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Germany: An honest broker for Middle East diplomacy?
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this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Germany worked very hard over the past decades to lose all credibility in the Middle East. From tiptoeing around the Iraq invasion, over empty calls and threats during the earlier stages of the Syrian War, from making big announcements to uphold the JCPOA after the US broke the agreement and then just falling into US line until now where Germany remains unwilling to acknowledge the possibility of Israeli war crimes and continueing to support Israel "beyond all questions" as Scholz said.
Nobody in the Middle East takes Germany seriously and everybody knows, that in the end Germany will fall in line with whatever the US says, so any agreements made with Germany could just as well be made with the US instead.
Sure... if you start at your deeply ingrained believe that Germany is always wrong, to then find "arguments" from there, it makes perfect sense that not supporting the US line in Iraq and supporting the US line in Israel are magicallly the same thing.
Germany was very much in line with the Iraq invasion. We didn't provide boots on the ground, but US army bases in Germany were used extensively for logistics and the German army was aiding in the defense of these bases as well as in surveillance operations. And Merkel, who became chancelor in 2005 was in favor of Germany also commiting troops to the Iraq invasion in 2003.
The Iraq invasion is the same in terms of international law like the russian invasion of Ukraine. An illegal foreign invasion. But instead of calling the US out on it, demanding sanctions or at least forbid and enforce no war efforts going through army bases in Germany, the government decided to let the US reign freely and even protect their back, while they are busy invading.
As a German myself, you have to acknowledge that in terms of military/power politics, we're mostly just a US lapdog
I agree and find it tremendously stupid. I believe Europe would fare much better, if the EU integrated as a power bloc, keeping foreign interference out, be it US, Russian or Chinese. That includes finding compromise on building a unified foreign and defense policy.
Otherwise we'll be eroded in the foreseeable future, which has tremendous negative implications for the well being, safety and wealth of all Europeans.
Remember when the NSA under Obama was caught spying on Merkel's mobile? Most Germans don't.