News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Maf, I'm no more advocating migrants as pawns in power politics any more than you or any thinking person! Of course the results of her failed policies are shameful, but that surely musn't mean that we throw out the baby with the bathwater:-)

A Europe without foreigners in her midst, as in the "good old days", huh? Come on, dude! How can a future of happiness possibly be built on a past of someone else's misery without eventually crumbling under the weight of its own evil?

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Maf, are you forever going to hold against migrants IN GENERAL the heinous actions of a dastardly few?

The whole point Merkel's making about the concept of "tolerance" and the like is that it's not worth beans if it's too easy to be tolerant; like Christian virtues such as charity, it's only valuable when it hurts! This is the solely valid acid test for humanity. As soon as we humans begin making excuses and trying to short circuit real life by removing the necessary sting of unpleasantness, we become no better than the Nazis themselves who promised Germany a future without sickness, sadness, pain...in a phrase, a world without conscience:-)

I'm no saint, neither are you, neither are any of us. Yet, we ARE human and so long as we attempt to perfect our imperfect selves there'll always be hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Don't abandon those sentimental ideals, Maf! One day you'll find they're the only things worth living and dying for.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

You're arguing in terms of "facts" which don't enter into this type of discussion. Maybe Sarazzin's, Hoecke's, Gedeon's "facts" are all correct, for argument's sake! Merely because someone or something is logical, doesn't necessarily make it right or just:-)

The more you abandon the liberalism and tolerance of our forefathers, the quicker you pave the path straight to hell!
I know many younger Germans particularly, have been crying "empathy fatigue" for a while now.

The truth of the matter remains that compassion has no statute of limitations. Supposedly, this is what separates civilized humans from barbarians.

Again, if you want revisionist thinking, contact our friend the late Prof. Hillgruber and I'm sure he could render you some valuable assistance.....from wherever he isLOL

Concerning Trump's polarizing presence at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, he continues to refute any insinuations that possibly, just possibly, he could be adding more fuel to the fire already consuming Europe.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I'm not "lashing out" at anyone, only expressing impatience at supposedly intelligent posters such as you, falling for easy answers to infinitely complex problems!

Sarazzin has expressed a yearning for a migrant-free Germany, perhaps not in precisely those words, but nonetheless wishes for a more homogeneous FRG. While understandable, this is dangerous rhetoric which plays on the simple minds of those who once upon a time supported Hitler.

No answers to important questions are ever simple, Maf! As a fellow American, I doubt either of us can adequately come up with a reasonable compromise to our own immigration crisis. Ban Muslims? What will King Donald The Dodo think up next? We've never been too far from "Fahrenheit 451", you know.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Traditionally however, what has often stymied Germany's smooth entree onto the world stage has been her intransigent inability to compromise! Such inflexibilty not only led to the declaration of war, but, twice in the last century, to the loss of that war owing to a nearly intractible rigidity which often failed to take into account the unexpected, the illogical, the serendipitous, in short, the element of surprise.

Let us hope that Ms. Merkel or her successor will not make future tactical blunders:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

I'd rather be loved, at best respected, certainly rather than feared or hated:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Tacitus, Germany remains the rich, unpleasant uncle of whom everyone's sort of afraid, yet whom everyone needs when they don't have enough money:-)

A simplistic response to your comment, yet apt just the same, wouldn't you agree?

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

WE??!! I think the shoe's on the other foot, sir:-)
lol

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

You're telling me:-)

Anyhow, a number of European nations are concerned once again that Germany has become too economically powerful and will steamroller her way across the continent, making it harder for less economically stable countries such as Greece etc.to be able to compete globally.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

There's interpretation, and then there's revisionism:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

There's plenty of historical revisionism to go around, Tacitus. Just contact telepathically the late Andreas Hillgruber and his well-known thesis for confirmation:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Drang nach Osten referred to the German historical equivalent of America's "Manifest Destiny" during the mid-to latter part of the 19th century, in which the US-Gov.t felt it was her almost G_d-given right to move West and settle America's personal stake in her own future as divine providence foretold:-) The Native Americans interfered with that future and were hence subject to annihilation. Germany went in the so-called "opposite" direction, claiming her frontiers lay way to the East and that it was Germany's destiny to create Lebensraum in Slavic lands, from which, naturally, the Slavs would be displaced, peacefully if possible, forcibly, indeed brutally, if necessary, in order to make room for the deserving Germanic peoples.

You're comparing apples and oranges, Crow, AS USUAL:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

???? What on earth are you crowing about?

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Whereas Poland may have right-tilting tendencies which make Trump seem appealing, the same cannot be said for mainstream Germany. The protesters in Hamburg are extremists, and extremists of whichever stripe, be they right or left, can pose a danger, even to a hopefully stable democracy:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Germany continues to react to the Nazi Era, thus swinging to the other extreme, whereby media must clamp down on ordinary folks stating any sort of criticism of anything Germany says is "straitjacketing" their right to say the first thing that comes into their head, well considered or not:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Yo, pal, relativizing IS trvializing by its very nature! What's wrong with you? Where's your moral compass? Did ya trade it in for "peace of mind"?

::-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Until today, making snide cracks about the NS-period, mock Hitler salutes (regardless of how "harmlessly" intended) and the like can land anyone, German national or foreign visitor, native or tourist, in some awfully nasty hot water:-)

Ignorance of the LAW is never an excuse!

@Maf, when someone trivializes the Shoah, factually or not, this gives pause to wonder as to what that individual's motives are. Always thought you were on the correct side. Now, I'm not so sure.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Meaning that Merkel's government is continuing to fuel the "leftist dictatorship" angle of eternal provocateurs such as Thilo Sarazzin, Jonathan Meese etc., I suppose.

Great. We're back where we started:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

The problem with Schulz is that he speaks his mind, as does Merkel. Problem is, most aren't interested in what they have to say any longer; their liberal speech has long since fallen on deaf ears:-)

Sad but so, and somehow a Sigmar Gabriel chancellorship doesn't exactly inspire confidence on the Left either.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Necessity will determine that, dudar! Survival is the art of learning from previous mistakes, and correcting them:-) This means, making darn sure Turkey DOES NOT enter the EU come 2020, one of many planned dates for said catastrophe waiting to happen!!

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

You mean what is a "bitter pill", exactly?? Not sure I understood your "Serblish", Crow!
:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Similar to the situation in post-War occupied Vienna! The British under Sir Alexander Galloway and the Russians surely did their part to prosecute ex-Nazis aka Nazi sympathizers, in among other areas, the film industry, such as Karl Hartl and many others:-)

The Americans and the French acted more like caretakers than occupiers, to be quite frank.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Considering the US debt going into the trillions by now, that's hardly equitable:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Hopefully, Merkel will have learned from her missteps.

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

German "imperialism", Crow??! From which outdated textbook are you quoting?! Yo dude, the war's over! The US, Russia, Britain, and France won the Big One and the danger's passed, so where's the problem?

I'll admit that PEGIDA and AfD don't exactly instill confidence, but in all likelihood, Merkel will handily take the upcoming election:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Ahemmm, it was Trump who harmed relations with Germany, NOT Merkel:-))

Love / Are Polish men handsome to you? [182]

I'm relieved to know that, Dirk:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Not quite so simple, Marsupial!

As usual, your type enjoys simplifying more complex issues of morality, justice, and ethics. While not German by birth, I view the destruction of Dresden along with numerous other once proud German treasures as an indication of the difficulties posed by recent German history! The Allies were damned if they didn't and damned if they did. Had the British and the Americans not bombed the cities in question, posterity would have recorded the turning a blind eye to the monstrousness of the Holocaust (among many other monstrous acts committed by the Germans/Nazis). That they did in fact bomb those cities was seen as just punishment for Hitler's nearly unstoppable evil and those misguided minions who lent their wholehearted support to his cause.

Regarding the future of Germany as well as the EU, the former has shown herself a worthy ally of the West. She cannot be expected to eternally stand in the shadows of her past. She has more than paid her debt to civilization. Chancellor Merkel is well aware of this!

Love / Are Polish men handsome to you? [182]

...you mean the guys in trenchcoats, resting on those skinny brollies aka umbrellas?
:-)

News / Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland [310]

Translation, please Marsupial?

@danke, weg04:-)

Ironside, for your information, Warsaw was one of my urban invasions undertaken by both the Nazis as well as the Allies during the War. Dresden's bombing was revenge, pure and simple!! I agree with weg04, look up firebombing; it ain't pretty.