I just saw this AFP headline pass by on Twitter.

#BREAKING Europe can no longer rely on US 'to protect it': Merkel

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 10, 2018

The implication here is clear, that after the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal that Germany could no longer rely upon the US for protection. That’s a bit curious. Because keeping Iran from getting nukes that will have the range to hit Berlin long before they hit the US seems to me to be the ultimate act of protecting a nation that is too freakin stupid and decadent to look out for its own interests. But because there is no hyperlink to a story, I was curious. This is what she said:

Europe cannot put all of its trust in the U.S. when it comes to protection and should instead “take its destiny into its own hands,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

The German leader spoke about European unity at an award ceremony in the city of Aachen, where she praised French President Emmanuel Macron for his “contagious enthusiasm” about the continent and said this would inspire young Europeans. She reiterated a concern from last year that, considering the threats “at Europe’s doorstep,” U.S. protection is not implicitly reliable anymore.

“It’s no longer the case that the United States will simply just protect us,” Merkel said, according to a live broadcast by Deutsche Welle on Periscope. “Let’s face it, Europe is still in its infancy with regard to the common foreign policy,” Merkel said, but stressed the need for nations to close ranks against common threats. “That is the task for the future.”

I’m not sure that she actually said or meant the quote that AFP attributes to her. It seems to me that she’s making the perennial German plea for European political unity in which Germany would have the leading voice. There is also an element of desperation in the statement as, because of Merkel’s love affair with bringing in tens of thousands of Third World refugees who have no interest in assimilation, many other European countries seem more likely to follow the BREXIT route being pioneered by Britain rather than acquiesce to the disastrous and suicidal policies championed by Merkel.

In fact, this is pretty much what Merkel has been saying since shortly after Trump was inaugurated:

Europe can no longer completely rely on its longstanding British and US allies, Angela Merkel has warned – saying the EU must now be prepared to “take its fate into its own hands”.

Speaking after bruising meetings of Nato and the G7 group of wealthy nations last week, the German chancellor suggested the postwar western alliance had been badly undermined by the UK’s Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election as US president.

“The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over,” she told an election rally in Munich on Sunday. “I’ve experienced that in the last few days. We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands.”

The chancellor told a 2,500-strong crowd in the Bavarian capital that Germany and Europe would naturally strive to remain on good terms with the US, Britain and other countries, “even with Russia”, but added: “We have to know that we must fight for our future on our own, for our destiny as Europeans.”

But if she did say it, who cares? Germany spends just 1.15 percent of GDP on defense (the NATO target is 2 percent). So its ability to defend itself is de minimis. The EU is being pulled apart by a political centrifugal force much stronger than that which created it. German is seen as a flabby and ineffectual partner that is unwilling to make itself uncomfortable even for the sake of its own survival. Merkel can talk all she wants but ultimately power talks and bullsh** walks and right now it looks like bullsh** is what she’s selling.

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