I am sick of living in a vassal state

[Seamus Fermanagh]

GG:

Germany is not a vassal state. The US has never had the knack of "putting the boot on someone's neck" properly so as to truly establish vassalage. Not saying we are morally beyond trying it, just that we have too much of a lingering morality to do it properly.

That said, the USA does tend, at least since the collapse of the CCCP if not before, to be haphazard and "high handed" with its allies in NATO and elsewhere. The absence of a coherent foreign policy since the conclusion of the cold war and the way our internal politics can whipsaw Congressional support and Executive attention often manifests itself in cavalier behavior towards those who we label our allies.

As to the spying....it is a little discussed fact that most friendly governments spy on one another as well as on their "enemies." Mossad has run operations in the USA for years. I would be surprised if German Intelligence services were not doing the same -- after all, figuring out what the current set of temp workers staffing the White House is up to behind the Press Releases might be of advantage, no? Intelligence services spy on everyone but themselves, and that usually includes spying on their own intelligence rivals down the strasse as well.


In other threads, I have asserted that it is my growing belief that we must bring NATO to a close. Allow the United States of Europe (Label it the EU or Grossdeustchland for all I care) to form --with or without the Brits at their discretion -- and let them chart their own course. The USA has a lot of work to do in the New World, melding our semi-English heritage with our quasi-Latino future.