Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Germany Up—Ireland Down—Britain Out?

The drama of change in the new European order
It is always interesting to look back on history in times of crisis to see what lessons we have failed to learn from the past.
Europe is in great upheaval right now due to the sovereign debt crisis, the current case being Ireland’s failed economy. As in the previous Greek bailout, the Irish crisis has brought German bullying tactics to the surface.
Talks of “hit squads” descending on Ireland to force EU (Berlin’s) will on the benighted Emerald Isle have only added to a spreading sense that Germany is in command of the future direction of EU economic and fiscal policy—that the will of the German elites will prevail in the current crisis.
The descent of the central bankers “hit squads” on Ireland’s shores just happened to coincide with the meeting of Germany’s defense hierarchy in Dresden last weekend. During that meeting, Chancellor Angela Merkel made a remarkable statement.
Rising to speak to the cream of the German Bundeswehr, with her Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg seated beside her, Merkel spoke in support of Guttenberg’s planned reforms of Germany’s military establishment. The chancellor declared that “The Bundeswehr could be a symbol of the reform of the country” (Welt Online, November 22).
Was this really the cuddly, motherly Chancellor Merkel mouthing these words? Was she really saying that the rapid reform of the German military forces—into what Guttenberg has touted would become the most highly professional, fast-moving force, able to deploy anywhere on the globe at a moment’s notice—could be a model for the reform of the German nation?
Is anybody listening this time? Could it happen again? In the face of the demonstrable political weakness and seeming ineptness of the Anglo-Saxon nations—saviors of the world from tyranny twice within one century—could it be that once again, at a time of increasing global economic and political disruption, the old Teutonic military spirit is stirring, hankering to take advantage of global crisis and reassert the old goal of global hegemony?
Too many signs point in that direction. Too many shallow pundits are looking at quantitative measures of observable current-day German military power and failing to consider the qualitative aspects of the German nation. Especially its history of reaction to crisis and its proneness to rise suddenly out of such times to a position of military might!
That wise old sage of international relations, Hans J. Morgenthau, understood the importance of national character in measuring the power potential of a nation.
A German of Jewish parentage, having gained his education in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Geneva before practicing law in Frankfurt, Morgenthau emigrated to the United States amid Nazi persecution of the Jews in 1927. His association with Germany gave him a deep understanding of the German character.
In his famous text Politics Among Nations, Morgenthau says of his German compatriots that militarism, standing armies and military service “have for centuries stood high in the hierarchy of values of Prussia, from where the prestige spread over all Germany.” He notes that the very opposites apply to the national characters of the American and British peoples.
“The observer of the international scene who attempts to assess the relative strength of different nations must take national character into account …. Failure to do so will lead to errors in judgment and policies, such as the deprecation of the recuperative force of Germany …” (emphasis mine throughout).
It is just that failure to appreciate the resilience of the talented and orderly peoples of Germany, and the innate ability of Germany as a nation to recover in highly industrious blitzkrieg fashion from the devastation of the destruction and demoralization that follows defeat in warfare, that led to Anglo-Saxon appeasement after World War i.
The devastating effect of that Anglo-Saxon naivety allowed Germany’s speedy revival to instigate World War ii.
The famous German economist and philosopher Ludvig von Mises said of his own people, “A new war is unavoidable if the United Nations do not succeed in establishing a world order preventing the Germans and their allies from rearming.” Germany has not only been rearmed for decades, it is now racing to establish that which such sages as Morgenthau and von Mises feared and the Western Allies vowed would never revive: a professional army, set for rapid deployment beyond Europe!
That same failure to appreciate Germany’s resilience for recovery, to so soon become the economic and political force driving the European Union following World War ii, has led to gross underestimation of the German elites’ tenacity in yet again seeking global imperial power.
But there is a glimmer that Britain is beginning to recognize the true intent of EU elites, those whom the UK Independence Party representative Nigel Farage labeled in the European Parliament last week as “evil men.”
A few days ago came an observable sign that Britain may finally have had enough of the bullies from Brussels and Berlin seeking to destroy any semblance of Britain as a sovereign power.
For the first time in the history of Britain’s membership of the European Union, there are rumbles of a groundswell within the nation gathering momentum to demand of the British government that it withdraw from membership of the EU!
It came in the form of a front-page article in the Express newspaper indicating that 99 percent of Brits want out of the EU!
The Express is mounting a “crusade to pull Britain out of the EU” states its headline in the November 25 edition. Last Thursday, the front-page article of that newspaper declared that “A huge groundswell of support was last night gathering behind the Daily Express crusade for Britain to quit the European Union. Senior mps, peers and campaign groups acclaimed this newspaper’s stand against the sprawling Brussels superstate as a turning point in the battle to win back Britain’s independence.”
The article continued: “Euroskeptic critics of UK membership said the growing financial crisis among the euro nations this week—threatening to cost British taxpayers billions of pounds—has overwhelmingly confirmed the case for British withdrawal.”
There is a saying about the Brits that, if you want to see the real caliber of the British fighting spirit, wait till they are in the last ditch, with their backs to the wall!
Is this weary old Britain, the nation once gifted by God the greatest empire in history, finally in the last ditch, with its back up against the wall facing the final onslaught of the Eurobeast?
Is Britain finally crying “enough” in the face of EU encroachment on the nation’s independence?
This is one “crusade” to watch. To watch to see if it will build in a crescendo of voices from the British public so that their politicians, and their prime minister in particular, have the courage to do what no prime minister has done since Margaret Thatcher: stand up to those Brussels-Berlin bullies and demand something back from them!
Mrs. Thatcher got her concessions on rebates for the overpayment of onerous EU imposts rendered on the British treasury to which weaker leaders had caved in. But this time there’s more, much more at stake!
Unless Britain withdraws from the EU—and FAST—the whole nation will soon feel the drastic effect of the reality of what Mrs. Thatcher forecast five years after Germany’s unification. In a speech she delivered in Colorado Springs in October 1995, she bluntly stated, “You have not anchored Germany to Europe, you have anchored Europe to a newly dominant, unified Germany. In the end, my friends, you’ll find it will not work. It is Germany’s national character to dominate.”
Well, today Germany is clearly dominating Europe to the extent of progressively robbing member nations of their national sovereignty by imposing burdensome controls on their national economies in exchange for bailout funds to “rescue” them from the devastating effects of having drawn them into the maw of the eurozone.
Yes, Britain, you sold your soul to Berlin/Brussels. It’s time to see the light and get out!
Few will see the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the process of Britain having sold its birthright for a bowl of pottage in return from Brussels-Berlin. But it is a fact.
Almighty God prophesied millennia ago that Britain would seek to ally with Germany to its own detriment (Hosea 7:8-11). Since Edward Heath led Britain, by sleight of hand, into association with Germany through membership of the German-inspired institution of the Common Market, the results have been devastating to the British economy, even as God prophesied (verse 12).
Britain will leave the European Union. The question is whether it will leave voluntarily—as the Daily Express “crusade” is calling for—or be cast out.
Either way, whether the Express “crusade” ends in the UK’s withdrawal from the EU or not, the prescient words of Herbert Armstrong now ring clearly in our ears (Plain Truth, May 1973):
Britain is going to look back on Monday, Jan. 1, 1973, in all probability, as a most tragically historic date—a date fraught with ominous potentialities! For that date marked the United Kingdom’s entry into the European Community.

But one could logically ask, how could that event portend anything unhappy for the United Kingdom? Probably a majority in Britain initially looked forward to Common Market entry with approval.

Humans seldom foresee unexpected happenings. But prophecy pinpoints the major events in the world’s imminent future that will affect us all! … Britain’s entry into the European Community portends a tragic situation.
Well, history shows that the outcome to 37 years of membership of the European community has yielded most unhappy results for Britain.
But how did Herbert Armstrong know this so far in advance, even to the fateful outcome of that situation? The answer is that he had intensively studied the Bible prophecies concerning Britain and had a deep understanding of just what Britain’s association with a Europe “anchored … to a newly dominant, unified Germany” would bring. Britain is finding out that “In the end … it will not work. It is Germany’s national character to dominate.”
But there is a very positive outcome prophesied for Britain, following its departure from the EU. Yet that positive outcome will not eventuate before the “tragic situation” prophesied by Herbert Armstrong impacts the nation.
You need to be aware of both the impending tragedy, which will be global, and the most positive of outcomes that will follow.