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gelbes_gilatierToday, the UN Security Council finally passed the NFZ resolution for Libya. As predicted, Germany who's currently a temporary member, abstained. This is so very embarrassing and a fucking bad idea that I don't even know where to start. This isn't like Iraq where Bush tried to push the allies into a war based on assumptions and downright lies and where the Iraqis for some reason were less than thrilled about being occupied by a super power and her allies... this is genuinely about the future and the freedom of an entire country and they'd hoped for this resolution for at least a month and what does my country do? They abstain. Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
The chancellor's statement is a fucked-up example for some really ass backswards idiocy. She said that the abstention doesn't mean neutrality. Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. Am I the only one who always thought that abstaining was nothing but being neutral? Dammit, what are they trying to play at? Not wanting German troops to be involved in any military strikes in Libya because there could be civilian casualties?
I rather think it's because they're already stretched way too thin as they are and because we just can't raise any more ressources to fulfill our duties as NATO members and they're just too embarrassed to admit that. And we're back to the Bundeswehr bullshitting from When Guttenberg Was Still SecDef. Which brings me back to another pet peeve: yes, he didn't exactly write his PhD thesis himself. Yes, whoever wrote that thesis generously helped themselves toan overwhelming lot of a couple of quotations they didn't exactly mark as quotes.
But. At least he told it like it is. He was the first to call the Afghanistan deployment a war, who said that yes, German soldiers are fighting a war again and German soldiers are dying in a fucking war, not some "conflict" or "policing action". He knew how to read the ranks, was actually one of them (a non-com in the Army reserves, mountain infantery) and he was able to make quick and painful decisions, such as retiring the Gorch Fock's commandant Captain Norbert Schatz after the death of a female cadet in a Brazilian port late last year and the subsequent discovery of a couple of unsavory incidents involving hazing and sexual harassment of the cadets by the crew. There's been a report on that, claiming Schatz was not to be blamed for anything but we'll certainly see about that.
Anyway, after von zu Guttenberg's resignation, Thomas de Maiziére took up the office and... was nowhere seen henceforth. There were a couple of introductionary gigs but so far I haven't heard anything concerning Libya from the new IBuK (Inhaber der Befehls- und Kommandogewalt, CIC/SecDef in this case) and uh... whatthe hell? This is like... um... his turf, all the way? Or at least, his turf as much as that of Secretary of State Westerwelle? It doesn't make any sense and can we please stop chickening out of this?
Also, can we (as left-wingers, I mean) stop pretending the situation in Libya can be resolved by talking and... and I don't have any idea what everyone left-wing thinks how it could be resolved. I only hear "No troops to Libya! No war in Libya with foreign involvement!" but I never hear "This is how we could do it instead..." Don't they all remember Bosnia? Rwanda? Haiti? Is their memory really that short? Hasn't anyone apart from yours truly read Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures?
Seriously, that book was a fucking ephiphany to me and it confirmed my diffuse feelings regarding non-robust UN troop deployments. They suck. You can't prevent genocide by standing aside and let one party march the other to the graves they have to dig themselves. That never worked and it won't work to just let the situation in Libya run its course now either and I feel so embarrassed that my country's elected officials bullshit everyone and their mothers three ways from Sunday. If they'd just be honest (about the fact that there aren't any troops they could deploy, nor any equipment because they're all in Kosovo and Afghanistan and Lebanon and Sudan and off the Somalian coast...), I probably could live with it. But the crap they're telling us now? No, that's just painful in the sheer embarrassment.
Most of all because they suggested they might send AWACS crews to Afghanistan to relieve the US troops... exactly the thing they totally ruled out in January, with withdrawing the remaining AWACS crews out of interior reasons (there are elections in a couple of federal states this year... yes, I'm finding it unbelievable as well). This is exactly the kind of ass hattery that will make us a laughing stock in international relations again. I really wonder where this will lead... and something tells me we haven't heard the last of the whole Libya (non-)deployment thing, yet. Mark my words.
Or at least I hope we haven't :S
The chancellor's statement is a fucked-up example for some really ass backswards idiocy. She said that the abstention doesn't mean neutrality. Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. Am I the only one who always thought that abstaining was nothing but being neutral? Dammit, what are they trying to play at? Not wanting German troops to be involved in any military strikes in Libya because there could be civilian casualties?
I rather think it's because they're already stretched way too thin as they are and because we just can't raise any more ressources to fulfill our duties as NATO members and they're just too embarrassed to admit that. And we're back to the Bundeswehr bullshitting from When Guttenberg Was Still SecDef. Which brings me back to another pet peeve: yes, he didn't exactly write his PhD thesis himself. Yes, whoever wrote that thesis generously helped themselves to
But. At least he told it like it is. He was the first to call the Afghanistan deployment a war, who said that yes, German soldiers are fighting a war again and German soldiers are dying in a fucking war, not some "conflict" or "policing action". He knew how to read the ranks, was actually one of them (a non-com in the Army reserves, mountain infantery) and he was able to make quick and painful decisions, such as retiring the Gorch Fock's commandant Captain Norbert Schatz after the death of a female cadet in a Brazilian port late last year and the subsequent discovery of a couple of unsavory incidents involving hazing and sexual harassment of the cadets by the crew. There's been a report on that, claiming Schatz was not to be blamed for anything but we'll certainly see about that.
Anyway, after von zu Guttenberg's resignation, Thomas de Maiziére took up the office and... was nowhere seen henceforth. There were a couple of introductionary gigs but so far I haven't heard anything concerning Libya from the new IBuK (Inhaber der Befehls- und Kommandogewalt, CIC/SecDef in this case) and uh... whatthe hell? This is like... um... his turf, all the way? Or at least, his turf as much as that of Secretary of State Westerwelle? It doesn't make any sense and can we please stop chickening out of this?
Also, can we (as left-wingers, I mean) stop pretending the situation in Libya can be resolved by talking and... and I don't have any idea what everyone left-wing thinks how it could be resolved. I only hear "No troops to Libya! No war in Libya with foreign involvement!" but I never hear "This is how we could do it instead..." Don't they all remember Bosnia? Rwanda? Haiti? Is their memory really that short? Hasn't anyone apart from yours truly read Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures?
Seriously, that book was a fucking ephiphany to me and it confirmed my diffuse feelings regarding non-robust UN troop deployments. They suck. You can't prevent genocide by standing aside and let one party march the other to the graves they have to dig themselves. That never worked and it won't work to just let the situation in Libya run its course now either and I feel so embarrassed that my country's elected officials bullshit everyone and their mothers three ways from Sunday. If they'd just be honest (about the fact that there aren't any troops they could deploy, nor any equipment because they're all in Kosovo and Afghanistan and Lebanon and Sudan and off the Somalian coast...), I probably could live with it. But the crap they're telling us now? No, that's just painful in the sheer embarrassment.
Most of all because they suggested they might send AWACS crews to Afghanistan to relieve the US troops... exactly the thing they totally ruled out in January, with withdrawing the remaining AWACS crews out of interior reasons (there are elections in a couple of federal states this year... yes, I'm finding it unbelievable as well). This is exactly the kind of ass hattery that will make us a laughing stock in international relations again. I really wonder where this will lead... and something tells me we haven't heard the last of the whole Libya (non-)deployment thing, yet. Mark my words.
Or at least I hope we haven't :S
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 09:17 pm (UTC)*drückt fest*
Ich möchte diesen Eintrag so unterschreiben, bitte. Ich hätt's nicht besser ausdrücken können.
Wie ich schon gesagt habe: Ich bin nicht dafür, immer gleich blind überall einzufallen, wenn etwas nur nicht so läuft, wie "wir" das gern hätten, aber wofür haben wir denn die UN?
Zur Deko?
*pffft!*
no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 09:22 pm (UTC)...genau! *fuchtel Meine Fresse, echt, diesmal wollen sie doch Hilfe...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 09:26 pm (UTC)Und genau das wollte ich eigentlich auch noch schreiben, aber dann habe ich es vergessen. *räusper*
Das ist doch jetzt wirklich mal ne Situation, in der es angebracht, erwünscht und nötig wäre! *fuchtelt mit*
no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 10:08 pm (UTC)And personally, I prefer De Maiziére, at least he's not taking his wife and a camera team to Afghanistan, making it look like it's almost like a holiday there.
but well, that's not the point behind this entry, no?
To me, Germany's abstention looks more like a No. Which is BAD and makes us look like we're supporting Gaddafi (but hey, mabye Germany still is. *Rüstungsindustrie* anyone?). And I think we already ARE laughing stock. I mean, I don't want soldiers there too, but we could still have said Yes to the NFZ.
But... well... I think politics in Germany are chaotic and stupid and weird and fucked up on every end right now. Everything but a democracy for the people of Germany. :(
no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 04:32 pm (UTC)He's not doing much else either, though, from the look of it. I'm just hoping that currently he's reviewing everything on the Bundeswehr reform and making some actual decisions concerning future troop strength, bases/posts and material, if he doesn't think it necessary to comment on a military action by our NATO partners. I really am trying to have faith in him, I swear.
And I think we already ARE laughing stock. I mean, I don't want soldiers there too, but we could still have said Yes to the NFZ.
Exactly. Saying yes certainly wouldn't have meant sending troops there as well (since it's not a NATO Article Five (Bündnisfall)... well, yet) but that's what you get when the chancellor focuses on irrational nuclear fears and let's Westerwelle who always seemed to have felt
castratedintimidated and irritated by the DoD run his course. I have no idea how they plan on making up for this particular piece of political bullshit.no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 07:09 pm (UTC)And I don't think Merkel was focusing on nuclear fears but rather on "losing-upcoming-elections" fears.
for the political parties, Libya and Japan are just a big annoyance and disturbance which they need to integrate into their campaigns now. I don't have the feeling they actually care...
no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 01:23 am (UTC)You're right. Of course you're right *sighs
And I don't think Merkel was focusing on nuclear fears but rather on "losing-upcoming-elections" fears.
Actually, both I think. I was more or less quoting Heiner Bremer from n-tv (which I probably should have mentioned before *sighs) who said that the abstention was probably the result of Merkel having been way too occupied with other things (the whole nuclear thing among them) and honestly, that's the only explanation for the thing I could agree on...
I don't have the feeling they actually care...
And here I thought I was the only one. The saddest thing is that I think this acutally applies to all major political parties, including the Greens and, to my unending irritation, the LINKE as well. Just looking at my fellow comrades' tweets makes me really aggressive lately...