Written by Eric Zuesse; Originally appeared on strategic-culture.org
On February 8th, the NATO-supporting Atlantik-Bruecke, or Atlantic Bridge, issued their poll, “Vertrauen in der Krise” or “Trust During the Crisis”, and it finds, from scientifically sampling 2,500 Germans, that there is very little trust or confidence in US leadership, and that there is less dis-trust both of Russian and of Chinese leadership than of American.
?
Atlantic Bridge was founded by NATO and the Council on Foreign Relations in 1952 in order to make Germans hostile toward the Soviet Union, and favorable toward the United States. It was the prototype for America’s Atlantic Council, which became founded in 1961 — the same year as Eisenhower’s Farewell Address warning against the rise of the “military-industrial complex.” It was created in order to propagandize for higher US military spending to strengthen NATO. When the Cold War ended on the Russian side in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of communism and the end of the Warsaw Pact military alliance that had been set up by the USSR in 1955 to defend the communist bloc against NATO, US President George Herbert Walker Bush secretly instructed America’s vassal nations on the night of 24 February 1990 to continue secretly the war against Russia and any nation that isn’t hostile against Russia, and so NATO has swallowed up all of the Warsaw Pact nations, right up to Russia’s borders, and is now trying to merge into NATO a former part of the Soviet Union itself, Ukraine, after a US coup in Ukraine in February 2014 installed a racist-fascist, ideologically nazi, anti-Russian regime at Russia’s doorstep.
Here are the new German poll’s main findings:
More than four-fifths of the respondents (84.6 percent) rate the German-American relationship as negative or very negative. Only 10.4 percent find it very positive or rather positive. A clear majority (57.6 percent) argues for a greater distance between Germany and the United States. Only 13.1 percent want a closer approach; 26 percent want to keep the current arrangement. …
Almost half of respondents (42.3 percent) consider China a better partner for Germany than the US. Conversely, only 23.1 percent believe that the US is a more reliable partner than China. …
[Concerning Germany’s current foreign policies,] only 18.6 percent see a positive impact, 34 percent a negative. …
Asked about the currently most dangerous global trouble spots, only 1.9 percent of the respondents named the expansion of the Russian zone of influence. The growing influence of China is seen by 2.2 percent as the biggest threat. …
Neoconservatives (that is to say, supporters of expanding the US empire) are quoted as being alarmed by these findings:
Professor Burkhard Schwenker, Chairman, Roland Berger Advisory Council, Head of the Atlantic Bridge Working Group Foreign and Security Policy and Vice-Chairman: “In view of the great loss of confidence in the United States, we must engage more than ever in our discussions with and about America. and across the Atlantic, at all levels. That’s why the Atlantic Bridge is increasingly devoting itself to this exchange.”
Dr. David Deißner , Managing Director of Atlantik-Brücke, adds: “The current dissonances and the mood in Germany show that the common values and interests between the transatlantic partners have to be discussed openly, without fear of controversy.” …
Dr. Michael Werz , Senior Fellow, [US Democratic Party] Center for American Progress, Member of the Board of Atlantik-Brücke, commented: “Germans must leave the comfort of neutrality behind and, despite all legitimate criticism of the current US administration [since he propagandizes for Democratic Party billionaires instead of for Republican Party billionaires who donate to the current US President], not of anti American resentment, make clear the dangers posed by the authoritarian systems in Russia and China.”…
Dr. Norbert Röttgen , MdB (CDU / CSU), Chairman, Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag, Member of the Board of Atlantik-Brücke: “The survey shows that we need to convince the citizens of the strategic needs of a German engagement in a radically changing world. Without the backing of the population, foreign policy cannot be pursued.”
Clearly, this poll’s stark findings shocked these propagandists for increased German purchases of weaponry from firms such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics.
This poll shows that today’s German Government does not represent the German public — at least not on these central issues of German foreign and national-security policies. One may say the same thing about the US: that its Government does not represent its public (on practically everything, actually).
The continuing ability of the US regime to justify its many foreign invasions and coups as being humanitarian instead of what they always have been, which is raw grabs for extending the US empire, is severely jeopardized when the approval of US leadership declines among the publics in the lands that are ruled by aristocracies that (like Germany) are allied with and subordinate to America’s aristocracy — the 585 US billionaires. This is especially the case in Germany, which is currently occupied by thirty-two thousand US troops.
On 2 July 2018, the US ‘Defense’ Department’s newspaper, Stars and Stripes, headlined “Former Army Europe boss: Pulling US troops from Germany would be a big win for Russia” as if Russia instead of America were doing “regime change” everywhere it can, and it opened: “A large military drawdown in Germany would be a ‘colossal mistake,’ says the former top Army commander in Europe about a possible scaling back of the US presence on the Continent, at a time when Russia has become more assertive.” The article went on to say:
There are now about 32,000 permanently stationed American troops in Germany, which hosted the majority of the 300,000 troops stationed in Europe during the Cold War.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Pentagon is analyzing the cost and effects of returning some or all troops in Germany to the US and possibly sending some to Poland instead. The review began after President Donald Trump, who is at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a range of issues, expressed interest in withdrawing US forces.
So, the question naturally arises as to whether the German public support the US President regarding this matter. The present writer has web-searched the combination “Rückzug der US-Truppen aus Deutschland” and “umfrage” (or “withdrawal of US troops from Germany” and “poll”) and failed to find any polling of Germans on that question. For some reason, this question — which should have been repeatedly and heavily and constantly polled among the German public — isn’t showing up as having been polled, at all, ever. What could possibly explain that mysterious situation? Why wasn’t the question included in the Atlantik Bruecke’s latest poll? Could it be that Germany’s master, the US regime, simply hasn’t permitted that question to be polled in Germany? Or is there an alternative hypothesis that’s likelier? If so, what would that possibly be?
Lots of ideology in this article. How can you occupy a country of 80 million with its own army with just 32.000 troops? There is no military occupation of Germany going on, that’s just ideology talking. Lets call them what those troops are really doing in Germany, and which is already evil enough, providing bases and support to whatever invasion/regime change of the week the US wants to do. Germany is not occupied by the US in any way, although its elites do sell the country’s soul to the US as vassals in order to coast a free ride on America’s broad military shoulders. Because god forbid Germany would actually have to spend some money on its own armed forces.
As for the pro-US think tanks and pundits up in arms over this poll, I reckon its hard to paint a pro US picture of the US when ordinary Germans only see US arrogance and reckless behavior coming from Washington. And that Germans had to put up with 1 million immigrants coming in due to the wars fueled/created by the US. 1 million refugees from US instigated wars, zero from Russian and Chinese instigated wars. Hmmm, those think tanks have their work cut out for them.
How can you occupy a country of 80 million with its own army with just 32.000 troops?
Germany is an occupied country. They have no sovereignty and they have no constitution. So any decision the government takes, depends on the goodwill of the allies. They reserve the right to interfere if something goes “wrong”. I agree with you, that it is impossible to occupy a country with just 32.000 troops, but don’t forget that Germany is a very small country, and it was occupied not only by US troops. Germany was divided in the british, french, american and the soviet zone. But I think that the military occupation is not the great problem anymore. This was only phase 1 of the occupation. Phase 2 is the brainwashing of the people to kill their identity and to screw up their culture.
The world’s starting to wake up to zioUS filth.
Solution, drop Germany from the list of countries that we poll about what the world thinks about the U.S. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/17/9-charts-on-how-the-world-sees-trump/ft_17-07-17_u-s-image_presratingmap/ I know this poll is about ‘Trump’ but Pew always uses the same list of countries whether it’s about Trump, Obama, US leadership or any issue related to the U.S. Notice who is and is not on the list. In the M.E. Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon are ON the list, and even if you want to count Turkey (a NATO country) all are heavily subsidized by the U.S.
Look at who is NOT on the list. Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan, all places that we claim where ‘the people’ if not the govts love us, BS, those people don’t love us, we are scared to ask them what they really think of us. Why should they like us?
not just in germany – the whole world is stunningly anti-america and that is because they behave like fully blown idiots with a combined iq of just a regular 10. when you allow neo-dunces like fatso and paddedcellnow. bolton run around making demands, threatening right left and everywhere, that is what you will achieve – opposition from right left and everywhere.
Give people a pair of lightblue Nike shoes and 100 dollar. They will forget about everything and love you forever. Thats why everybody loves an American…………………..……..LOL…:-D.
All Western MSM, think tanks etc are by default, utter sh!t, never to be trusted (they destroyed that trust on their own and should suffer the consequences, one of which is being totally ignored until they fold).
The British, so-called ‘Independent’ newspaper, part of the MSM, has had a circulation drop from about 180 000 to about 56 000 in 6 years, from 2010 to 2016. For the years since, no public figures available, so hopefully it has passed from the toilet bowl on to the sewerage farm, where it belongs.
My, what great PR stunt that turned out to be. Shocked were they? The only way they could be shocked by the outcome was if they are like the US…totally out of touch with what is going on with the people. While the idiots like Werz thinks to equate this negativity to Trump, it is clear that the Germans have realized that none of the US leadership over the last 20 years was good for them or the world, in fact the exact opposite. I really liked this: “discuss openly, without fear of controversy”…what a laugh that is. Their answer will be the same as it always is: “we must engage more than ever our discussion with and about America…” This means a full on propaganda attack. One can now see the value of alternative news sources, as the worldwide MSM does not give people true information, only propaganda…yet the German people see the truth? Maybe the multiple thousands of refugees and the disruption that has wrought has something to do with it? Maybe US opposition to NordStream is seen as economic interference? The Zios demand chaos and unrest for their plans of consolidation and control. They got their unrest, but it doesn’t seem to have had the effect they had hoped for. It’s ever more doubtful that the German people can be ‘turned’ back into the fold.Too bad.
Its high time that the Germans kicked out the Yanks. Inside the US camps there will likely be mass graves from the Rhine Meadows stockades, of Summer 1945, where millions of German soldiers were literally starved to death in the open air .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dze2eKUSwwI
If you think this is suffering, you havent seen anything. When the nasis exterminated the 6 million of those who we must not name, they made lamps of their skin for sale and cutted all the headhair for use in mattress´s. Before they were gassed a dentist took all silver and gold out of their teeth without painkiller and they were only offered bone soup for food and a bath in a gas oven. THIS is suffering! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc0f658992f4e091f94c00e7ccba1da8e2796f5dc45bd2ad0447211b7fe92fd8.jpg
The lampshade nonsense was debunked with DNA. Pig skin lampshades were fashionable in the 1930’s. The rest of the fable is just as fake as we know :)
USA,puppet France and British are world threat and fools.Their think with their skin color.Their agendas are promoted by their white supremacist racist mentality.No wonder blacks,Latin and asians domenating all stages.Gun and carrot rules of Trump is long outdated.
There is nothing “stunning” or even surprising about it. I’ve often mentioned here that Europe, especially the people are not in favour of being US puppets. There is a trend to much more independent politics, its taking foot slowly in official circles. These things take time, but they’re developping. For decades now the US has been perceived or understood to be the greatest threat to world peace and well-being.