An American idol in Germany

[JHuschke]

Germany doesn't like U.S. and neither does half of Europe..what is U.S. thinking? Stupid

[August]

Well I, for one, like the Germans.

[Skybird]

There are plenty of irritations between Germans and Europeans on the one side, and america on the other. These originate from false assumptions about each other, and misperceptions of the other. Ultimate I-want-it-all-demands and beyond that: just shrugging shoulders and turn one's back on the other will not help to solve actual problems, nor will it improve the actual situation and relations. Fact is that both spheres have more in common than what separates them, despite the obvious differences, and that no other block or culture there is in the world that is closer to us than our difficult partners on the other side of the atlantic. We depend on each other, that is true for Europe, and that is true for America as well. I know that America loves to consider itself to be autarc, and independant, but that is an illusion. Times get tough for America without europe's support, and much in the field of foreign politcs even becomes impossible if acting against the europeans. Economics are a global issue today, isolationists in america trying to withdraw from the international scene only would do unrepairable damage to their own econmic survivability. This is not the time during and after the second world war - this is the multiple times more difficult and complex present sixty years after WWII. foreign powers today have the power to crush America financially and economically, if they want that. And Europe is vulnerable to the same powers, and for the same reasons.

The transatlantic partnership is difficult, and irritating, no doubt. It has not become more comfortable, but more problematic since 1989. Today there are global challenges and risks and problems, that nobody can solve all by himself alone. that makes cooperation a penultimate priority. and this has to be relearned again - on both sides of the Atlantic.

I am realist. Of course I see that in reality the trend since one and a half decade works opposite, and that there is a huge difference between what I say is needed to be acchieved, and what is actually happening. This does not mean that what I say about vital priorities is wrong. It only means that the situation is worstening due to these priorities being ignored.

the world is a chessboard. economically, europe and america are rivals. Politically, we must not become close friends anyhow. Becoming partners again and both knowing (and by that: trusting in) what reasonable self-interest the other has in this partnership, could prove to be far more enduring.

And more realistic and less dreaming as well.