Why Putin’s Pipeline Is Welcome in Germany

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In his meeting with Stoltenberg in Brussels, Blinken warned that Western companies participating in building Nord Stream 2, which is 90% complete, would face sanctions mandated by Congress:

“President Biden has been very clear in saying that he believes the pipeline is a bad idea; it’s bad for Europe, bad for the United States,” said Blinken, adding, U.S. law “requires us to sanction companies participating in the efforts to complete the pipeline.”




Why are you Germans buying Russian gas when we are protecting you from Russian aggression, the Americans ask. It’s a fair question.

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Last summer, an exasperated President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany in what was described as a “strategic” repositioning of US forces in Europe.

Trump said the move was in response to Germany’s failure to meet national NATO targets on defense spending of at least 2% of GDP.

“We don’t want to be the suckers anymore,” said Trump “We’re reducing the force because they’re not paying their bills; it’s very simple.”

Merkel ignored Trump’s threat. The US troops are still there.

This week, Blinken met with German foreign minister Heiko Maas to restate the US concern over Nord Stream 2, while hastily adding that Germany is a vital NATO ally and the pipeline is “an irritant in a rock-solid alliance.”



Yet, what does Germany’s willing and deepening dependence on Russian gas for its energy, as it moves off coal and nuclear power, tell us?

And what does Germany’s chronic refusal to meet the standard of NATO nations to contribute 2% of GDP to the common defense tell us?


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Why are the Germans not wrong to conclude this?

Because being the “last superpower,” “the leader of the free world,” the “indispensable nation,” the architect of the “rules-based international order” created by the World War II generation of Harry Truman, Dean Acheson, George Marshall and the rest, is how we define ourselves and our mission to mankind.

We can’t let go, because this is who we are and what we do.

Without this mission, what could justify the mammoth amounts we invest annually on NATO, national defense, foreign aid, the Indo-Pacific, the CIA and the Armed Forces of the United States?



And what did we do in response?


Having won the Cold War, and unable to find a new mission, we started a second Cold War to contain the new Russia – this time at the borders of Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia, as we had once contained the old USSR at the River Elbe.

Why does Angela Merkel not take seriously US threats to pull our troops out of Germany, if the Germans won’t cancel Nord Stream 2 or pony up more for defense?

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Is she wrong?


Published at original.antiwar.com