One of the other minor powers: Germany

© WithComment.com

Germany looks for breathing room "WITH more than 80m people and the world's third-biggest economy, Germany squats like a giant in the centre of Europe."

One of the other minor powers: Germany

The fall of the Berlin wall, the fall of the Soviet Union, reunification of Germany. The Post war Germany was split into to two, the west thrived while the east suffered. The laws of West Germany were set up to not allow troops off of their soil even as members of NATO. But things change.

“The Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, was set up to defend the homeland against attacks from the east. It would not have been politically possible, until the 1990s, to deploy soldiers in foreign interventions: most Germans were staunchly pacifist. Only in 1994 did the constitutional court rule that German soldiers could be allowed outside the NATO area, and then only if parliament had given its approval.”

Germany has now elected a chancellor that is less about the German economy and more about its foreign policy. Angela Merkel has spent much of her time outside her country and next year will be the President of the EU and the G-8! What she must help her country decide is if they are going to engage in the world militarily if it is needed, or remain passive as a large percentage of their population wants.

However, Germany has been involved in the middle-east before, during and ever since WWII. The Term “Islamic Fascism” has its bases in Nazi Germany. Wanting an Allie in the middle-east to give Britain trouble, several men from the region were given high rank in the SS. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin el-Husseini developed the Bosnian troops who were still in Berlin when it fell to the Allies.

A follower of the Grand Mufti found their way to Syria and formed the Ba’ath party which was later formed in Iraq. An uncle of Saddam Hussein was among them and recruited Saddam as a strong man.

Today, Germany receives 25% of its natural gas from Russia, and is very involved in the Iranian Nuclear talks. It is hard to see however, how they can force the issue when Russia is the major contractor on the Iranian reactor.

Germany is a powerful country in Europe and is making a play to be more influential in the world. Today they spend 1.4% of their GDP on the Military (3.7% USA) and could be a powerful Allie or potential rival in the future.

Chris Mendelsohn

reply@withcomment.com

Sources:

http://christianactionforisrael.org/medigest/may00/arabnazi.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_nuclear_program