onseuen#es' The /erel oernment then s#rewed tiht 7is#hers proa#tie approa#h

towards un#onditionality & not only in supportin audibly and enereti#ally last year‘s efforts

to destroy 8e5bollah! but worin up toward military inolement on the 0sraeli side3 its

pre#ise meanin will be#ome mu#h #learer with the next round of war'

The dire#tion of ermanys inolement! thouh! is unambiuous6 ermany #olluded aidly

in preentin an early end to the 0sraeli #ampain (durin the Rome +onferen#e) and left no

doubt about its underwritin the 0sraeli riht to ill and idnap in =ebanon at will' 0n

addition! in a au#he effort to rally publi# support for interention on the 0sraeli side! /erel

dubbed ermanys naal deta#hment in =ebanese waters (as well as the expanded $nited

Nations 0nterim 7or#e in =ebanon‘s presen#e on the round) as an ,0srael ;rote#tion 7or#e-'

0t oes without sayin that ermany‘s assistan#e for 0sraeli operations in =ebanon! 0rai

<urdistan! and 0ran (in all three ermany has a heay intellien#e presen#e) has rown in

s#ope and ris'

Now! support for 0sraeli pro2e#ts appears not any loner to be limited to #oordinatin poli&

#ies and information! or proidin erman passports for 0sraeli under#oer wor in 0ran (as

had been reported in 4er %pieel)! or a pipeline to aents in =ebanese eneral %e#urity

(tra#in 8e5bollah leaders) or! for that matter! to tain the lead in poisonin the initial

inestiations into the assassination of =ebanese prime minister Rafi 8ariri (whi#h was not

the beinnin but a se#ond spie in a series of assassinations & the first one bein the 9::9

bombin of former =ebanese militia leader and %yrian politi#ian "li 8obeia ! who alleedly

intended to testify in Brussels aainst Ariel %haron #on#ernin the 1?F9 %abra and %hatila

massa#re)' ermany seems to hae 2umped with both feet into the se#tarian iolen#e

ame! not (yetL) with hits but by slain at different leels of reional enaements to the

#ommands of 0sraeli and! to a more limited extent! to Ameri#an operations'

0f 0srael‘s ambassador in Berlin! %himon %tein! had not re#oned with the domesti# #ons&traints on offi#ial ermany‘s solidarity with 0srael! he #ould #laim for ermany what usti#e

/inister 8aim Ramon and 4aniel Ayalon! 0srael‘s ambassador in .ashinton! asserted

blandly for the $% last year6 ,P een if our army should #ommit a Qmass massa#re‘! the

$nited %tates will still support us- (uoted in =e /onde 4iplomatiue)'

0n fa#t! in earlier days offi#ial ermany would hae looed dis#reetly away or apoloi5ed

,off the re#ord- for the 0sraeli pen#hant for atro#ities su#h as the <far >ana massa#re in

south =ebanon & whi#h 0srael neer made a real effort to hide under its pe#uliar do#trine of

deterren#e' As eneral /otta ur said as lon ao as 1?KF6 ,''' the 0sraeli army has always

stru# #iilian populations purposely and #ons#iously P the army P has neer distinuished

#iilian from militaryS tarets- (uoted in 8aaret5)' Now 0srael is demandin that offi#ialermany demonstrate the #orre#t attitude aainst ,terrorist populations- & and it does! in

the name of the ,strule aainst terrorism- and of preentin () ,a war of #iili5ations-'



1F

7or obious reasons! ermany‘s oriinal e#onomi# support for 0srael #ould neer hae been

#onsidered leerae' But oer the de#ades! its dimension and its areate impa#t #ontribu&

ted de#isiely to the fa#t that 0srael had neer to mae hard #hoi#es3 it subsidi5ed the built&

in maximalism in 0srael‘s approa#h toward its neihborhood and the pretension that its wars

of #hoi#e were wars for surial'

%eparate from the meaer indiidual re#ompensations! restitutions! et#! as manaed (ery

badly for the destitute) by the ewish +laims +onferen#e or the 0sraeli state! erman trans&

fers up to now amount to at least 1E: billion euros ($%U1? '9 billion) from the federaloernment in #ash! oods! weapons and patents! another 9: to : billion euros in publi#&

priate partnership arranements! plus billions more ia "$ me#hanisms'

0t is not surprisin! therefore! that there is an uneasy awareness of erman #o&responsibi&

lity in fosterin the #ombination of e#onomi# dependen#e! forein funded militarism and the

pe#uliar and ex#eedinly #orrupt nature of the 0sraeli ;raetorian state' The permanent state

of siee and its steadily more powerful ra#ist under#urrents hae be#ome the sour#e of its

#ohesion and define its relationship to the world' As anyone nows who is a#uainted with

the 0sraeli debate! the old mantra that 0srael will mae the ,#on#essions ne#essary for pea&

#e- if it feels suffi#iently se#ure and supported! is ood for publi# #onsumption and perhaps

self&hypnosis! but nothin else'

%in#e 0srael manaed to persuade the .estern politi#al #lasses (the most fraile and #orrupt

Arab reimes need no #onin#in) that ;alestinians‘ aspirations & as well as their rihts

under the enea +onentions & are unrealisti# and therefore basi#ally illeitimate! they

hae be#ome a sideshow' "spe#ially "urope appears resoled to stabili5e it in limbo with lip

seri#e and sporadi# shows of a#tiism & but with hard support! of #ourse! for those 0sraeli

measures desined to brea the last strands of ;alestinian politi#al and so#ial #ohesion'

As any underraduate in #oer#ie so#ial enineerin nows! destroyin the so#ial and e#o&

nomi# infrastru#ture of a so#iety to the extent that there are no more sour#es of indepen&

dent so#ial authority that #ould reenerate orani5ed resistan#e! leaes the field to the bro&

en! the #yni#s! the #orrupt! the self&haters! the fantasists! and the #riminals & and infli#ts

them on a dispirited! disposable mass of humanity'

The 0ranian as#endan#y! in #ontrast! is billed as the main show' And it was 7is#her (ably

assisted by 7ran#e and reat Britain) who too the lead in naiatin the "uropean neotia&

tin position between the Ameri#an&0sraeli push for war and the need to aoid it in iew of

the to&be&expe#ted domesti# reper#ussions3 between the resole to deny the 0ranian riht

to #lose the nu#lear fuel #y#le and to hide the bad faith of their neotiatin approa#h'

7is#her made the issue repeatedly #lear6 the 0ranian nu#lear proram sinals the will to

a#hiee ,reional heemony- to the detriment of the 0sraeli & and for him! the only leiti&

mate one & #laim to reional predominan#e'

.hen the oernment of then&0ranian president /ohammad <hatami offered in 9::! pra#&

ti#ally hat&in&hand! to neotiate with the $% all outstandin bilateral problems & only to be

refused! as he was part of the ,axis of eil- & this was absorbed in a "uropean proposal!

that offered aue promises and no se#urity uarantees! for the dismantlin of the whole

0ranian nu#lear #omplex (in#ludin the #ourses and trainin in adan#ed nu#lear eni&

neerin)! plus the hobblin of its missile proram'

Throuh the subterfues and permutations of these neotiations! the erman #ommitment

to a pea#eful resolution was always hihly #onditional! and 0srael a#uired somethin lie a

behind&the&s#enes eto on the limits of the erman position' 0t #ould (and #an) well appre&

#iate that for ermany & praised by 0sraeli ;rime /inister "hud Olmert as the best 0sraelially & to 2oin a war aainst 0ran would at that time hae destroyed 7is#hers reen ;arty as

well as the oernment (and it still miht do so now)3 not to 2oin it would hae #reated

another trans&Atlanti# rift! mu#h deeper than the one #aused by the 0ra war' %u#h rifts



1?

hae a loi# of their own and the potential to deeply fra#ture the erman (and "uropean)

politi#al lands#ape'

The erman politi#al #lass is hamstrun and duly embarrassed oer the la# of martial spirit

in its population' But under the banner of ,anythin but war (now)-! it maneuers and

waits for the riht #onstellation that frees its hand6 a .estern uproar oer a ulf of Tonin&

type in#ident! a ma2or terrorist eent in the $% or ermany! whi#h will hae nothin to do

with 0ran but #ould #reate the riht popular mood' 0t #ompensates in the meantime with

erman oert and #oert inolement for 0srael‘s willinness not to put uite yet ermandomesti# politi#s to the test' Neertheless! after so many aborted moes toward war! the

,war now- party in the $% may any time push the Bush administration oer the brin and

tell the ermans to deal with it or een mae it a test of the /erel oernments suria&

bility and pro&Ameri#an stan#e'

Dis!on"en" wi"h "he seedin# of f$"$re !onfli!"s

;aul .olfowit5 noted with satisfa#tion in 1??? (in The National 0nterest) that his =one&

Raner position of 1??9 had turned into the bi&partisan #onsensus of $% rand stratey6

neer to permit aain a power! or #ombination of powers! on the "urasian landmass to

a#hiee the #apa#ity to a#t as a ,peer #hallener- to $% interests' And it is this prin#iple

that the "uropean politi#al elites are about to underwrite! too' 0ts apoloeti#s are tried outin worin& and study&roups6 demo#ra#y and free marets #an only tae root when the

Russian state is depried of the e#onomi#! so#ial! and demoraphi# resour#es for its re#ons&

titution as a iable (,imperial-) power3 and +hina! for the same reasons! has to be disse#&

ted into fie independent states' And all of this by the riht #ombination of applyin hard

(oerwhelmin military) and soft (dissolin elite and reime #ohesion) power'

These are! of #ourse! 2ust fond hopes or sellin points' 0n reality! it is a pres#ription for

de#ades of #haos and iolen#e! with a deep impa#t on "urope and Asia' But een these &

one miht #all them ;lan B & prospe#ts may hae mu#h to re#ommend themseles from the

Ameri#an perspe#tie! and they offer een an absolutely #onin#in! thouh diffi#ult to

pit#h! stratei# rationale for deelopin a lobal ballisti# missile defense networ'

0t is this #onsensus! neertheless! that proides the only reliable uide to the #ourse of $%

poli#ies towards Russia and +hina & and insiht into the nature of the ,hedes- aainst the

worsenin of relations be it with Russia! be it with +hina! or both' %in#e bein touher on

national se#urity than the next uy (or irl) or the sittin administration! is the #oin of nati&

onal stratey debates between Republi#ans and 4emo#rats as well as the ultimate arbiter of

the #areer prospe#ts for ele#ted offi#e! ,hedin- has not mu#h to do with tain out insu&

ran#e' 0t has! instead! eerythin to do with bein able to initiate #onfrontations'

,8edin- with reard to +hina hihlihts this approa#h' The massie buildin of depth into

the Ameri#an military dispositions in the .estern ;a#ifi#! the pressures upon Taiwan to et

on with its $%U19&1F billion arms buyin proram! the su##ess in interatin the Taiwaneseas well as the in#reasinly offensie apanese posture into Ameri#an operations plans! ent&

i#in 0ndia into sharpenin its stratei# profile aainst +hina! are sold as measures for Asian

stability' This is! howeer! eerythin that the haws of the ,#onfront&+hina- lobby eer

demanded! minus the damae to $%&+hinese e#onomi# relations'

These ,hedes- are not desined to wor as an insuran#e me#hanism but as the ro# slide

oerhanin +hina‘s #ontinuously narrowin path between a sheer #liff fa#e and the abyss'

/ore prosai#ally! wheneer Ameri#a‘s internal barainin #omes up with the a#e of spades

for +hina! ,full spe#trum dominan#e- should be in pla#e' Or so one miht thin' The prob&

lem! howeer! is the destabili5in #onseuen#es of the effort in ettin there' The +hinese

#annot but rea#t to what they surely appre#iate as the tailorin of a stratei# strait2a#et toimmobili5e them for iise#tion! ie! ,soft- reime #hane'



9:

%imilar #onsiderations hold with reard to Russia' The expansion of NATO to members of the

former .arsaw ;a#t and to the Balti# #ountries! as well as the anti#ipated one to the $ra&

ine and eoria! are eually sold as a 2oist of "urasia‘s se#urity ar#hite#ture' 0roni#ally

enouh! the same rationale is ien for the erman&led efforts to draw the +entral Asian

and +au#asian republi#s & and! in parti#ular! the +aspian resour#es & out of the Russian into

the .estern orbit' 0n this! Russia‘s ,true! leitimate interests- are bein sered be#ause

this pro#ess en#ouraes demo#ra#y! a##ountable oernment! respe#t for human rihts! and

the non&iolent resolution of territorial #onfli#ts'

The tonue&in&#hee #hara#ter of the ,stability- rhetori# reeals itself most #learly in the

hasbara about the ,missile shield- installations in ;oland and the +5e#h Republi#! ostensibly

dire#ted aainst in#ipient threats from North <orea (whi#h is in the pro#ess of denu#leari&

5in itself) and 0ran (whose threat potential aainst the $% is as phantasmaori#al as its

supposed intentions are fi#tional)' They are sold to mass media #onsumers as insuran#e

aainst the familiar ,madmen-3 to the more dis#ernin audien#e as not dire#ted aainst

Russia (and Russian #omplaints are sold as Russian mis#hief&main)! and to the more wor&

ried western "uropean insiders! in #lassified briefins! as a ,hede- with rowth potential to

dissuade the eolution of a reater than expe#ted Russian or +hinese threat'

0n reality! as een the more odfearin obserers of $% poli#ies #annot help but noti#e! it isa proo#atie moe desined to trap the Russians into easily denoun#able! but helpless

estures of protest and to put the onus on them for burdenin further the "$&Russian rela&

tionship' And Russia has no way to eade the trap6 ret#h or spit! down it will o'

At the same time! it in#reases the politi#al weiht of Ameri#a‘s main allies in "astern "uro&

pe' 0t proides the substan#e for alinin ;oland and the +5e#h Republi# (plus their Balti#

retinue) eer #loser with $% poli#ies & a $%&dependent sub&NATO within a sub&"$' 0n the

short term! this issue #annot but further weaen the already framentin will of the western

"uropean part of the "$ to neotiate (in ood faith) a su##essor to the partnership and

#ooperation areement between the "$ and Russia'

0n the loner run! the substantial Ameri#an military presen#e these two installations reuire!

will tihten the stratei# noose around Russia‘s throat' 0n addition! if the $% should really

pla#e an additional installation in eoria! this moe would deliberately put the detonator

for a $%&Russian #onfrontation into the hands of the re#less and irresponsible eorian

leadership' 0n this #ontext! $% %e#retary of %tate +ondolee55a Ri#e‘s slip of the tonue in

termin Russia ,the %oiet $nion- is not only 7reudian but a de#laration of intent'

The <a#5ynsi twins! ;resident =e#h and ;rime /inister aroslaw of ;oland respe#tiely! also

let eeryone hae a pee at the #at in the ba' 0n hih dudeon that its partners in NATO

and the "$ as well as the Russians miht want to hae a say in su#h a momentous de#ision!

they maintained that the missile shield should not worry any ,normal #ountry-'

But Russia! obiously! is nothin if not an ,abnormal- #ountry for the riht&win ma2ority of

the ;olish politi#al #lass6 still indinant that Russia spoilt the imperial dreams (;oland from

the Balti# to the Bla# %ea) that led eneral osef ;ilsudsi to atta# Russia in 1?9:! only to

be defeated by the trea#herous Reds3 still resentful that .orld .ar 00 did not bein and end

differently than it did3 resentin that it has not yet manaed a pla#e at the .estern hih

table! they expe#t the $nited %tates to pro#ure them! at least! a spe#ial role within NATO (it

re#ently bla#mailed for itself a spe#ial position in the "$)! and further down the line! a

5one of ;olish influen#e & from the Balti# to the Bla# %ea & and the riht of first loo for any

territorial bits that may be on offer if or when Russia dissoles further (e! the reion of

<alininrad)'

Ciewin these efforts in their full s#ope while eepin in mind the in#essant din of media

hostility aainst Russia (not forettin the proo#atie mixture of subtle and #rass intelli&

en#e operations)! all of this is looin less lie a hede than moin the pie#es for the end&



91

ame' One re#ent report of the well #onne#ted! $%&based! priate intellien#e aen#y! %tra&

tei# 7ore#astin! 0n# or %tratfor! on ,The New =oi# for Ballisti# /issile 4efense-! spells it

out rather bluntly6 ,P TShe $% is not yet finished with /os#ow from a stratei# perspe#ti&

e' .ashinton wants to pressure Russia until its will! as well as its ability! to pose a iable

threat #ompletely disinterates'- And the Russians are uite aware of the e#tor of $% poli&

#ies' Russian ;resident Cladimir ;utin‘s spee#h at the se#urity #onferen#e in /uni#h! een

/ial orba#hes re#ent interentions as well as Calentin 7alin‘s widely dis#ussed somber

analysis last year! tell the same story'

They are up aainst the wall and hae neither time nor ood options' As ermany‘s ;eter

%tru#! the %o#ial 4emo#rati# former se#retary of defense and #urrent parliamentary whip!

rather smuly! maintained6 ,The Russians would lose another +old .ar-' This in response

to the ,obbledyoo- of ;utin‘s list of riean#es at the /uni#h #onferen#e in 7ebruary' A

flash&poll! by the way! did show that a ma2ority of ermans seems to hae rasped its

import and a ma2ority een supported ;utin‘s sentiments! in spite of the ex#eedinly dero&

atory #horus of the erman media'

There is some worry that all of this miht push the Russians into the arms of the +hinese' 0t

tou#hes! thouh! the outer limits of what is #onsidered a leitimate worry' But there is the

#omfortin notion that for su#h a rather fundamental reision of its forein poli#y! Russia isneither stron and reliable enouh to perform it! nor are the Russian elites ready to support

it' .orin toward a #loser Russian&+hinese relationship & and nowin that +hina will turn

out to be the stroner partner (howeer #arefully the +hinese may defer to Russian sensiti&

ities ) & for a measure of se#urity and independen#e! would reuire not only despair! but a

sea&#hane in attitudes of the loot&#orroded! fantasist and #yni#al ma2ority of the new Rus&

sian elites' As the wa says in 0nfluen#e 1:16 ,Mou #an always et to the elite Russians3 half

of them hate /other Russia be#ause ;etersbur and /os#ow aren‘t ;aris or =ondon3 the

other half hate her be#ause she spawned the first half'-

0t helps! of #ourse! that .estern intellien#e and uasi&NOs are eepin the Russian

leadership worried about domesti# stability' To enri#h its options! the .est maintains influ&

en#e also with the xenophobi# riht! anti&+hinese liberals! with the fihters for +he#hen

independen#e and others interested in ethni# strife ames' /eanwhile the ,new Russians-

hope! aainst all odds! that "urope miht still #ome around to proide the ind of safe

an#horae aainst hostile poli#ies ermany and 7ran#e seemed able to offer in 9::9D9::

and thus res#ue their rent&funded! #osmopolitan dreams'

All of this is #lose enouh to reality to foster the illusion the Russians #an be manaed3 it

2ust needs a little less obious #ontempt and he#torin and a little bit more #ooperatie rhe&

tori# to satisfy their #rain for respe#t' This is more hope than reality! thouh & hope that

will be disappointed! espe#ially sin#e .estern politi#s and the enomously Russophobe

media will mae sure that the Russians are always aware of the stae whi#h is to be drien

throuh their #olle#tie heart'

There is! of #ourse! also the +hinese perspe#tie' Those .estern +hina analysts from whi#h

its erman se#tion taes its #ue seem to draw some satisfa#tion from obserin +hina and

Russia hands wonderin whether the Russian leadership is still in thrall to its .estern hopes

and whether it is not #ontinuin to #ommit slow sui#ide' These uestions are not unreasona&

ble' Russia is inestin eerywhere while it has not yet een restored its e#onomy to the

leels of 1?F?' 0ts industries! infrastru#ture! resear#h! edu#ation! and health are still suffe&

rin from #atastrophi# underinestment'

%in#e the .est orani5ed and oersaw the liuefa#tion of %oiet assets and their hemorrha&

in out of Russia to the tune of about $%UF:: billion worth of #ash! oods! and patents(in#ludin Boris Mel5in‘s ift to the $% of the #rown 2ewels of %oiet military and spa#e

te#hnoloies)! as well as tens of thousands of its best enineers and s#ientists! one miht

thin it would do all to re#oer from a disaster at least as bad as what ermany did to the



99

%oiet $nion in .orld .ar 00! and form a pea#e worse than the one of the Brest&=itos

Treaty of 1?1F'

But een here! .estern poli#ies mae sure that Russians and +hinese #annot but per#eie

the beinnins of the mobili5ation for e#onomi# warfare aainst both of them' All of a sud&

den inestment barriers aainst +hinese and Russian #apital appear in the $% and in wes&

tern "urope' There are substantial efforts deoted to #oordinate the rollin&ba# of +hinese

en#roa#hment on the .estern riht to Afri#an raw materials & in the name of human rihts

and ood oernan#e (whi#h is lie Bluebeard! still nawin on his latest irin‘s femur!#omplainin about a peasant who sullies his next lun#h with exploitie marriae proposals)'

And there is the hue and #ry raised about the Russian and +hinese doin what the $% is

doin ex#essiely6 marin #ertain industrial se#tors as ,stratei#-'

The +hinese .estern analysts are uite astute obserers of where their .estern #ounter&

parts are #omin from' But edu#ated under the all&en#ompassin need to ain time and

strenth to be able to surie loomy eopoliti#al weather! the +hinese debate about Russia

and the .est 2ust e#hoes the more salient debate6 whether they are able to influen#e

Ameri#an (.estern) per#eptions and rea#tions to +hina‘s rise! at what pri#e! and for how

lon' There are still those! freuently hihlihted in .estern worshops! uotin Russian

oi#es about the impossibility of Russian&+hinese stratei# #ooperation! referrin obliuelyand with the due amount of nostalia! to the olden ae of +hinese&Ameri#an stratei#

#ooperation aainst the %oiets! and wonderin audibly whether its resurre#tion miht not

promise another dawn in +hinese relations with the .est'

But one does not need to #arefully examine these debates' Thouh there is no audien#e for

bad messaes! it has not es#aped the attention of the professional worriers that Russian

and +hinese de#ision&maers seem to hae #on#luded that they fa#e a similar and eopoliti&

#ally #onne#ted future' They may expe#t to be able to delay or blunt it but #annot eade it'

The #ontinuous .estern efforts to leerae elite dissent as well as to for#e&row and room

alternatie elites (with their typi#al mixture of enality and blind idealism) in an in#reasinly

worsenin se#urity enironment! hae hardened the #oni#tion that they are up aainst a

stratey to enable repeats of the %oiet #ollapse'

0ndi#ators for the expe#tations of Russian and +hinese de#ision&maers are per#olatin

throuh their forein poli#y and military bureau#ra#ies and are bein pi#ed up6 the elimi&

nation! defeat! or terminal neutrali5ation of the one will be the beinnin of the same fate

for the other' And they seem to feel that this is bein imposed on them3 it has not mu#h to

do with their #hoi#e of poli#ies' The beinnins of a #o&eolution of their stratei# do#trines!

therefore! has to be taen seriously' They don‘t #are about fa#in the full rane of Ameri#an

military power but thin about how to stymie and defeat its deployment in the in#ipient

staes of operations'

8ow to deelop a posture #apable of infli#tin massie losses on $% air power and #arrierroups without reuirin a hair&trier posture seems to draw a lot of attention' There

appears to be een a debate about preemption' .ith reard to nu#lear deterren#e! it appe&

ars to be moin toward a marriae between massie retaliation and different options of

,te#hnoloi#al de#apitation- (ie! destroyin sele#tiely the netspa#e of military #ommand

and #ontrol as well as its fallba# operations! plus reime and elite #ontinuity fun#tions)'

0n order to et a better understandin of its present stratei# predi#ament! the Russian mili&

tary has een beun to approa#h! ery inerly! the #auses for the erosion of %oiet deter&

ren#e in the 1?F:s! espe#ially the reasons why it #ould not rea#t by in#reasin its for#e rea&

diness to what it per#eied as indi#ations of Anlo&Ameri#an maneuerin towards war'

But whateer the s#enarios for the future or the probins of the past! Russia as well as

+hina are for the foreseeable future mu#h too wea to #ompete militarily at eye leel with

the .est' Both hae to strule uphill 2ust to mae their militaries #redible defenders of the



9

interity of the state' And there is almost no military ba#up for the politi#al tas of preen&

tin a further deterioration of their stratei# enironment' They #an neither rely on their

ability to defle#t the $% from efforts to #ontrol it nor #ould they #ompete for #ontrol without

mortain the surial of the state'

0t is the pau#ity of their military and politi#al #hoi#es that dries them toether3 but the

need to aoid the hair trier of Ameri#an #onfrontation renders an expli#it military allian#e

impra#ti#al' The Russians now it! the +hinese now it' And stratey&minded Ameri#ans

#ount on the fa#t that a thin mattress maes bad bedfellows' But they also now thatAmeri#an politi#s are not stratey&minded3 they enerate their own stimuli for a#tion'

After the Russian 1??:s & and the +hinese 1E? years after 1FE: & no illusions are possible

about the fate either of them should the .est aain ain #ontrol oer their polities' This plus

their weaness! howeer! should assist not only the #redibility of a defensie nu#lear post&

ure but also ie the "uropeans or the apanese reasons to thin about the #onseuen#es of

stratei# desperation' Below this threshold! thouh! it is all #oer#ie barainin & be it under

the uise of #ommon interests or in the open! ,2ump! or else-' There are no #ommon inter&

ests! there is 2ust 2o#eyin for position and deferred hostility'

.hen 8enry <issiner and Meeny ;rimao established their 2oint worin&roup of Ameri#an and Russian elder statesmen to deal with ,the threat of nu#lear terrorism and

proliferation- (as <issiner des#ribed it)! there is! therefore! a subtext6 ,.or with us

reardin 0ran (or the eentual ,se#urin- of ;aistani nu#lear warheads) be#ause the first

instan#e of nu#lear terrorism #ould tae pla#e in Russia'- One does not need to be of a

wildly paranoid #ast of mind to see the possibilities! e! in iew of the ery #lose relations

the British maintain with the +he#hen resistan#e! and the do5ens of tons of %oiet warhead

material still waitin to be rewored into nu#lear fuel rods'

The point is! there is no need for een an implied spe#ifi# messae' The awareness of so

many finers on so many operational triers is uite suffi#ient for the prudent assumption6

,.hat is thinable! is possible3 what is possible will happen! sometime! somewhere'- 0n the

meantime! one has to a#t as if some sort of reason and predi#tability miht yet return to the

exer#ise of Ameri#an power'

The erman edu#ated middle #lasses! still hun oer from their half #entury of ideoloi#al

debau#he and from ermany‘s role as a eno#idal ore tae reat satisfa#tion in their

#ountry‘s reputation as a mostly harmless lobal so#ial worer' They are relu#tant to sub&

s#ribe to an ideoloy of lobal mayhem and a ,defense of .estern alues-' But the erman

media are worin oertime to #hane their minds'



9E


Par" : Hail "o "he .hief, or else

By Axel Brot

Hois"in# "he Ameri!an fla#

ermany had honed its ability to fly below the radar of international #ontroersy to a fineart' 0ts dependen#e on forein trade for its e#onomi# well&bein reuired this and it resis&

ted! moreoer! for most of the last E: years rather su##essfully Ameri#an attempts to sub&

2e#t its e#onomi# relations with the world to the more extraaant demands of e#onomi#

warfare' No wonder! therefore! that the detente years of the 1?K:s and the lobali5ation of

the 1??:s are remembered with fondness' erman e#onomi# interests and the philanthropi#

basso #ontinuo of its de#laratory forein poli#y were in tune' No wonder! too! that .ashin&

ton reards these 4;&#ored sentimentalities as #ompletely out&of&tune with rousin the

.est aainst the ,enemies of .estern alues-'

After the sho#s the erman politi#al #lass suffered in 9::9D9::! it areed! be it out of

#oni#tion! opportunism or fear! with the iews of the Ameri#an politi#al #lass' But as poll

after poll reeals! both hae to deal with the fa#t that they are the opposite of rather funda&mental attitudes of the ma2ority of ermans' ermany has ladly internali5ed what was

prea#hed oer the de#ades in politi#al %unday sermons about pea#e and prosperity! about

the role of ermany in the modern world! its relationship with the .est and! in parti#ular!

what ind of so#iety ermany should aspire to' This messae has not only manaed to tae

hold3 it has be#ome the prism throuh whi#h many! if not most! ermans loo at the world!

at the oernment! the media & and! not least! at the $%'

This is neither surprisin nor extraordinary' The erman lower #lasses hae always been

ery relu#tant heroes! hain been draed sullenly into the two world wars' 0t een too all

the efforts of the %o#ial 4emo#rati# and union leaderships to #rush the rassroots moe&

ment for a eneral strie that was about to disrupt the mobili5ation s#hedule of the ermanarmy in the run&up to .orld .ar 03 and Na5i domesti# intellien#e do#umented their distin#t

la# of enthusiasm when ermany atta#ed ;oland and the sense of fear and forebodin

when ermany went on to eradi#ate ewish Bolsheism'

The erman edu#ated middle #lasses! still hun oer from their half #entury of ideoloi#al

debau#h with its 2inoism! imperialism and Na5ism! from ermany‘s role as a eno#idal

ore! and still rememberin its war friht from the 1?F:s & that! by the way! had rea#hed

deeply into the politi#al #lass itself as well as into the senior leels of the erman military &

a#uired a reflexie pa#ifism and tae! in eneral! reat satisfa#tion in ermany‘s reputation

as a mostly harmless lobal so#ial worer' They are! to say the least! ery diffi#ult to et

aain behind a proram of endless (ra#e) wars! torture and an ideoloy of lobal mayhem'

A stron ma2ority may een resist it a#tiely ia another pea#e moement if the erman

oernment ets too eaer! or too blatant! about demonstratin militarily its #ommitment to

the lobal ,defense of .estern alues-'

erman pundits & ,opinion&maers- in erman & tae all this as an expression of deeply&

rooted! popular ,anti&Ameri#anism-! and anti&Ameri#anism as a fa#et of anti&semitism! and

both as the resuren#e of anti&.estern! pro&totalitarian attitudes' This effort in uilt&

monerin has led to some interestin myth&main! amusin if it were not so sinister'

Tain their #ue from former $% defense se#retary 4onald Rumsfeld‘s inanity reardin Cen&

5uelan ;resident 8uo +hae5 that ,also 8itler had been ele#ted- by popular ote! those

2ournalists who read the opinion paes of the #orre#t Ameri#an newspapers as well asformer forein minister 7is#her repeated it enthusiasti#ally and freuently' Notwithstandin

their authority! the histori#al fa#ts are! of #ourse! uite different6 after his ele#tion setba#



9J

in 1?9! 8itler was not ele#ted but #hosen by a #abal of leaders of riht&win parties! indus&

try and the media! to head a #oalition oernment between those parties and the Na5is! to

sae the #ountry from the left' Any s#hool#hild should now this'

But deleitimi5in ,anti&Ameri#anism- seems to reuire heay myth&main be#ause it has

turned into a problem not only for the erman politi#al #lass but for the whole of the "$'

The "uropean populations are! with a few ex#eptions! #ompletely out of tune with the ideo&

loi#al mobili5ation reuired to wae ,.orld .ar 0C-' Neertheless! the #hane has been

most dramati# in ermany'

The post&%eptember 11 spie in publi# support for the $% was not only wiped out by

9::9D9:: but the J:&year fund of popular and #onfident pro&Ameri#anism had eaporated

and ien way to distrust! fear and loathin' The same holds true! somewhat less dramati&

#ally! for attitudes towards 0srael' As a daner to the world! both #ountries ran with North

<orea and 0ran' Russia and +hina are still (and stubbornly) rearded as basi#ally benin and

unthreatenin'

This is surprisin sin#e een edu#ated ermans tend to rely for their news on erman

sour#es & and hae no a##ess to the many sour#es of #riti#al news #oerae and opinion still

aailable in the .estern world' One miht hae expe#ted! therefore! a ui# payoff whenpubli# TC as well as the print media! from hih&brow to low&brow! redis#oered their ao#a&

tion to edu#ate the erman publi# into ,the Ameri#ans may mae mistaes! but the others

are in#omparably worse-'

An ironi# or rerettin undertone towards ;resident Bush and the neo#onseraties! and

dismay about their ineptness & freuently slanted as basi#ally beneolent Ameri#an naiete &

has neertheless #rept into the presentation of $% poli#y' This rhetori#al flourish #onne#ts

easily with the stereotypes of the self &#orre#tin permanen#e of Ameri#an moral leadership!

the brutal fanati#ism of Arabs! totalitarian Russians! and ruthless +hinese! and the almost

superhuman diffi#ulties in findin the riht balan#e between for#e and suasion' Neerthe&

less! the enerali5ed suspi#ion that somethin is wron & and the distrust of 2ournalists and

politi#ians & seems to hae resisted up to now the best 2ournalisti# efforts'

%in#e disuiet had spread een amon sements of the hih bureau#ra#y! the leaders of the

erman and Ameri#an politi#al elites moed ui#ly and de#isiely to #ounter any #onse&

uen#es the breadown of the Ameri#an politi#al imae miht hae on the attitudes of those

eliible for re#ruitment into elite fun#tions' A lare&s#ale proram was set in motion to nit

youn #iil serants! manaement #adres and promisin students institutionally and so#ially

to their Ameri#an #ounterparts and to expose them to senior offi#ials of both #ountries & a

ind of ideoloi#al /arshall ;lan that saw irtually no wee without an Ameri#an&erman or

an Ameri#an&"$ et&toether' 0ndeed! the erman /arshall 7und! heaily supported by the

most prominent erman media #onlomerates & toether with the Bertelsmann 7oundation &

#ame into its own by leadin it' And more strinently than eer before! to be #onsidered a,safe- #adre for #areer adan#ement in politi#s! the #iil seri#e! the media! business and

s#ien#e! reuires the aspirant to hae been su##essfully #onne#ted to the riht ind of

Ameri#an or Ameri#an &erman institution at least on#e'

4ealin with the reflexie pa#ifism and the politi#ally #orre#t humanitarianism of the ma2o&

rity of ermans is still a mu#h harder nut to #ra#' The print media! in parti#ular the weely

4ie Ieit! the flaship of erman neo#onseraties! and 4er %pieel! the middlebrow info&

tainment weely! made their dissatisfa#tion with their readers repeatedly #lear' And they

ie a #ertain depth to the main sub2e#t of politi#al talshows6 the sorry state of mind of the

aerae erman! his la# of patriotism! his addi#tion to pea#e! and his rea#tionary notions

about the welfare state'

0t did not help that seeral efforts to reedu#ate ermans went seriously awry when the

mainstream media (publi# TC! the erman asso#iate networs of +NN! plus newspapers)



9@

ae isibility and leitima#y to what miht be termed the ,o##identalist new riht-' Their

interentions were so well tuned to Ameri#an poli#ies and performan#e expe#tations that

they #onfirmed inoluntarily the worst expe#tations of what was in the offin'

/0i"ho$" "or"$re "he war on "error !anno" *e won

Before the imaes of Abu hraib helped to isuali5e what ,the loes are off- implied!

Ameri#ans were ien the opportunity to introdu#e the erman publi# to the need for tortu&

re! with the ,ti#in bomb- s#enario' There was no tal&show format that did not hae tor&

ture on its s#hedule & with the former dire#tor of the Aspen 0nstitute in Berlin! eff edmin(now president of Radio 7ree "uropeDRadio =iberty) as the most indefatiable of its propo&

nents'

But it was the erman&0sraeli /i#hael .olffsohn! a prominent professor at the Armed 7or#es

$niersity in /uni#h! who publi#ly moed the sub2e#t from the ,ti#in bomb- to affirm the

.est‘s fundamental obliation to use torture aainst terrorist suspe#ts'

Torture! howeer! thouh normal in 0srael! would be in brea#h of the erman #onstitution

and for a #iil serant to propose it! a brea#h of the #iil seri#e laws' 8e should hae been

fired' 8e wasn‘t'

0nstead! then&interior minister and %o#ial 4emo#rat Otto %#hily went out on a mission of

damae #ontrol' 0n an interiew with 4ie Ieit he presented the #on#erns about torture as a

tempest in a teapot' <nowin full well what really was happenin! hain been priy to

intellien#e briefins about the material of the $% military‘s Tauba Report about Abu

hraib as well as profitin from a ery #lose relationship with former $% attorney eneral

ohn Ash#roft! he still ridi#uled the #on#ern about torture as a matter of suspe#ts who hae

to sit on a stool instead of lounin in an easy&#hair and who hae their fa#es illuminated to

study fa#ial expressions' Reardin uantanamo! he as#ribed it to the understandable

Ameri#an dilemma of what to do with the worst of the bad! a dilemma that reuired for him!

too! the need to #hane international law and the enea +onentions'

No wonder! then! that he and 7is#her obiously had no ualms about lettin the +0A airlines

use ermany for ,rendition- traffi#' No wonder! too! that both refused to lift a finer to

res#ue from uantanamo a youn erman resident of Turish oriin! who had lied all his

life in ermany! inno#ent een to his interroators! or to follow up on the idnappin of a

erman to Baram' 0n the end! it was the imaes of Abu hraib that put paid to this effort

to a##limati5e the ermans to the harsh demands of the lobal ,war on terror-' But at least

the leal innoations introdu#ed by then&interior minister Otto %#hily to et ermany on a

#iili5ational war footin & and those promulated or entilated by his su##essor! .olfan

%#hVuble & are fully #ompatible with the mindset and the intentions of the $% ;atriot A#t'

122 million s$'erfl$o$s &o$n# M$slim men

4ie Ieit! on#e the leadin liberal weely! the standard&bearer of ,se#ular humanism- andenlihtened Atlanti#ism! and now the flaship of erman neoliberal neo#onseratism! a

hybrid of The New Republi# and National Reiew! is indefatiable in its mission to #onert its

mostly edu#ated readers to the new demands of the erman allian#e with 0srael and the

$%' 0t opened its paes to hate&moners in so#ial&s#ien#e disuise whose wares bear an

un#anny resemblan#e to those peddled in earlier days by the ideoloues of the extreme

riht' Amon those is so#ioloist unnar 8einsohn! professor at the $niersity of Bremen

where he heads the Raphael =emin 0nstitute for +omparatie eno#ide Resear#h'

8e maintains that the ,youth bule- & the rapid in#rease of un& or underemployed youn

men in 0slami# #ountries & presents the .est with the imperatie of #ullin them to eep the

terrorist threat from be#omin unmanaeable6 either by instiatin #iil wars in these#ountries or by interention (one miht #all them ,wars of demoraphi# sanitation-)' 0n 4ie

Ieit he deeloped this thesis with referen#e to the problems the ,#iili5ed- 0sraelis en#oun&

ter in dealin with the terrorist barbarians and espe#ially! with sui#ide bombers' The ;alesti&



9K

nians! thouh! present for him not only the terrorist problem in a nutshell! but the spawn of

a parti#ularly depraed and defe#tie so#iety that een produ#es female sui#ide bombers'

8einsohn sees! therefore! no differen#e between the 8utu woman wieldin a ma#hete to

slauhter her Tutsi neihbors and the ;alestinian woman donnin an explosie belt to

slauhter inno#ent 0sraeli #iilians'

The publi#i5ed disust with female sui#ide bombers! by the way! is limited to ;alestinians'

The +he#hen women with explosie belts who threatened to ill a whole theater full of

people in /os#ow were treated in the erman media with a reat deal of understandin and#ommiseration' 4isust and rae were! instead! dire#ted aainst the Russian authorities for

their refusal to withdraw from +he#hnya and for their i#timi5in the inno#ent theater

audien#e' And when a s#hool full of #hildren was held hostae in Beslan! the erman media!

aain! made the terrorists all but disappear behind their indination and enom dire#ted

aainst the Russian authorities'

7ollowin the lead of 4ie Ieit! the hih&brow formats of publi# TC offered 8einsohn the

opportunity to expand on his theses before a larer audien#e' And #ontemporary erman

philosopher ;eter %loterdi2! did not withhold his admiration for 8einsohn‘s bold #hallene to

the pussyfootin humanitarians' And bold it is' "en the e#onomists and ra#e strateists of

the Third Rei#h did not anti#ipate the need to ill more than E:&@: million subhumansdurin and after the i#torious #ampain aainst the %oiet $nion'

0n propaandi5in the need to tae off the loes in the fiht aainst the 0slami# threat! 4ie

Ieit re#ruited also a 4ut#h writer of middle&brow noels! =eon de .inter' 8e exposed the

hopelessly defe#tie nature of Arab #iili5ation! the inbred resistan#e to a##ulturation of the

/uslim immirants in "urope! and the ynophobe (or eno#idal) obs#urantism of 0slam'

%in#e he prea#hed this messae often enouh! one of the most prestiious erman honors

was bestowed on him'

4ie Ieit also saw to the reuirements of #reatin empathy with 0srael‘s strule at the front

lines of .estern #iili5ation' 0ts publisher! osef offe! did see to it that one of his editorial

team was embedded with one of the #oert operations and assassination suads of the 0sra&

eli 4efense 7or#e (047) to report about the pride and the sufferin of those soldiers' At the

same time! 4ie Ieit refined the use of imaes! already #hara#teri5in the erman media in

toto! that opposes the dinified tears of a pretty youn woman in an 047 uniform to the TC

imaes of howlin! old Arab strumpets and mena#inly struttin youn men'

%imilar messaes dominate the erman media either in an een more ular fashion or

somewhat less stridently' But there is irtually a #omplete absen#e of any #hallene to its

#ommon denominator' The same holds true! by the way! for 7ran#e & with the ex#eption of

the monthly /onde 4iplomatiue' Neertheless! the erman eneral publi# seems to #onti&

nue to resist at least its intended #onseuen#es'

/The Germans ha)e "o learn how "o %ill

Thus! ,the ermans hae to learn how to ill-' This strane and most reealin #on#lusion

about the erman state of mind was brouht ba# from a NATO meetin at the end of last

year by <arsten Coit! the eternal %o#ial 4emo#rati# ,#oordinator for erman&Ameri#an

relations-' 0t was o##asioned by the allied indination (Ameri#an! +anadian! and 4ut#h)

about the erman refusal to do #ombat duty in ,Operation "ndurin 7reedom- in Afha&

nistan6 the mandate of the erman for#es is still limited to re#onstru#tion assistan#e!

pea#eeepin in the Ta2i north! as well as poli#in and trainin duties' But sin#e the

erman #ommitment there is already hihly #ontentious and en2oys hardly any support

amon the erman population! this sardoni# #omment is addressin more dire#tly the fai&

lure of the erman politi#al #lass to #reate the #limate for ettin the ,ermans to thefront- than 2ust the limits of the Afhanistan #ommitment' And its meanin was not lost'

7or a while! one miht hae been able to en2oy the spe#ta#le of shamefa#ed erman opi&



9F

nion&leaders barely able to restrain their impatien#e with the rabble they are for#ed to edu&

#ate'

To pla#ate the allies! ermany sent six Tornado re#onnaissan#e planes to Afhanistan! either

as the thin end of a wede or as the timid admission that more is not possible under preai&

lin #onditions' Time will tell what it is oin to be'

/The Germans ha)e "o learn "o die

.hat has not yet been pi#ed up in the wider #ampain of re &edu#atin ermans is Rafael%elimann‘s re#ent pronoun#ement that ,the ermans hae to learn to die- in the ,war of

#iili5ations-' Thouh a prominent noelist and 2ournalist! and ri#hly endowed with publi#

honors! he obiously had lost his sanfroid' The purpose of the whole effort is! of #ourse!

about illin and dyin! but the #ooler heads amon 2ournalists and politi#ians now now &

from the ba#lash of their earlier offensieness & that the aerae erman needs to be

mu#h more terrori5ed! beleauered and anxious to be #onfronted with this truth'

0n the meanwhile! the dissatisfa#tion with the erman mi#e refusin to roar found different

enues of expression' A lead writer of 4er %pieel! 8endry Broder! also showered with

prestiious awards! too last year‘s failure of the ermans to rally in the streets! when they

should hae demonstrated their support for 0srael and protested aainst the 8e5bollah ,warof aression-! as proof of the ineradi#able erman anti&semitism' And this is #onne#tin

well with the histori#al myths that hae #ome to dominate the publi# dis#ourse! parti#ularly

those whi#h hold the erman lower #lasses #ulpable for the erman misfortunes of the last

1:: years! the latest one bein their relu#tan#e to man the barri#ades for the defense of the

.est'

Tryin to leerae the erman #onsensus on anti&semitism has be#ome all the rae sin#e a

ma2ority of ermans turned aainst Ameri#an (and 0sraeli) poli#ies' The uasi&eneti# dis&

position of ermans to ,eno#idal anti&semitism- has be#ome the first and last resort for

explainin their re#al#itrant pa#ifism'

Neertheless! thouh the striden#y of the #onsensual reportin and #ommentin in the

erman media seems to hae somewhat leeled off with reard to the wider /iddle "ast!

there is another front line in the war of #iili5ations where hostility and enom remains the

only #urren#y of media opinion & namely! Russia' %o mu#h so! in fa#t! that the lare minority

of the politi#al #lass whi#h #onsiders normal relations with Russia possible and desirable has

lost all influen#e on the publi# dis#ourse'

The redis#oery of the Russian enemy & also datin from around 9::9D9:: & and the

demoni5ation of ;utin‘s Russia miht hae oriinated in the sear#h for #ountermeasures to

the #rash of the Ameri#an publi# imae' But it has now rea#hed a depth that only a lare

ma2ority of the politi#al #lass & unafraid! at that! of a media #ampain aainst it & #ould

re#ondition the publi# dis#ourse' This is hihly improbable & for domesti# as well as forAmeri#an reasons'

A new #old war with Russia is somethin the Russians fear far more than they are apt to let

on and this fear has a#uired a real and influential #onstituen#y' Thouh the .est miht err

about the riss! a #old war‘s per#eied benefits are simply too substantial to re#onsider its

wisdom' 0t is! of #ourse! drien by the expe#tation that the Russians #an be for#ed to return

to the state of affairs that $% Ambassador to the $nited Nations Ialmay <halil5ad dubbed

,adult superision-' 0t may end in war born out of desperation'

And war! the erman war aainst the %oiet $nion! has be#ome #entral to the myth main

underlyin so many of the efforts to reshape the erman #olle#tie psy#he' Thouh by the1?F:s! many erman enerals and senior offi#ials had forien the %oiets for defeatin the

.ehrma#ht! the fashionable iew now is that the %oiet i#tory was illeitimate & be#ause it

was a#hieed by ,%talinist methods- & and that %talin and 8itler were eually responsible



for the war! and eually i#timi5ers of the %oiet population' But sin#e demo#rati# ermany

repented its sins! and Russia didn‘t! Russia will remain in thrall to its totalitarian heritae!

and will still hae to pay for the war it finally and 2ustly lost in 1??1'

$nderirdin this #ari#ature of history with appli#ations for the present are endless series on

publi# TC about the %oiet barbarian ineptness in fihtin the war! the sufferin of erman

women at the hands of Red rapists! about the strafin and torpedoin of refuees and refu&

ee ships! the driin&out of ermans! and the %oiet anti&semiti# refusal to re#oni5e the

spe#ial pla#e of the @ million ews amon the 9: million #iilian i#tims of the erman #ru&sade aainst ewish Bolsheism'

0n fa#t! in #onne#tin the debate amon the 0sraeli riht and the ideoloi#al #ontinuity in

those ,history- series! one miht #ome to the #on#lusion that the erman #rime is the one

of the 8olo#aust of ,inno#ent- ews & inno#ent in the sense of non&#ommunist' 0t is! there&

fore! #ompletely unsurprisin that the #ry of ,anti &semitism- that meets any opposition to

0srael‘s poli#ies and its propaandists! leaes the ewish non& or anti&Iionist left as it has

always been! fair ame'

$naoidably! these tales to shape the publi# #ons#ien#e will eentually hae effe#t' But for

now they seem to hae failed their mission' The polls still show a substantial ma2ority of ermans reardin Russia as non&threatenin and basi#ally benin' Thouh not for la# of

tryin'

=ast year‘s #limax of the efforts to tae down ;utin in a publi# relations sense & with hopes!

obiously! of ettin the erman publi# to s#ent blood & was an interiew in the run&up to

the &F ;etersbur meetin'

0t was led by /aybrit 0llner! a popular TC politi#al tal show host nown as one of the three

,+ompassionates- (as the 7uries were euloi5ed in #lassi#al times) of publi# teleision'

%in#e these eents are always heaily s#ripted and #horeoraphed with the inolement of

the politi#al appointees headin publi# TC! there was nothin a##idental or unforseen in its

#ondu#t' 0llner waed this interiew lie a prose#utor interroatin a defendant' 8er ,Mou

don‘t want us to beliee-! ,you tal too lon-! her pullin fa#es and interruptin ;utin!

demonstrated that her parents were uite amiss in tea#hin her manners'

This was not a uestion of eadin subserien#e or not #hallenin ;utin! but she behaed

in a fashion more appropriate for the old Ameri#an sho#&tal TC erry %priner %how than

for a serious politi#al interiew' Thouh ;utin neither lost his smile nor his sanfroid! it was

unaoidable that the <remlin drew #on#lusions about the future of erman&Russian relations

as well as about its ability to et a fair hearin for its point of iew'

This interiew was een more remarable for its #ontrast with an interiew of ;resident

Bush by %abine +hristiansen (the se#ond of the three +ompassionates)' 8er demeanor su&ested a #oyly suppressed obseuiousness and her #hallene (re uantanamo) dissoled in

the shared relief about the upswin in $%&erman relations and the wisdom of +han#ellor

/erel' 0t was not ,hail fellow! well met- but the demonstration of measured awe before

the burdens of the president‘s offi#e! of the willinness to hae the world explained for the

yoels at home! and of a sliht willinness to su##umb to the manly #harms of power'

Both interiews are emblemati# for the hormonal #hane of erman poli#ies and their publi#

debate' 0t does not matter in the loner run whether the erman population will i#ariously

partae in its thrills or not' .hat #ounts is that the erman politi#al #lass is ored with the

will to follow its temptations! losin in the pro#ess pruden#e and reason' The Ameri#an poli&

ti#al elites are already failin3 the erman ones are followin suit'

Axel Brot is the pen name for a German defense analyst and former intelligence officer.

germany re-engineered ally

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