Common European Defense – A dangerous project in the current situation of NATO dominance and no democratic control
By Christel Hahn, Newropeans Club nucleus member
Last week Willy Wimmer , former parliamentary secretary of defense under Kohl and vice-president of the parliamentary assembly of the OSCE (1994 - 2000), presented his latest book “Wiederkehr der Hasadeure ”[1] (Return of the Plungers) in the area of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in the south-west of Germany. He spoke on several events organized by citizens in Rielasingen (near the border to Switzerland), Immenstaad (near Friedrichshafen, german center of defense industry), St Gallen[2] (academic center of Switzerland) and Salem[3] (home of the International Salem School) and was welcomed by large audiences, altogether about 1000 citizens from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The events titled “Europe's Peace in Danger?” were organized by engaged citizens and accompanied by his editor and filmed[4] by Ken Jebsen of KenFM, a well-known german internet channel.
Wimmer spoke on the roots of the current dangerous situation in Europe:
He spoke in length about the anglo-saxon strategy[5] to separate Russia from Central Europea and especially Germany by a wall from Riga to Odessa and Diyarbakir in Turkey[6].
Another point is the actual American strategy to get rid of international law and the European order of law and replace it by the rule of the most powerful and their own law. This strategy has been elaborated on a conference organized by the state department in Bratislava in 2000. Wimmer had been invited to this conference and immediately afterwards summarized the frightening contents in an open letter to the then chancellor Schröder[7].
He was and is very clear in calling the NATO-war in 1999 against the federal republic of Yugoslavia an offensive war (which is banned by the German constitution) and a violation of international law and he sees it as a blueprint for the following wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, …).
At the Salem conference Wimmer pointed to the fact, that currently the German parliament is in the process of a major “suicide”. It is about to “modernize” its own right to control international missions of the German army (Parlamentsvorbehalt) in a way, so this right will converge to zero. Wimmer anticipates, that when this happens, immediately control of the international missions of the German army will go to the NATO headquarter. Already the German army has in the last few years been drastically changed (after the suspension of general military service) and this new development has the big majority of Merkel's coalition and is done without debate in the public. If it happens, he said, it will also be a setback for other nations, who fight for the German model of parliamentary control of international missions.
Asked about Juncker's proposal for an European Defense, he voiced his conviction, that this is probably just a cover for a takeover by NATO.
Christel Hahn
Wimmer spoke on the roots of the current dangerous situation in Europe:
He spoke in length about the anglo-saxon strategy[5] to separate Russia from Central Europea and especially Germany by a wall from Riga to Odessa and Diyarbakir in Turkey[6].
Another point is the actual American strategy to get rid of international law and the European order of law and replace it by the rule of the most powerful and their own law. This strategy has been elaborated on a conference organized by the state department in Bratislava in 2000. Wimmer had been invited to this conference and immediately afterwards summarized the frightening contents in an open letter to the then chancellor Schröder[7].
He was and is very clear in calling the NATO-war in 1999 against the federal republic of Yugoslavia an offensive war (which is banned by the German constitution) and a violation of international law and he sees it as a blueprint for the following wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, …).
At the Salem conference Wimmer pointed to the fact, that currently the German parliament is in the process of a major “suicide”. It is about to “modernize” its own right to control international missions of the German army (Parlamentsvorbehalt) in a way, so this right will converge to zero. Wimmer anticipates, that when this happens, immediately control of the international missions of the German army will go to the NATO headquarter. Already the German army has in the last few years been drastically changed (after the suspension of general military service) and this new development has the big majority of Merkel's coalition and is done without debate in the public. If it happens, he said, it will also be a setback for other nations, who fight for the German model of parliamentary control of international missions.
Asked about Juncker's proposal for an European Defense, he voiced his conviction, that this is probably just a cover for a takeover by NATO.
Christel Hahn
[1]The publishing house is planning to translate the book: contact.
[2]Organized by the swiss international journal Zeitfragen (Current Concerns), that also has translated and published many of Wimmers articles, see for example http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=2875
[2]Organized by the swiss international journal Zeitfragen (Current Concerns), that also has translated and published many of Wimmers articles, see for example http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=2875
[3]This event was organized by “Brücke nach Ufa ”, an association created after the terrible plane crash of 2002 near Überlingen to heal the wounds that the death of so many russian children had created.
[5]According to George Friedman of STRATFOR this goes back to 1871, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zIhf-E363c
And now Mr Bush lets talk about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
